Pubdate: Wed, 8 Apr 2009
Source: Daily Journal, The (San Mateo, CA)
Copyright: 2009 San Mateo Daily Journal
Contact:  http://www.smdailyjournal.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3778
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Proposition+215
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)

COUNTY TO CONSIDER MORE MEDICAL POT REGULATIONS

The county is moving forward with a plan to further regulate medical 
marijuana businesses in the unincorporated areas of the county to 
meet growing concern about the nature of the businesses in the 
unincorporated areas of the county.

The Housing, Health and Human Services Committee of the Board of 
Supervisors approved forwarding a draft medical marijuana ordinance 
to the full board at its Tuesday meeting and it will likely be heard 
by the board April 28, according to county officials.

The draft ordinance was requested after three San Mateo collectives 
were shut down in raids Aug. 29, 2007 and the city began its own 
investigation. The San Mateo City Council had its second reading of 
its own ordinance Monday night that would require medical marijuana 
dispensaries to register through the police department and meet 
certain security and business regulations. It also prohibits 
collectives from anywhere in the city but manufacturing and service 
commercial areas.

For the most part, the ordinance regulates the "collective" 
cultivation of medical marijuana. Collectives are places where people 
pool their money and time to grow marijuana in one central location. 
Dispensaries simply distribute and are already prohibited by law.

While state law allows collectives, it places few limits on the 
activity and some cities, like San Mateo, are taking steps to fill 
the void. San Mateo County is moving forward with its own ordinance 
after two medical marijuana businesses opened in North Fair Oaks. The 
proposed county ordinance requires primary caregivers to maintain a 
list of people to whom they provide care and would require a license. 
Before such a license is granted, the County License Board would 
ensure that the collective would not adversely affect the economic 
welfare of the community and the use of property used for a school, 
playground, park, youth facility, child care facility, place of 
religious worship or library and be buffered from any residential area.

California voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, 
in 1996, allowing sick patients to either grow their own marijuana or 
have a primary caregiver grow it for them. In 2003, the state 
Legislature passed the Medical Marijuana Program Act to clarify vague 
portions of Proposition 215. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake