Pubdate: Tue, 10 Jan 2012
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Page: A10
Copyright: 2012 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press

AS STATES OK MEDICAL POT, MORE CITIES VETO IT

Many US communities are blocking medical marijuana More and more 
states are saying yes to medical marijuana. But local governments are 
increasingly using their laws to just say no, not in our backyard. In 
California, with the nation's most permissive medical marijuana laws, 
185 cities and counties have banned pot dispensaries entirely. In New 
Jersey, perhaps the most restrictive of the 17 states that have 
legalized marijuana for sick people, some groups planning to sell 
cannabis are struggling to find local governments willing to let them in.

Dispensaries have also been banned in parts of Colorado and have run 
into opposition in some towns in Maine.

Local politicians have argued that pot is still illegal under federal 
law, that marijuana dispensaries bring crime, and that such 
businesses are just fronts for drug-dealing, supplying weed to people 
who aren't really sick.

Cities and towns are prohibiting dispensaries outright or applying 
zoning ordinances so strict that they amount to the same thing. The 
ordinances typically set minimum distances between such businesses 
and schools, homes, parks and houses of worship.

The township manager of Maple Shade, N.J., where the zoning board 
last year turned down an application for a dispensary at the vacant 
site of a former furniture store, said his town was just following 
zoning law. But Gary LaVenia said it is easy to see why people would 
be nervous about legal pot-dealing in their communities.

"People read the accounts of what's going on in the other states, 
like Colorado, like California," he said. "Regardless of the fact 
that use here is the most regulated, people still read those accounts 
and assume that that's what's going to happen here."

Medical marijuana advocates say the resistance is going to hurt 
people in desperate need of relief.

"It prevents patients with mobility issues from getting their 
medication," said Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe 
Access, an Oakland, Calif., group. "It also pushes patients into the 
illicit market."

States such as California and Colorado have seen an explosion in the 
number of pot dispensaries, along with criticism that the rules are 
so lax that practically anyone can buy weed. Also, there have been 
cases of violence involving people trying to steal pot from dispensaries.

Local governments are within their rights to restrict or keep out pot 
businesses, said Lars Etzkorn, program director for the National 
League of Cities.

"Land-use and business regulation are the most fundamental 
decision-making that local officials are entrusted with," he said. 
"Local communities, the local electorate, can decide what sort of 
level of regulation they want."

But medical marijuana is particularly thorny, he said, because it can 
place mayors and town councils in an awkward position of deciding 
whether to follow federal law, which makes marijuana possession and 
use a crime, or state law. Several state laws that say pot is OK for 
medicinal purposes were passed by the voters.

Advocates say the drug can relieve pain, nausea and other symptoms, 
especially in people with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and multiple 
sclerosis. Some states, including Oregon and Michigan, have legalized 
medical marijuana but not dispensaries. Patients are expected to grow 
their own or obtain it some other way.

In 1996, California voters made their state the first to legalize 
medical marijuana, and there are now an estimated 1,000 dispensaries 
around the state. A clarifying state law passed in 2003 left a lot of 
the specifics up to city and county governments, and many have relied 
on that measure to adopt their own regulations.

According to ASA's tally, 60 governments in California have rules for 
local dispensaries, often including where they can be located. 
Several, like San Diego, have zoning regulations so restrictive that 
they are effectively an outright ban, Hermes said.

In Los Angeles a little-enforced part of the local law bars pot sales 
within 1,000 feet of any home-a measure that would ban dispensaries 
nearly everywhere.

In recent years, though, California cities have become more likely to 
ban dispensaries altogether. Since 2004, three times as many city and 
county governments in California have enacted bans as they have 
rules. The most populous city with a ban so far is Fresno, with a 
half-million residents.

The legality of several of the regulations and bans is being slugged 
out in court. But last year, a court found that the city of Riverside 
was within its right to nix any dispensaries.

Elsewhere around the country, Maine has amended its medical pot law 
to block towns from imposing tighter zoning restrictions than those 
included in state law.

In New Jersey, lawmakers made pot legal for patients with certain 
conditions in January 2010, but there is still no place where they 
can get it legally.

The state has authorized six nonprofit groups to grow and sell 
cannabis. So far, only one has announced that it has secured local 
approvals-in Montclair, a liberal New York City suburb where no 
zoning hearing was required. Three others have been shut out of their 
chosen locations by local government bodies, despite assurances that 
security at the dispensaries would be tight and that pot would be 
given only to patients who are truly sick.

One of those communities, Upper Freehold Township, adopted an 
ordinance last month banning zoning approvals for any business 
purpose that defies federal law.

Charles Kwiatowski, a 40-year-old MS patient who lives nearby, spoke 
at the meeting about how marijuana eases his symptoms better than any 
combination of the 27 prescription painkillers, muscle relaxers and 
other drugs he has tried over the years.

He said that a few weeks ago, he thought he was buying marijuana from 
a dealer in Asbury Park but ended up with Spice, an herbal mix that 
resembles marijuana and can cause hallucinations that last for days. 
He said it didn't ease his symptoms.

"It didn't help me to waste my $50 on something that wasn't going to 
help my problem," he said. "It only forced something far worse than 
marijuana into my life."

Andrei Bogolubov, spokesman for a group that was denied permission 
for a medical marijuana business in Maple Shade, N.J., said he is 
going to keep looking for a more welcoming town and realizes he is 
going to have work harder to change people's minds.

"Since this is new and there's a lot of misunderstanding out there, 
you've got to do more," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom