LODE BOARD SPLIT ON MEDICAL POT

Deadlock Leaves Marijuana Dispensary Plan Up In Air

SAN ANDREAS - A San Andreas woman's plans to open a medical-marijuana
dispensary remain in limbo after Calaveras County supervisors
deadlocked Monday on proposed rules that would allow such businesses
to operate in the county.

Board members were split 2-2 on the issue, which surfaced after Kim
Cue attempted to open a dispensary but was thwarted by the lack of a
local law governing such uses.

That led the county Planning Department to create a proposed ordinance
that would have relegated dispensaries to professional office space as
long as they were not within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, libraries
or youth-oriented establishments.

The board had only four members to consider the ordinance Monday,
because Supervisor Paul Stein had resigned to take a job with the
state Fish and Game Department.

Board Chairman Tom Tryon and Supervisor Merita Callaway both said they
supported the dispensary concept. Tryon urged Cue to pursue the issue
again next year after two new supervisors join the board.

Supervisors Victoria Erickson and Lucy Thein opposed the ordinance,
which the Planning Commission also rejected earlier this month because
of a lack of suitable locations for such businesses.

Thein reiterated that sentiment Monday, saying that while she was
sympathetic to those who use marijuana to relieve pain, "I cannot
think of a good place for this to go where it wouldn't be available to
kids."

Cue, who uses marijuana for symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome
and also is a caregiver to medical-marijuana patients, earlier had
threatened to sue the board if it did not change its zoning code to
allow dispensaries to operate.

After Monday's meeting, Cue said she would bring the issue back after
Supervisors-elect Steve Wilensky and Bill Claudino take their board
seats early next year.

But Cue said that if the new board failed to adopt the needed
ordinance, she would sue the county "without hesitation."

"I'm not backing down at this point," she said.

Several people spoke in favor of the proposed ordinance, and one of
them -- Paul Stark of Angels Camp -- was angry at Monday's outcome.

Stark, who told the board he uses marijuana to cope with a spinal-cord
disease, because conventional pain medicine aggravates his liver
problems, said he can "go out and buy it on the street, but I can't
get it legally."

Wayland Ezell, a Copperopolis cancer patient who does not use
marijuana, acknowledged that some people who should not have access to
the drug would wind up getting it at dispensaries. But Ezell said he
still supported the ordinance.

"There will be abuse," he said. "But you shouldn't turn it down when
99 percent of the people benefit and 1 percent sneak by."