Pubdate: Wed, 26 Feb 2014
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2014 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact: http://www.reviewjournal.com/about/print/press/letterstoeditor.html
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233
Author: Tom Ragan

BOULDER CITY COUNCIL SAYS NO TO MEDICAL POT

The Boulder City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to ban medical 
marijuana dispensaries and other associated facilities, the first 
city to do so in Clark County.

While the five council members empathized with those who are sick and 
support medical pot to alleviate their ills, they said they didn't 
feel the dispensaries would be good for the city. And so they amended 
a land use ordinance to ban the dispensaries within city limits.

The 5-0 vote followed a public hearing in which nearly a dozen 
residents spoke out on the establishments. One man thought the 
council was being too prohibitionist while one woman used the 
California beach town of Venice as a cautionary tale on why the 
dispensaries ought to be banned.

"I'm very proud that our city is being proactive and setting a 
positive precedent," said Myreen Aschenbach, one of the first to 
speak against the establishments. "The last thing we need is a Venice 
Beach where somebody can get marijuana if they have a headache."

Ed Uehling, a Boulder City resident since the 1940s, said he thought 
the ordinance would have "unintended consequences," forcing medical 
marijuana card holders to drive to Las Vegas for their medication. 
That scenario, he said, could lead to car accidents, similar to what 
happened decades ago when the city banned alcohol and people would 
drive to Las Vegas for their booze.

"We're seeing a re-enactment of 17th century America in a 21st 
century," he said.

Nate Crawford, a retired firefighter and paramedic, had this question 
for the council: "Does smoking a joint cause you to have slower reaction time?"

Crawford added: "My concern is a 3,000-pound bullet. Another hazard 
on the road."

Others in the audience said medical marijuana is not to be used while 
driving a vehicle or operating machinery. It says so right on the 
prescription, and it's far safer than the narcotics that are 
prescribed by doctors, they said.

Mayor Roger Tobler tried to keep speakers on topic, saying that the 
city's law would not ban the usage of medical marijuana. The law 
merely outlaws the establishments through tougher control over land 
use, he said. The council also agreed that it could revisit the issue 
and amend the law, if such was the inclination.

Before voting, the council struck a phrase from the ordinance, which 
said that burglaries and crime increase in neighborhoods and 
communities where medical marijuana establishments operate. A 
resident said that the council had no evidence to support that.

The state's medical marijuana law has been on the books since 2001. 
However, although patients can use the drug, there is no place where 
they can buy it. In April, that could change as the state adopts the 
final regulations, paving the way for an estimated 66 dispensaries in Nevada.

The state's Division of Public and Behavioral Health has received 
nearly $250,000 to hire six inspectors and one supervisor to oversee 
the roughly 150 facilities expected to be operating either in the 
form of dispensaries, grow houses and state certified laboratories, 
said Marla McDade Williams, a deputy administrator.

The money, made available on Feb. 6, is from the nearly $1 million 
that has been allocated by the state to help regulate the medical 
marijuana industry. The state is building a staff to deal with the 
hundreds of applications that are expected to start rolling in by 
early summer, McDade Williams said.

Last week, in a daylong stakeholders meeting held by video 
conference, dozens of interested dispensary applicants questioned 
state division staff.

Dispensary owners will have to make sure that even their seeds come 
from Nevada and are not imported from out of state, demonstrate where 
they got the assets to create a dispensary and keep a lid on any sort 
of detectable odor, either in their grow houses or their dispensaries.

On March 14, members of the state's Board of Health are expected to 
vote on the state's final regulations in Las Vegas, McDade Williams 
said, adding the regulations will then be sent back to the 
Legislative Commission for a final vote before April 1.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom