Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jun 2010 Source: Middletown Press, The (CT) Copyright: 2010 The Middletown Press Contact: http://www.middletownpress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/586 Author: Hannah Vahl City Planners Looking To Limit Pot Dispensaries Before They Even Exist MIDDLETOWN - City planners are hoping the Planning and Zoning Commission will approve preemptively limiting where marijuana dispensaries can be located before medical marijuana is made legal in the state. The commission will be discussing a proposed zoning text amendment Wednesday that limit the place of sale of marijuana, medical or otherwise, to an accessory use where the primary use of the building is an over 50-bed hospital, a pharmacy, or a medical clinic with more than five practitioners. The change would only allow the sale or dispensation of marijuana in certain zones and the location would have to be at least 100 feet from a residential zone unless a variance was granted, among other restrictions. "We don't want to have a situation where we have to regulate after the fact," Michiel Wackers, deputy city planning director, said in explanation of why the department was proposing the zoning regulation change. He said the planning department staff believes that Middletown could be ripe for such dispensaries, citing Wesleyan University's ranking as 18th in the "Reefer Madness" category of the Princeton Review's 2009 college guide and Middletown landing in the 39th spot of the Daily Beast's list of the nation's 40 most pot-loving communities. "There's a perception that Middletown has a strong market for this use," Wackers said. In Connecticut, an effort to legalize medical marijuana passed the state legislature three years ago, but Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed the measure. The law would have allowed those with debilitating medical conditions to have up to four marijuana plants for palliative use with physician permission. Other states have allowed medical marijuana use, though it is illegal under federal law, most notably California, where medical marijuana use has been legal for qualified patients since 1996 and where limits on the cultivation or distribution of medical marijuana are left up to local jurisdictions. In Los Angeles, hundreds of marijuana dispensaries have opened in the last couple years, and now a city ordinance to control them is taking effect June 7 that will potentially shutter over 400 of the dispensaries and leave somewhere between 70 and 130, the Associated Press reported. Last month, city planning staffers had proposed an zoning prohibition on the sale of medical or recreational marijuana in Middletown, but the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-3 against adopting the more stringent regulation. Wackers said commissioners suggested afterward they would consider a less restrictive version if one were proposed. Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Quentin Phipps, who voted against the first version, called the newest proposed zoning text amendment a proactive solution that would allow patients access to prescribed medication but would not "promote elicit substance abuse." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D