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Plymouth -- This tiny Amador County city has become the first in the central Mother Lode to adopt rules regulating how medical cannabis dispensaries operate.
The City Council on Thursday adopted the ordinance on an urgency basis after area resident Mike Koll applied for a business license to open such a dispensary in this city of about 1,000 people.
"There was a regulatory vacuum," Michael Dean, Plymouth city attorney explained. "We needed to plug that vacuum."
Koll could not be reached for comment Friday.
If the council had not adopted the regulations, city officials said, dispensaries could have opened in areas too close to homes, schools and certain businesses.
The ordinance requires dispensary operators to first obtain use permits. It also limits their locations to land zoned for light industry.
The ordinance prohibits a dispensary from operating in any residential zone, within 1,000 feet of any elementary, middle or high school, public library or public park or within 1,000 feet of any business that serves mostly children.
No cities in Calaveras or Tuolumne counties have adopted such ordinances, but several cities in the Sacramento area and the foothills east of there have, said Dean.
Dean said a number of dispensaries have opened since a new law took effect in January. The law clarified Proposition 215, which legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in certain cases.
Plymouth's ordinance-adoption process came together rapidly, but Pat Shackleton, the city's vice mayor, said it had to, given the circumstances.
"It was gone into quickly," she said, "but not lightly."
Without the ordinance, Shackleton said, Koll or someone else could have opened a dispensary anywhere in a commercially zoned building "and then we'd have a problem."
Dean said that according to state law, a dispensary operating in Plymouth could serve only Plymouth residents and one other nonresident. It would be up to the dispensary owner to select the nonresident customer.
That should keep Plymouth from "becoming a Mecca for medical-marijuana users," Councilwoman Elida Malick said.
Malick said she supports the new regulations limiting where dispensaries can operate. "The city is so small, you can't just let someone have free rein," she said. "The potential for abuse would have been too great."
Sheriff Michael Prizmich, whose deputies provide police services for Plymouth, said he was somewhat surprised to see the city move as quickly as it did in adopting the ordinance.
Prizmich said city officials asked to discuss the issue with him, but a meeting never transpired.
He said he couldn't comment on the substance of the ordinance, because he hadn't yet seen it.
"We'll look and see what the components are," he said. "But there are opportunities available to open cannabis clubs and they can be lawful. They can also be illegal."
David Jack, an Angels Camp resident and a medical-marijuana user and advocate, said he doesn't like the idea of dispensaries.
"They attract a lot of crime and they're abrasive to the community," he said.
Jack said small co-op ventures serving five or so people -- several of which he said exist in Calaveras and Amador counties -- seem to work better.
"They are healing for everyone," he said of the small co-ops. "A dispensary becomes more of a business."
Source: Record, The (CA)
Author: Francis P. Garland, Lode Bureau Chief
Published: Saturday, May 29, 2004
Copyright: 2004 The Record
Contact: editor@recordnet.com
Website: recordnet.com: Local & World News, Sports & Entertainment in Stockton, CA
The City Council on Thursday adopted the ordinance on an urgency basis after area resident Mike Koll applied for a business license to open such a dispensary in this city of about 1,000 people.
"There was a regulatory vacuum," Michael Dean, Plymouth city attorney explained. "We needed to plug that vacuum."
Koll could not be reached for comment Friday.
If the council had not adopted the regulations, city officials said, dispensaries could have opened in areas too close to homes, schools and certain businesses.
The ordinance requires dispensary operators to first obtain use permits. It also limits their locations to land zoned for light industry.
The ordinance prohibits a dispensary from operating in any residential zone, within 1,000 feet of any elementary, middle or high school, public library or public park or within 1,000 feet of any business that serves mostly children.
No cities in Calaveras or Tuolumne counties have adopted such ordinances, but several cities in the Sacramento area and the foothills east of there have, said Dean.
Dean said a number of dispensaries have opened since a new law took effect in January. The law clarified Proposition 215, which legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in certain cases.
Plymouth's ordinance-adoption process came together rapidly, but Pat Shackleton, the city's vice mayor, said it had to, given the circumstances.
"It was gone into quickly," she said, "but not lightly."
Without the ordinance, Shackleton said, Koll or someone else could have opened a dispensary anywhere in a commercially zoned building "and then we'd have a problem."
Dean said that according to state law, a dispensary operating in Plymouth could serve only Plymouth residents and one other nonresident. It would be up to the dispensary owner to select the nonresident customer.
That should keep Plymouth from "becoming a Mecca for medical-marijuana users," Councilwoman Elida Malick said.
Malick said she supports the new regulations limiting where dispensaries can operate. "The city is so small, you can't just let someone have free rein," she said. "The potential for abuse would have been too great."
Sheriff Michael Prizmich, whose deputies provide police services for Plymouth, said he was somewhat surprised to see the city move as quickly as it did in adopting the ordinance.
Prizmich said city officials asked to discuss the issue with him, but a meeting never transpired.
He said he couldn't comment on the substance of the ordinance, because he hadn't yet seen it.
"We'll look and see what the components are," he said. "But there are opportunities available to open cannabis clubs and they can be lawful. They can also be illegal."
David Jack, an Angels Camp resident and a medical-marijuana user and advocate, said he doesn't like the idea of dispensaries.
"They attract a lot of crime and they're abrasive to the community," he said.
Jack said small co-op ventures serving five or so people -- several of which he said exist in Calaveras and Amador counties -- seem to work better.
"They are healing for everyone," he said of the small co-ops. "A dispensary becomes more of a business."
Source: Record, The (CA)
Author: Francis P. Garland, Lode Bureau Chief
Published: Saturday, May 29, 2004
Copyright: 2004 The Record
Contact: editor@recordnet.com
Website: recordnet.com: Local & World News, Sports & Entertainment in Stockton, CA
