Pubdate: Thu, 05 Dec 2013
Source: Manteca Bulletin (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Manteca Bulletin
Contact:  http://www.mantecabulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3670
Author: Jason Campbell

LATHROP NOT READY FOR 'REDBOX' MARIJUANA

LATHROP - It's like Redbox but for medical-grade pot.

The patient swipes their card, selects their option, walks inside and 
gets their single gram of "medicine" without ever having to interact 
with a single person.

And the City of Lathrop isn't quite ready for it.

Despite an impassioned plea by a representative of a Tracy medical 
marijuana dispensary and a cooperative that operates a local deliver 
service, the Lathrop City Council voted 4-1 Monday night to enact a 
45-day moratorium that will prevent a dispensary for opening in the community.

Councilman Omar Ornelas cast the lone dissenting vote. The item 
needed four votes to pass.

It'll now be up to the city's planners and members of the council to 
determine whether it's an item that they want to review and address 
within that time frame, or extend for a period of up to 22 months. 
Based on the way that Lathrop's municipal code is currently written, 
the city cannot authorize any business to operate that is in 
violation of any local, state or federal law.

That's where things get murky.

Even though California voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996  the 
Compassionate Use Act  and clarified the scope of the law with Senate 
Bill 420 in 2003, the Federal government still doesn't recognize 
individual states rights when it comes to the issue, and classifies 
marijuana in any form as a Schedule 1 narcotic.

Mitch Abdallah, who was representing West Coast Alternatives in 
Tracy, said that his business already had a location picked out in 
the community  well out of the way  and had plans to renovate it into 
a state-of-the-art and secure facility where patients could get their 
medicine without any hassle or worry.

He talked about the unique Redbox-style distribution system that 
would use a card-system to verify a patient's identity, whether they 
had a valid prescription or not, and how much money they had in an 
account before dispensing a small amount  "a gram"  of medical-grade marijuana.

Abdallah said that he recognized that while the California Supreme 
Court upheld the City of Riverside's position that allowed them to 
ban dispensaries in the community, the dispensary he was representing 
followed the guidelines that were laid out by the California Attorney 
General "to a T" and noted that the United States Attorney General's 
office has twice stated that they won't go after dispensaries that 
are operating within the reasonable boundaries of their local laws.

"I think what we're offering here is something that the community 
should take note of," Abdallah said. "It's something positive  it's 
here to help sick people  and it's here to take drugs off the street 
and put them into a very safe, secure and state-of-the-art doctor's 
style office and I look forward to working with the council."

There was little discussion amongst members of the council on the 
item, and few hints on which direction they would go after the 45-day 
moratorium had lapsed.

Nobody from Lathrop Police Services offered input on the matter.

"This is a big change," Lathrop City Councilman Steve Dresser said. 
"You're coming here and you're asking for a big change and I think 
that we need to take baby steps. I think that what the city is 
proposing here is a chance for the city to step back and look at the 
ramifications, the benefits, the downsides, the impacts.

"I think we need to look at that before we can  before I can  move 
forward with this."

Manteca and Ripon have taken similar approaches. Two years ago the 
City of Manteca shut down a dispensary that had begun operating 
downtown, and earlier this year Ripon banned all dispensaries 
outright with a city ordinance.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom