Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jan 2014
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2014 Sun-Times Media, LLC
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Fran Spielman
Page: 10

ALDERMEN BEMOAN LACK OF CONTROL OVER MEDICAL POT

Chicago aldermen on Thursday bemoaned a state law that legalized
medical marijuana but left them virtually powerless to decide where
dispensaries and growing centers are located.

Concerned that Illinois' 60 dispensaries would be concentrated "where
the customers are," Ald. Edward Burke (14th) wants to confine them and
growing centers to manufacturing districts and require them to obtain
special-use permits.

That would trigger a public hearing before the city's Zoning Board of
Appeals where area residents could object, identify the owners and
scrutinize their backgrounds.

On Thursday, the Zoning Committee took testimony, but no action, on
the ordinance Burke championed with support from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

"There's been enough evidence from around the country about the abuses
that have taken place when this form of law was enacted," said Burke,
pointing to a "60 Minutes" segment that claimed Denver has "more
locations dispensing medical marijuana than McDonald's or Starbucks"
stores.

"Most [people] don't want to have their neighborhood crowded with
increased traffic, with the kind of examples... that have taken place
in California and Denver. The city is where the rubber meets the road.
That's where there has to be input and control."

Burke's proposal to confine dispensaries and growing centers to
manufacturing districts did not sit well with Ali Nagib, assistant
director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws.

He noted that many of the patients who suffer from the 42 named
ailments or diseases that qualify them to purchase medical marijuana
with a doctor's prescription are seriously ill or dying.

City attorneys say the state law already appears to "push" the medical
marijuana industry into manufacturing districts by requiring
cultivation centers to be located at least 2,500 feet away from
schools, day care centers and areas zoned residential.

The buffer for dispensaries is 1,000 feet from schools and day care
centers. They cannot be located in homes in areas zoned residential
but they can set up shop just outside residential zones.

"Patients are not going to want to travel to some manufacturing
district surrounded by trucks and scary looking buildings," Nagib said.

Ald. Rey Colon (35th) agreed that manufacturing districts are
inappropriate - but for a different reason.

"The manufacturing district I have in my ward - there's not a lot of
cars. It's mostly big trucks delivering and receiving. It complicates
that process by sending a bunch of vehicles into those districts,"
Colon said.

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) worried aloud whether seriously ill
patients would be required to "drive to the edge of the city" when
many of Chicago's major medical campuses, including fast-growing
Northwestern Memorial, are located downtown or just south and west of
the Central Business District.
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