Repealed ordinance would have required them to move

Por Jocelyn Maggard | Reportero SDUN

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Uptown are exhaling a sigh of relief after City Council voted last month to repeal an ordinance placing stricter regulations on where they can operate and whether they can operate without a permit.

Under the ordinance, dispensaries would have had to move to commercial or industrial zones. They would also have had to maintain a distance of at least 600 feet from schools, playgrounds, libraries, child care and youth facilities, parks, churches and each other.

According to Kush, a San Diego cannabis lifestyle magazine, Uptown is home to seven marijuana distributors on University Avenue and eight on El Cajon Boulevard (compared with approximately 160 in the city of San Diego, according to a March San Diego Police Department report—although without zoning codes permitting them, an exact count is difficult).

Allgreen Cooperative, on Fifth Avenue, for instance, has been in operation for the past year and a half. However, like its competitors, it remains an illegal establishment, as San Diego does not have zoning laws for cooperatives and the city has yet to provide any alternative solutions.

“We love this community (Hillcrest) because they don’t judge. They have been judged themselves,” said La Mesa resident and All-Green director Mark Blunk, explaining why he chose to locate his business in Uptown. Blunk added that he could have opened Allgreen in La Mesa, where cooperatives can apply for a business license, but he chose Hillcrest because the community is “friendlier.”

Asked how he felt about having such businesses in Uptown, University Heights resident, Ray Altamirano, said he doesn’t see having medical marijuana shops in his neighborhood as a problem as long as they are controlled and those receiving medical marijuana have a prescription.

However, some of the medical marijuana advocates who signed the petition against the ballot proposing the ordinance felt the repeal did not go far enough. District 5 City Councilmember Carl DeMaio drew attention
to this during the repeal process, saying “I heard from people who said they didn’t vote who signed the referendum because they felt the ordinance didn’t go far enough.”

One representative present at the City Council vote said that the city should do anything possible, regardless of how much a vote would cost, to possibly keep the ordinance, saying dispensaries are a danger to children.

Another speaker urged the repeal in order to incite a complete ban.