California, Redlands

[palmspringsbum]

Temporary pot ban considered

REDLANDS: The city needs time to study whether medical marijuana fosters crime.


01:06 AM PDT on Tuesday, April 5, 2005


By ROBERTO HERNANDEZ / The Press-Enterprise


REDLANDS - Redlands is joining other California cities that are seeking to prevent medical marijuana clubs from opening until they can determine if they should be allowed, how they can be regulated and whether they increase crime.

Some officials say the clubs could become magnets for illegal drug dealers using state medical-marijuana laws to shield their activities.

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<b>Cannabis controversy </b>

Redlands is among several California cities that are considering or have enacted temporary bans on medical marijuana clubs so officials can determine if they will be allowed and how they will be controlled.

<u>Pros</u>: Government-controlled clubs can provide a safe haven where seriously ill patients can obtain marijuana to ease their suffering.

<u>Cons</u>: Clubs become covers or targets for drug dealing and attract crime.

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Supporters say government-regulated clubs create a safe, controlled environment where seriously ill people can get pot to help ease their suffering.

"We have a civic responsibility to protect sick people," Jerry Meier, chairman of San Diego's city Medical Marijuana Task Force, said Monday.

The issue illustrates how California cities are reacting to a 1996 voter-approved proposition that allows the medical use of marijuana but left it up to local officials to figure out how to control it.

Today, the Redlands City Council will consider adopting a 45-day temporary ban on such clubs. There are no known clubs in Redlands, nor has anyone proposed one, said John Jaquess, assistant community development director.

Ontario, Huntington Beach, West Hollywood and Santa Rosa have imposed or are considering similar moratoriums until they can come up with regulations.

"I think it's sort of a heads-up process to make sure we're up to speed at the right time," Jaquess said.

Dozens of clubs already exist in California, mainly in northern cities including San Francisco. Some clubs have been raided because the federal government considers pot to be illegal and without medical value.

California voters in 1996 passed Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana for medical use, such as to ease painful symptoms of AIDS or the effects of chemotherapy. Clubs opened to distribute marijuana to patients.

State health officials this year announced plans to issue identification cards to medical marijuana users that would prohibit state and local authorities from seizing the drug and prosecuting the cardholder. San Diego has been working on such an ID card program, Meier said.

Critics of clubs say drug traffickers are using Prop. 215 as a cover to sell marijuana for recreational use, which medical pot advocates acknowledge can happen.

"Furthering the distribution and availability of marijuana increases the opportunity for crime and may further destabilize neighborhoods and endanger those at highest risk for its use -- children in our community," Kurt Smith, Redlands Police Department director of community analysis and technology, wrote in a March 7 letter to City Attorney Dan McHugh.

But a medical marijuana attorney said such clubs should be regulated rather than permanently barred.

"We don't want to see the whole thing go up in smoke," said Chris Andrian of Santa Rosa. "We want it to remain a healthy, viable thing for those people who really need it."