Red Bluff Council Will Consider Banning Dispensaries and Medical Pot Gardens

[Weedpipe]

RED BLUFF - The City Council here will decide Tuesday night whether to immediately ban medical marijuana dispensaries, collectives and cooperatives within city limits.

As an urgency ordinance, the ban would go into effect immediately after the council vote. The prohibition would then give city leaders time to decide how best to regulate the growth and sale of medical marijuana in town, said Forrest Flynn, a city councilman.

"If we don't do it now, I think it'll get away from us," Flynn said, referring to the rapid growth of dispensaries across the north state. "If it hasn't already."

In Shasta County, the Redding City Council will meet again Tuesday night to work on crafting an ordinance regulating medical marijuana collectives.

In the past.Tehama County Board of Supervisors have debated the issue of medical marijuana growth and sales.

- In July, the board failed to adopt an ordinance that would have limited the size and location of medical marijuana plots.

- Last week, the board added 10 months and 15 days to a 45-day prohibition that expired Friday.

- The board has set a Nov. 24 session to study its options for a broader ordinance that would regulate how the contentious medical pot issue is handled.
Earlier this month, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted down a suggested moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries.

Last week, the Tehama County Board of Supervisors voted to add 10 months and 15 days to a 45-day prohibition on medical marijuana dispensaries that expired Friday.

"It's a logistical issue," said Paul Nanfito, Red Bluff police chief. "It takes a lot of resources to enforce."

With the police force capable of handling just a finite number of calls and complaints, the city needs specific regulations to keep the growth of collectives manageable, Nanfito said.

To minimize conflict and stay safely within the bounds of state law, Flynn said the city will need to establish regulations so that both the collectives and law enforcement "know what their rights and obligations will be."

It's an issue of clarity, he said.

"I am just attempting to clarify what the law would be," he said.

The Red Bluff City Council will meet in regular session at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 555 Washington St.



News Hawk- Weedpipe 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Redding Record Searchlight: Local Redding, California News Delivered Throughout the Day.
Author: Rob Rogers
Contact: Redding Record Searchlight: Local Redding, California News Delivered Throughout the Day.
Copyright: 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co
Website:Red Bluff council will consider banning dispensaries and medical pot gardens Redding Record Searchlight

 

[Irish]

Red Bluff city council just banned collectives, cooperatives, dispensaries and legal medicinal cultivation within city limits, in a meeting tonight that lasted 3 hours with a standing room only crowd. The board's minds were already slammed shut to reasonable dialog and it made no difference that all but four of the concerned citizens attending the meeting were against the ban. The premise that cannabis is illegal to grow or sell, purposely ignoring the exception for medical marijuana patients and our right to safe access, was their entire hub for instituting the "emergency" ban. They cited the ruling in Claremont that banned dispensaries there as the cornerstone of this ruling.

Tomorrow will be a meeting at the one collective left in operation (since it is just out of city limits) to discuss and organize a class action lawsuit against the city and each one of its council members for its/their blatant disregard for the will of the people and the laws of the State of California. If you're local, be there or be square....