Monterey Park City Council extends medical pot ban

[Spliff Twister]

MONTEREY PARK - The City Council voted Wednesday night to extenda
suspension on cannabis dispensaries.

The vote was 4-0, with Vice Mayor David T. Lau absent, in favor of an
urgency ordinance to extend the city's 45-day moratorium on the
approval of any permits, licenses or other applicable entitlements for
cannabis dispensaries.

The moratorium was enacted Aug. 16, despite the lack of any medical
marijuana dispensaries operating in Monterey Park.

City Manager Chris Jeffers has said the city received inquiries on
licensing and regulation of this type of establishment.

Monterey Park is one of several area cities to put such a moratorium in place.

The Monrovia City Council called a special meeting Aug. 11 to enact a
suspension on licenses for medical marijuana stores. El Monte's City
Council extended their moratorium in late June. La Mirada passed a
moratorium in April.

However, in July, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Yaffe
ruled the first medical marijuana dispensary in the San Gabriel Valley
- the Hacienda Heights- based California Medical Caregivers
Association - could continue to distribute marijuana to patients with
doctors' notes.

At Wednesday night's meeting, Adolfo C. Reta, Monterey Park's director
of development services, read from a report that said the city staff
needed more time to research the issue before coming up with "clear,
comprehensive and reasonable regulations."

The Monterey Park urgency ordinance will allow the city staff until
Aug. 16, 2007, to study the issue, although Reta said the staff
anticipates placing a proposed code amendment on the Planning
Commission agenda in November.

In Reta's August staff report on the matter, he wrote that some
potential negative impacts on the city as a result of pot dispensaries
could be increased crime due to large amounts of cash and marijuana
typically held at such establishments, loitering and disturbing the
peace.

An advocacy group called "Americans for Safe Access" that supports
medical marijuana dispensaries released a report earlier this
monthsaying that cities such as Oakland, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz,
which have enacted such ordinances, are seeing "positive results,"
according to a press release on the Web site www.safeaccessnow.org.


The report claims dispensaries "help revitalize neighborhoods, bring
new customers to neighboring businesses and reduce crime in
surrounding areas," the release notes.


Newshawk: Spliff Twister - 420Times.com
Source: sgvtribune/ San Gabriel (CA)
Pubdate: September 21, 2006
Copyright: Copyright © 2006 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Contact: molly.okeon@sgvn.com
Website: http://www.sgvtribune.com/