San Diego Medical Marijuana Dispensary News

City Stops Issuing Medical Marijuana Permits

Monday, August 31, 2009 2:37 PM PDT

In recent months, the city of San Diego received enough permit
applications to almost quadruple the number of its active medical
marijuana dispensaries. The city's land development code, officials
believed, was too unclear for it to handle that kind of increase.

Are medical marijuana dispensaries a retail sales issue? Pharmaceutical
sales? A medical office use? A dental or health practitioner? These uses
are allowed in just about all commercial and industrial zones as well as
medium- and high-density residential zones. By contrast, the land
development code requires outlets that sell alcohol to be 600 feet from
schools, churches, parks and playgrounds and 100 feet from residentially
zone properties.

The city wants to study where medical marijuana fits in with its current
code or whether it needs to create new zoning restrictions. In the
meantime, San Diego has stopped its permitting of medical marijuana
dispensaries/ collectives until it determines new zoning criteria or a
recently recommended task force addresses the issue.

The suspension followed a July 21 memo from city Development Services
Department Director Kelly Broughton to the city's Public Safety &
Neighborhood Services Committee, which told of the city's dilemma and
its response.

Eight dispensaries have active permits in San Diego, but there are now
30 permit applications for dispensaries in the pipeline. The spike in
permits follows a court battle that saw San Diego County lose its
attempt to ban marijuana patient identification cards. The San Diego has
a reputation as a difficult place to grow and distribute pot for
medicinal purposes.

A proposal to create an 11-member task force to study medical marijuana
issues at the July 29 meeting of the Public Safety & Neighborhood
Services Committee has muddled the permitting situation for the moment.
The task force, which is awaiting City Council approval, will attempt to
give the city a holistic approach to marijuana policy, but the immediate
suspension of permits hasn't been addressed.

Instead, there appears to be confusion about the status of permits. A
San Diego 6 report on the July 29 Public Safety & Neighborhood Services
Committee meeting attributes a statement to Councilman Todd Gloria that
a medical marijuana moratorium isn't likely to happen in San Diego any
time soon.

Jay Goldstone, the city's chief operating officer, said in an e-mail a
permitting suspension is in effect.

The memo from Broughton reflects the position of the Mayor's
Office: that the city's interest in state-sanctioned medical
marijuana dispensaries is strictly in ensuring that appropriate
land-use policies adopted and applied. Our neighborhoods, dispensary
operators and law enforcement all will benefit from proper planning and
clear rules as relates to dispensaries. At this time, it is possible
that no existing zoning category is completely appropriate for this use.

Goldstone added that the Development Services Department recommended
that the Public Safety Committee look to establish a new zoning use for
marijuana dispensaries. Also, Goldstone said the scope of the new task
force is "unknown."

I called Gloria's office for more information and it sent this statement
to me:

At the PS&NS committee, Councilmember Gloria stated his desire to
have stakeholders (the task force) weigh in on the issue of how
collectives are structured and operated, including where they are sited.
He commented that he was hesitant to bring the issue of appropriate land
use designations/ a potential permanent moratorium based on land use for
collectives to the Land Use and Housing Committee he chairs until a task
force was in place to advise on the issue. It's important for the task
force to be considered soon by the full City Council so they can get
started on this work. All parties seem to agree that clarity would be
helpful so patients can access medicinal marijuana as allowed by state
law without hampering public safety.

As for the current suspension of approvals, it seems like you have
your info on that from the Mayor's Office and DSD.

I'm still looking for more information from Gloria so I will update when
I receive it.

-- LIAM DILLON

http://www.voiceofs andiego.org/ articles/ 2009/08/31/ this_just_ in/641marij\
uana082809.txt