LODE TOWN LAYS DOWN LAW ON MEDICAL POT

Plymouth -- This tiny Amador County city has become the first in the
central Mother Lode to adopt rules regulating how medical cannabis
dispensaries operate.

The City Council on Thursday adopted the ordinance on an urgency basis
after area resident Mike Koll applied for a business license to open such a
dispensary in this city of about 1,000 people.

"There was a regulatory vacuum," Michael Dean, Plymouth city attorney
explained. "We needed to plug that vacuum."

Koll could not be reached for comment Friday.

If the council had not adopted the regulations, city officials said,
dispensaries could have opened in areas too close to homes, schools and
certain businesses.

The ordinance requires dispensary operators to first obtain use permits. It
also limits their locations to land zoned for light industry.

The ordinance prohibits a dispensary from operating in any residential
zone, within 1,000 feet of any elementary, middle or high school, public
library or public park or within 1,000 feet of any business that serves
mostly children.

No cities in Calaveras or Tuolumne counties have adopted such ordinances,
but several cities in the Sacramento area and the foothills east of there
have, said Dean.

Dean said a number of dispensaries have opened since a new law took effect
in January. The law clarified Proposition 215, which legalized the use of
marijuana for medicinal purposes in certain cases.

Plymouth's ordinance-adoption process came together rapidly, but Pat
Shackleton, the city's vice mayor, said it had to, given the circumstances.

"It was gone into quickly," she said, "but not lightly."

Without the ordinance, Shackleton said, Koll or someone else could have
opened a dispensary anywhere in a commercially zoned building "and then
we'd have a problem."

Dean said that according to state law, a dispensary operating in Plymouth
could serve only Plymouth residents and one other nonresident. It would be
up to the dispensary owner to select the nonresident customer.

That should keep Plymouth from "becoming a Mecca for medical-marijuana
users," Councilwoman Elida Malick said.

Malick said she supports the new regulations limiting where dispensaries
can operate. "The city is so small, you can't just let someone have free
rein," she said. "The potential for abuse would have been too great."

Sheriff Michael Prizmich, whose deputies provide police services for
Plymouth, said he was somewhat surprised to see the city move as quickly as
it did in adopting the ordinance.

Prizmich said city officials asked to discuss the issue with him, but a
meeting never transpired.

He said he couldn't comment on the substance of the ordinance, because he
hadn't yet seen it.

"We'll look and see what the components are," he said. "But there are
opportunities available to open cannabis clubs and they can be lawful. They
can also be illegal."

David Jack, an Angels Camp resident and a medical-marijuana user and
advocate, said he doesn't like the idea of dispensaries.

"They attract a lot of crime and they're abrasive to the community," he said.

Jack said small co-op ventures serving five or so people -- several of
which he said exist in Calaveras and Amador counties -- seem to work better.

"They are healing for everyone," he said of the small co-ops. "A dispensary
becomes more of a business."