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Plainsman1963

San Pablo closer to snuffing out cannabis clubs
08-07-06 | MercuryNews.Com | Tom Lochner

SAN PABLO - Not in our town.

That was the message that came out of a San Pablo City Council study session Monday night on two draft ordinances related to medical marijuana dispensaries, otherwise known as cannabis clubs.

The first ordinance would prohibit cannabis clubs in deference to federal law, which, unlike California, outlaws marijuana even for medical purposes.

The second, patterned on a fairly restrictive Roseville regulating ordinance, would allow cannabis clubs to operate only in certain zoning districts, at certain times and under a variety of other restrictions.

The council, by a 5-0 vote, opted for prohibition. The draft ordinance outlawing cannabis clubs in the city will next go to the San Pablo Planning Commission for a public hearing and come back to the City Council for a public hearing and possible adoption.

Council members said some patients suffering from a variety of illnesses can benefit from medical marijuana but should procure it somewhere else.

"There's a desperate need," said Councilwoman Sharon Brown, echoing several of her colleagues, "But there are problems," she said, citing "unsavory people hanging around" dispensaries.

"I understand it benefits some people," said Councilman Paul Morris. "But ... we don't need it in our town."

San Pablo is in the second year of a moratorium on the establishment of cannabis clubs that the council enacted to give it time to craft a regulating ordinance in a legal climate made murky by differences between federal and state law.

In 1996, the state's voters passed the Compassionate Use Act, which allows people to cultivate, buy and possess marijuana for medical use. Senate Bill 420 in 2003 established guidelines for distribution of the drug.

The federal government, however, considers marijuana an illegal drug with no medical application.

A 2005 United States Supreme Court decision affirmed the federal government's right to enforce the federal prohibition on marijuana even in states that allow the drug for medical use, as California does. But the court, in Gonzales v. Raich, did not address preemption of state law under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, City Attorney Brian Libow reported to the council.

"As a result," Libow wrote, "local governments are left with the question of what the legal authority is to implement, regulate or prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries."

Brown, commenting on the dilemma, said the city was caught between the proverbial "rock and a hard place."

Several council members said San Pablo's medical marijuana patients are well-served by a cannabis club in neighboring unincorporated El Sobrante, even as they accused that cannabis club of attracting a bad crowd.

Attached to Libow's report is one from the El Cerrito Police Department that cites a litany of crimes and lesser quality-of-life issues surrounding medical marijuana in more than two dozen jurisdictions in California, including Oakland and Berkeley. The El Cerrito report does not mention El Sobrante or any other community in unincorporated Contra Costa County.