Pubdate: Thu, 11 Oct 2012
Source: Arizona Daily Sun (AZ)
Copyright: 2012 Arizona Daily Sun
Contact: http://news.azdailysun.com/opinion/letter_submit.cfm
Website: http://www.azdailysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1906
Author: Todd Glasenapp

MEDICAL POT OK'D IN PAGE

PAGE -- Page City Council paved the way for the city to receive its 
first medical marijuana dispensary Wednesday night.

Council voted 5-2 to uphold a conditional use permit approved Oct. 2 
by the city's planning and zoning commission. The permit would allow 
The Kind Relief, Inc., to open a dispensary near Highway 98 and 
Coppermine Road in the city's southeastern corner.

The Kind Relief still needs approval from the Arizona Department of 
Health Services to open the dispensary, which is expected to serve 
the initial 27 license-holders of medical marijuana between Page and Fredonia.

Arizona voters approved medical marijuana in November 2010 by a 
narrow margin. In the four Page precincts, 1,014 voted in favor and 
1,034 against.

Mike Makowski, husband of Councilmember Vida Makowski, had filed an 
appeal after the planning and zoning decision, prompting the city 
council to review the plan.

Page Mayor Bill Diak and Councilmember Lyle Dimbatt insisted council 
was not tasked with deciding whether it condoned marijuana but with 
whether the applicant complied with the city's zoning code. Diak, 
Dimbatt and others were counseled by City Attorney Robert Wingo in a 
34-minute executive session that preceded the vote.

Four Page residents addressed the topic, three advocating for 
approval. Cancer survivor Joann Prince spoke in favor of the 
proposal, along with Page residents Teri Dean and Richard Webb. Mike 
Makowski spoke against the plan.

"It's bad public policy to, in essence, condone something that's in 
violation of federal law," he said, shortly before his wife and 
Councilmember David Tennis voted against the proposal.

Dean said having a centrally located dispensary would be far 
preferable to allowing 27 people to grow their own marijuana.

"There is no way to monitor it," she said.

The Kind Relief was represented by Michele Moirano, its president and 
CEO and a registered nurse. The company's website said Moirano has 
worked in gastroenterology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale and is 
now working in emergency medicine.

"I encounter a myriad of patients with chronic illnesses and feel 
that medical marijuana will not only assist patients in treating 
their chronic pain, but will also help minimize the overuse of 
prescription narcotics leading to overdoses and death," she wrote on 
the website.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom