Mill Valley studies moratorium on medical pot clubs

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Article Last Updated: Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 9:01:52 AM PST

Mill Valley studies moratorium on medical pot clubs

By Don Speich

Mill Valley is the latest city in Marin to consider a temporary ban on medical marijuana dispensaries.

City Manager Don Hunter said yesterday he is recommending the City Council on Monday approve a moratorium - which would be in effect for 45 days with the possibility of a 120-day extension - until some consistency can be established between federal law, which prohibits marijuana sales, and state law, which permits it. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on whether federal bans override laws in California and nine other states.

The Mill Valley moratorium proposal was prompted by two permits to the city seeking permission to sell medical marijuana. Permit applicants' names were not immediately available. There are no marijuana clubs now in the city.

A bid last month by Capitol Compassionate Care Co-op of Fort Bragg to sell marijuana in neighboring Sausalito led to passage of a similar moratorium by the Sausalito City Council. The co-op owner, Richard Marino, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Hunter speculated that the recent attempts to sell medical marijuana in Marin are prompted by bans on new dispensaries in San Francisco, which has numerous marijuana clubs, and in several Bay Area communities, in apparent reaction to the legal dilemma of conflicting state and federal laws.

Marin's only medical marijuana club is in Fairfax, and its founder, Lynnette Shaw, is against opening new dispensaries in Marin until the nation's high court rules.

She said pot clubs, such as her Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, should be locally owned and subject to the same tight controls that apply to her Fairfax club, which has "84 conditions in the use permit" from the town covering such things as compliance, auditing, safety and not-for-profit status.

"It has taken a long time -14 years of work to make the right thing happen for the sick and dying," she said in a telephone interview yesterday. "We have a doctor who monitors medical reactions (to marijuana) and every person who walks in is completely straight ahead." She worries that "outsiders" might not be as inclined to comply with requirements in Marin's cities and towns.

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, which allows the use of medical marijuana for patients who have a recommendation from a physician. Meanwhile, federal law prohibits the cultivation, possession and distribution of marijuana.

Gordon Taylor, of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Sacramento office, said in a recent interview that "in order for a drug to be approved in the U.S. for medical treatment, it must undergo rigorous scientific and medical testing and it must be proven to be both safe and effective for medical treatment.

"Thus far, marijuana has not passed the safe and effective test and therefore it remains a prohibited controlled substance."

Said Shaw: "If medical marijuana survives in any form, I would like to see it highly regulated with small local collectives providing locally grown marijuana." She said the marijuana dispensed at the Fairfax club "is all member-grown."

Local control is essential, she said.

"You cannot just come in and set up on the corner. It is an emotional and crucial job that takes a lot of knowledge of the area and the people."

COUNCIL MEETING

The Mill Valley City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall at 26 Corte Madera Ave. in Mill Valley.

Contact Don Speich via e-mail at dspeich [at] marinij.com

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