Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2012
Source: Yakima Herald-Republic (WA)
Copyright: 2012 Yakima Herald-Republic
Contact:  http://www.yakima-herald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/511
Author: Phil Ferolito

WAPATO SETS RULES FOR MARIJUANA GARDENS, DISPENSARIES - IN CASE FEDS 
DECIDE THEY'RE LEGAL

Wapato has become the first city in the Yakima Valley to hammer out 
an ordinance governing collective medical marijuana gardens and 
dispensaries in the event they become legal under federal law.

"The way things are going, it's going to be legal sometime," said 
Mayor Jesse Farias. "So if it becomes legal, this is what's going to happen."

Uncomfortable with a conflict between state law, which allows such 
operations, and federal law, which doesn't, several cities in the 
Yakima Valley - including Yakima, Zillah and Wapato - enacted 
six-month moratoriums on medical marijuana facilities that are now 
expiring in some cases. Naches is the only town to outright ban them 
altogether.

The proposed Wapato ordinance would go into effect only if federal 
law were to allow medical patients to use marijuana as a form of 
medication. Until then, none are allowed in the city, according to 
the ordinance,

"We thought we'd be ahead of the curve a little bit," Farias said.

The proposal outlines stiff guidelines about where such operations 
could be established, operations and membership.

The City Council reviewed the proaposal last Monday, and is expected 
to approve it during a regular meeting Aug. 20.

Some of the requirements limit where collective gardens and 
dispensaries could be located, establish registration requirements 
for operators and members and govern signage, lighting and security.

For example, collectives/dispensaries would not be allowed within 
1,000 feet of a school, library, park, school bus stop, church, any 
youth-oriented facility or a substance-abuse treatment center. They 
would also have to be more than 1,000 feet from another collective 
garden and only within structures where living spaces are separated 
by an interior wall such as apartments, duplexes and townhouses. 
Plants would have to be out of the public view and the operations 
would not be able to run as for-profit businesses.

Farias said the ordinance was modeled after one that Yakima officials 
were considering, but didn't act on.

In January, the Yakima City Council approved a measure banning 
collective gardens and dispensaries on the grounds that they were not 
allowed under federal law.

Wapato's ordinance comes as its moratorium is due to expire. Other 
cities in the Valley, such as Zillah, have extended moratoriums. 
Zillah's extension expires next month, and city officials including 
the police chief and planner are now considering some type of 
ordinance to either govern such operations or simply ban them, City 
Clerk-Treasurer Sharon Bounds said.

"I know we have to honor the date our moratorium ends - I don't think 
we could extend it again," she said. "If we do allow them, we're 
going to put some pretty heavy regulations on them."

City officials in Toppenish have refrained from any moratorium 
because the city has yet to receive a request from anyone wanting to 
erect a collective garden or dispensary, City Manager Bill Murphy said.

Meanwhile, city officials are watching the situation on the Yakama 
reservation, where tribal government is in the process of taking back 
civil and criminal jurisdiction over its people. Like Wapato, 
Toppenish is on the reservation and tribal authority may collide with 
state law over the matter as well, he said.

"It's a checkerboard of complications if one really looks at it and 
gives it some thought," he said. "It's not a simple problem to solve."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom