Pubdate: Thu, 12 Jul 2012
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Author: Katherine Poythress

COUNCIL TO TAKE ACTION ON MARIJUANA INITIATIVE

City to Choose Date for Dispensary Vote

IMPERIAL BEACH - The Imperial Beach City Council is poised to act July
18 on a petition to lift the city's ban on medical marijuana
dispensaries.

Within a three-month window this spring, more than 10 percent of the
city's 10,000 registered voters signed a petition to vote on the Safe
Access Ordinance of Imperial Beach, which would reinstate and regulate
dispensaries. The San Diego County Registrar of Voters recently issued
a memo verifying that at least 1,012 of the 1,574 signatures submitted
are valid.

The office stopped counting signatures when it had verified the
minimum number required to qualify the ordinance for an election ballot.

The City Council is expected to receive the verified signatures
officially at its July 18 meeting and decide on next steps. Council
members could vote immediately on whether to put the safe access law
on the books, or they could vote on when to submit it to voters as a
ballot item. If they decide to put the question to voters, it would
make the most sense to include it in this year's general election,
advocates say, because that election has the highest turnout and will
cost the city the least amount of money.

But backers for the Safe Access Ordinance fear the council will
postpone putting the initiative on ballots, costing the city more
money and delaying an opportunity for residents to have their voices
heard.

If the City Council votes to go ahead and put the ordinance on the
ballot in November, it will cost the city about $10,000. If the
council instead assigns city staff to conduct an impact study, it
could cause the city to miss the Aug. 10 deadline for submitting
measures to be included in the fall election. The city would then have
to hold a special election, at an estimated cost of $200,000.

"It's a loophole that the city has," said Eugene Davidovich, a member
of the local chapter of Americans for Safe Access, which co-sponsored
the initiative with grass roots organization Canvass for a Cause.

"This is going to be on the ballot no matter what, by law," he said.
"The people of I.B. will get to vote on it no matter what. The
petition process is the most respected in the law, because it's a way
for people to have their voices heard, and that's why the city doesn't
have a choice. The issue is the cost. It simply costs less to put
these things on the ballot during a general election."

The ordinance would overturn the City Council's decision last year to
ban medical marijuana facilities in lieu of developing zoning and
regulations for safe access.

The community development director said at the time that it would be
virtually impossible for Imperial Beach to apply the same laws adopted
by other communities who regulate medical marijuana. If dispensaries
were permitted no closer than 600 feet from schools, churches and
parks, and 500 feet from residences, there would be no sites available
in the city's general commercial zone, he said.

The June 15 ban argued that two stores just outside the city limits
were sufficient to provide patients with enough legal access to
medical marijuana to comply with California's 1996 Compassionate Use
Act. Since then, a federal campaign to shut down dispensaries across
the state has succeeded in shuttering one of those stores, and the
other operates only intermittently.

City Manager Gary Brown said this year that even if council members or
voters approve the Safe Access Ordinance, federal law still prohibits
medical marijuana dispensaries. He fears that a city law allowing them
would invite a host of legal problems from the federal government.

Local supporters of medical marijuana dispensaries say Imperial
Beach's ban is the most restrictive of all cities in San Diego County,
because it prohibits even those with medical licenses from keeping
their own plants.

"It's hard not to take it a little bit personally," said Vey Linville,
51, who suffers from emphysema and says he would not be alive today
had he not had access to medical cannabis five years ago when he was
first diagnosed.

"I was, quite frankly, dying," he said.

The six-page ordinance is crafted to ensure "that seriously ill
Californians and residents of the city of Imperial Beach can obtain
and use cannabis for medical purposes where that medical use has been
deemed appropriate by a physician in accordance with California law,"
according to the document.

The measure would allow patients to smoke inside a dispensary if
certain requirements are met, and allow the shops to operate from 6
a.m. to 11 p.m. The ordinance also would not allow the stores to be
within 600 feet of a school or 300 feet of another dispensary. It does
not include any special fees to help offset the cost of regulation and
enforcement.

Mayor Jim Janney said that the council will need to know the
implications of enacting this ordinance at some point.

"Whether it be in November or soon after that, the petitioners have a
right to get this on the ballot, but we have a responsibility to the
community to do our due diligence and do everything proper," Janney
said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt