Pubdate: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 Source: Daily Press (Victorville, CA) Copyright: 2011 Freedom Communications, Inc. Contact: http://www.vvdailypress.com/sections/contactus/ Website: http://www.vvdailypress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1061 Author: Natasha Lindstrom COUNTY OUTLAWS POT SHOPS IN UNINCORPORATED AREAS Board of Supervisors OKs Restrictive Medical Marijuana Ordinance SAN BERNARDINO In a swift 5-0 vote, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a land-use policy outlawing medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas. The move follows years of demands by medical marijuana advocates for county regulations permitting the facilities and a 21-month moratorium on dispensaries while county planners researched the issue. The approved ordinance bans dispensaries, including what some patients refer to as collectives, in unincorporated areas with limited exceptions to state-run providers and hospitals. It also limits personal medical marijuana growing to indoors only, under the premise that outdoor plants could invite vandals or thieves. Because the county's 24 cities have all placed permanent or temporary bans on dispensaries, medical marijuana advocates argue the new county policy effectively cuts off the legal distribution of cannabis locally. The county Board of Supervisors green-lighted the measure without discussion, following more than two hours of public comments during which a couple dozen medical marijuana advocates said they strongly opposed the policy. The majority of medical marijuana proponents argued for regulations but not a "ban" and protested limiting personal cultivation to indoors. Wanda Smith, a medical marijuana patient of Phelan, told county supervisors the ordinance would eliminate the chance at safe, local access to marijuana and result in more residents turning to drug cartels and illegal methods to get their medicine. She added that on an $800 monthly fixed income, she can't afford the electricity and supplies needed to grow her own marijuana indoors. "I don't have money to get a greenhouse even if it's plastic," she said. "I don't think it's wise that the board puts this ordinance through. It bans a whole group of people in your county ... and we're sick. There may be some that are not sick. That's for the law to figure out. The ones of us that are sick, we need our access." The motion to OK the ordinance was made by 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, who represents the High Desert and previously said he'd favor banning dispensaries. "As I've said from the beginning of this whole debate, I felt that unincorporated areas are the least appropriate place to have dispensaries because by definition unincorporated areas are less policed than incorporated areas," Mitzelfelt said by phone after Tuesday's meeting. He said the ordinance was "simply an exercise in the county's police power to protect local communities from land uses that could have undesirable side effects." Like county planners and some law enforcement officials, Mitzelfelt said he believes medical marijuana dispensaries would lead to increased crime, blight and illegal drug use in their surrounding areas. Medical marijuana proponents have argued that research on medical marijuana facilities is inconclusive and dismissed a 2009 white paper by the California Police Chiefs Association blasting dispensaries as being politically motivated. Some have challenged the legality of the ordinance. California voters legalized marijuana for certain medical purposes in 1996 through Proposition 215. But the county and local municipalities have pointed to the fact that any use of marijuana remains illegal under federal law. San Bernardino County had resisted issuing medical marijuana identification cards under that argument until 2009, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected their challenge. The county has since issued 689 medical marijuana cards, about 443 of which are still active, according to county documents. Mitzelfelt expressed frustration that the federal government hasn't done more to intervene on the issue. He added he believes the county's land-use ordinance will help prevent the region from becoming a mass producer of marijuana. "We already have inherent incentives, such as a lot of forest land, such as a lot of open spaces, a large geographic area with less police per square mile, lots of sunshine ... It makes it an attractive place to cultivate marijuana on a commercial scale for distribution to the rest of the state and other states," he said. "And so the last thing we should be doing, in my opinion, is sending out a message that we're a place where these kind of activities are taken lightly." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.