City Council members appeared uncomfortable with the first round of recommendations to regulate dispensaries issued by the Medical Marijuana Task Force. City Council voted 7-1 to send the recommendations to subcommittee on Jan. 5. The Land Use & Housing Commission (LU&H) will discuss the recommendations at its March meeting, and the Community Planners Committee, which represents the planning groups in the city, will also review the suggestions for feedback. Councilman Todd Gloria, who chairs LU&H, also requested input from city staff from the Department of Development Services, which handles permits, and from the mayor’s office. Over a series of four meetings, the task force outlined suggestions for hours of operation, permitted areas of location, distance requirements from one dispensary to another and permitting processes. District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer expressed concerns about the task force’s recommendation that dispensaries be permitted through Process 2 and 3, wherein city staff decide on whether the dispensary can open. In those processes, the public is notified and can appeal the staff decision to the Planning Commission. “The Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach planning boards supported some of the recommendations but wanted to change the process level,” Faulconer said. “Ocean Beach suggested Process 4.” Under a Process 4 permit, the decision to open a dispensary can be appealed before City Council. District 5 Councilman Carl DeMaio voted against sending the task force recommendations to subcommittee because he believes the process itself enables more dispensaries to open. “While some say this tightens regulations on medical marijuana, I say the opposite,” DeMaio said. “I believe it gives license; it waters down regulation; and it opens the door for more dispensaries throughout our city. I think if you follow Prop. 215 and the state attorney general’s guidelines, we certainly wouldn’t need the process before us today, and many of the existing dispensaries would not meet the test.” District 7 Councilwoman Marti Emerald reminded DeMaio of the medical marijuana users who had petitioned the council for clearer regulations to protect them from illicit dispensaries, as well as from prosecution. “We owe it to the neighborhoods where these shops are springing up, and to the integrity of the process and to the patients who want safe access,” Emerald said.