Por Jeff Clemetson | Editor

Activist says ordinances ineffective

On Dec. 8, the La Mesa City Council unanimously voted to adopt two ordinances that maintain a ban on medical marijuana in the city. The first ordinance confirmed the prohibition of cultivating marijuana in the city and the second prohibits mobile dispensing and delivery of marijuana in the city.

City Attorney Glenn Sabine told the council that new ordinances were necessary because the recently-passed state laws known as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act created new guidelines for cities to follow if they wish to maintain bans on dispensaries.

“In summary, the act governs the licensing and controls all medical marijuana businesses in the state and provides criminal immunity for all licensees,” he said. “However, cities under the law may retain regulatory control, including complete bans of medical marijuana dispensaries and related uses if certain actions are taken.”

La Mesa’s permissive building code, coupled with the state law that says dispensaries must obtain both state and city licenses to operate legal dispensaries, has maintained a legal basis for La Mesa’s ban on dispensaries. The new state law, however, says that cities must make guidelines for cultivating marijuana, “expressly clear,” Sabine said. The new state law also says that “cities cannot rely on their permissive zoning code, but must actively and expressly prohibit” mobile deliveries of medical marijuana.

The council then heard public comments.

“I hope that the city of La Mesa would continue to uphold prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries,” said Lisa Bridges. She also expressed concern that the ordinances may need to contain language that covers other marijuana products such as “edibles and liquids.”

Lorenzo Higley of CASA for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods told the council that his group helped “decisively” defeat Measure J that would have allowed legal dispensaries in the city. “Your draft ordinance supports retaining control, reducing availability of a substance for which there is no known medical use and will protect public health in the city of La Mesa,” he said, adding that even when jurisdictions allow legal dispensaries, they are still “afflicted by the illegal dispensaries that open up, the delivery services that open up.”

Vey Linville of Americans For Safe Access spoke next. Linville, who suffers from emphysema and carried an oxygen tank with him, urged the council to support a “suggested ordinance” that will be presented from his organization that will “hold up in court and preserve [the council’s] ability to govern what goes on in La Mesa in a very positive way.”

Linville also said that despite Measure J not passing, there are now “many more” dispensaries that operate in La Mesa and that it is not “ideal at all because they exist in an environment that is essentially unregulated.”

The council then voted unanimously to pass both ordinances. Before casting his vote, Vice Mayor Bill Baber said he was supporting the ordinances in order to retain city control over marijuana dispensaries but that in the future the council may have to revisit the issue because he sees “this area evolving” and that “anecdotally” the status quo “doesn’t appear to be working.”

After the meeting, Linville said that because of ordinances like the ones passed by the council, the city “will end up with further legal challenges.”

“Just so everybody’s clear, and I don’t think the council understands this at all, their regulation will not make it illegal to grow marijuana in La Mesa,” he said. “Patients in La Mesa who have a doctor’s recommendation have a state right to cultivate marijuana that they may not interfere with.”

Linville said that the council’s vote banning cultivation only applies to commercial growers and not individual patients who were granted the right to grow for personal use under Proposition 215. He also said that the ordinance banning mobile dispensaries would only apply to operations based in La Mesa and not deliveries made to or through the city, although that would likely be tested in court if and when the La Mesa police charge a delivery driver with a crime.

Even in cities like San Diego that don’t have an outright ban on dispensaries, Linville said zoning ordinances restrict access to patients, like himself.

“It’s unfortunate that the licensing process is so onerous, so expensive, so long and that there are so few spots available,” he said “There really isn’t anywhere near enough to service the patients in the city and they are not where they need to be. There needs to be a lot more.”

––Escriba a Jeff Clemetson a [email protected].