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<\/a>The council eventually sided with Parent and adjusted the ordinance language to allow deliveries from all state licensed dispensaries.<\/p>\nThe biggest sticking point for the new medical marijuana code was the prohibition of medical marijuana on city-owned properties. Parent argued that the prohibition should exempt any residential units. Currently, the city has no residential properties but the Briercrest at La Mesa senior living center, scheduled to open in 2019, will be on city-leased property and the city is considering having affordable housing built into the new civic center project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I don\u2019t want to have happen is have a situation where someone is in an affordable housing unit or a senior unit and they have some change in their medical situation,\u201d Parent said. \u201cWe\u2019re proposing to put them in a situation where they may have to choose between their health care and being able to afford a place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vice Mayor Kristine Alessio opposed Parent\u2019s proposed amendment, citing federal prohibition to marijuana as well as issues that apartment dwellers have had with people smoking marijuana in neighboring units.<\/p>\n
\u201cI strongly feel that if we can\u2019t control what people are doing in their private residences, when we own the property, we can protect our citizens,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Bill Baber asked why there is the need for prohibiting medical marijuana in residences when lease agreements could handle the issue on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it is against the federal law,\u201d Alessio said.<\/p>\n
A motion to pass the new ordinance with Parent\u2019s amendment to allow residents on city-owned property failed with Alessio, Arapostithis and Councilmember Guy McWhirter voting against it. The final vote on the ordinance without the amendment passed unanimously.<\/p>\n
Before the final vote, Alessio objected to allowing indoor cultivation of plants without any regulations requiring locked grow rooms \u2014 a position she argued at a previous council meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI argued strenuously to no avail that that wasn\u2019t a good idea around children and pets,\u201d she said. \u201cBetween now and then I have managed to procure a marijuana plant and I would like, with the city attorney supervising in his office, every single one of you to go into the room where it is to smell it and touch it and then maybe come back in a few months and tell me if you still think it\u2019s a really good idea to have six of these around kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parent brought up that if this was on city property that it would be in violation of the city ordinance the council was about to pass. Sabine reassured the council that something could be worked out for demonstration purposes only.<\/p>\n
Illegal dispensaries update<\/h3>\n
After the City Council passed its ordinance governing legal medical marijuana dispensaries, Sabine and consultant Greg Santana presented an update on what the city is doing to shut down illegal dispensaries operating without a permit in La Mesa and why illegal shop operators aren\u2019t being arrested.<\/p>\n
Sabine explained that city attorneys like himself are mostly in charge of prosecuting municipal code violations, while district attorneys prosecute criminal law violations. He added that our district attorney\u2019s office is reluctant to prosecute state criminal law violations involving illegal marijuana-related activities such as illegal dispensaries \u201cfor reasons not officially stated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although state law authorizes the district attorney to allow cities to prosecute the laws, Sabine said his office lacks the expertise, the personnel and the funding necessary to effectively prosecute criminal state law.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo instead, our office relies on the civil litigation process to obtain compliance regarding illegal dispensaries and ultimately shut them down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Santana then gave a breakdown of how the civil process works. First, a code violation is reported to the city by a citizen or as the result of an investigation by the police or fire department. Within 10 days, the city sends a cease-and-desist order to the illegal dispensary. The matter is also sent to the city attorney to begin the prosecution process.<\/p>\n
Four to six weeks later, a judge can issue a temporary restraining order to shut down the illegal dispensary. Next, the city will ask the court for a preliminary injunction. If granted, the shop will be forcibly shut down until litigation or trial. Trials, if the process goes that far, happen 12 to 18 months after the initial complaint. However, that\u2019s occurred only once because most shops close once they receive the restraining order or temporary injunction because they lose too much money.<\/p>\n
Also, the city administers a $1,000-a-day fine for every day an illegal shop operates. \u201cIn one case, we were able to recover $60,000 in administrative penalties,\u201d Sabine said.<\/p>\n
The criminal court process happens more quickly, Santana said, but only once charges are filed. Law and code enforcement agencies must first do a criminal investigation, which usually requires a search warrant from a judge \u2014 a lengthy and uncertain process. After evidence is gathered, a prosecutor then decides whether the case is worth pursuing. In criminal law, the evidence must be beyond a reasonable doubt whereas in civil law, judgements are based on the preponderance of the evidence. And there is another reason why the civil court route is preferred by the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the prosecuting attorney so chooses, he can then bring charges against the dispensary \u2014 but the criminal activities can still occur,\u201d Santana said. \u201cThere\u2019s no preventing them from doing that. You don\u2019t get any kind of a closure to the activities until you have a criminal conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, the city has shut down four illegal dispensaries through code enforcement and three more are pending litigation. An additional 17 have shut down through other means.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had some good results on owner-initiated eviction proceedings,\u201d Santana said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also think it\u2019s important to note that because the city, as a policy matter, will not process applications for sites that house illegal dispensaries, five dispensaries shut down on their own because they want to process a legitimate application,\u201d Sabine said.<\/p>\n
Gina Austin, a land-use attorney who works with cannabis businesses, commented that prohibiting illegal operators from applying for a permit was a \u201cgreat decision\u201d and requested that the city continue to go after illegal shops to ensure that the people who do get permits are people who are playing by the rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who have followed the rules from the beginning will continue to follow the rules once they are a licensed dispensary,\u201d she said. \u201cWe work very hard to make sure our clients are compliant with land-use regulations and all of the other regulations because the only way this new industry will succeed is if the first people in don\u2019t destroy it and make it so that it is the bad actors who are winning and prevailing \u2014 that is your illegal operators.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been 29 applications filed with the city for medical marijuana business permits \u2014 21 for dispensaries, three for cultivation and five for manufacturing. Two of the applications have already been rejected because they didn\u2019t meet the distance and separation requirements in Measure U.<\/p>\n
\u2014Comun\u00edquese con Jeff Clemetson en jeff@sdcnn.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Por Jeff Clemetson | Editor<\/p>","protected":false},"author":778,"featured_media":224668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Medical marijuana regulations finalized","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11548,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Medical](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Dispensary-update.jpg\")
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