MEDICAL MARIJUANA CLINIC BAN WEIGHED

San Dimas Planning Commission To Consider Issue

SAN DIMAS - City staff are recommending a permanent ban on medical
marijuana dispensaries, less than three weeks after the City Council
approved a temporary ban.

The San Dimas Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the
recommendation at tonight's commission meeting.

The unusually fast turn- around for the decision is disappointing,
said Chris Fusco, a spokesman for the medical marijuana advocacy
group, Americans for Safe Access.

"It shows they didn't put much thought or research into it," Fusco
said, noting that many cities have short-term moratoriums prohibiting
the dispensaries. "One thing that we've noticed is that the quote-
unquote 'moratoriums' occurring throughout Southern California are,
in fact, de facto bans."

Dan Coleman, San Dimas director of development services, said
studying how other cities confronted the issue made the city's decision easier.

The main concern, he added, is that even though the state legalized
medical marijuana and marijuana dispensaries, the drug is illegal
under federal law.

"California state courts and the California attorney general have
decided that the state regulations supercede the federal
regulations," Coleman said. "But it's the prudent course of action
for the city to take, to abide by federal law."

Coleman said staff also had concerns about dispensaries attracting crime.

He referred to reports by police agencies in other cities that
attempt to show a link between dispensaries and crime.

The reports included examples such as dispensaries or their patrons
being robbed, or of patients reselling marijuana to people without
prescriptions.

The bulk of the examples dealt with homes being robbed, not dispensaries.

Fusco pointed to a 2006 report by Americans for Safe Access stating
that dispensaries reduced crime.

Regulating dispensaries resulted in "a decrease in criminal activity"
and made neighborhoods safer, a handful of Northern California city
officials said in the report.