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Medical Marijuana on Cypress City Council Agenda
Police Department has asked City Council to make clinics illegal.
Slav Kandyba | OCRegister | 08/28/2006

The City Council will take up the issue of medical marijuana clinics at a meeting tonight, the latest in a string of Orange County cities to do so.

While there are no clinics currently operating in the city, the police department has asked the council to make them illegal on the grounds that they pose a public health issue, said Ted Commerdinger, acting community development director.

The position against the clinics stems from issues that "include drug sales, thefts of various kinds, loitering and failure to report other crimes occurring in and around the dispensary," according to the staff report. "We are proposing the council look at it," Commerdinger said Friday.

City Attorney William Wynder and police Chief Rick Hicks, who provided input on the report, will join him before the council to present the issues and answer questions.

California voters in 1996 approved Proposition 215, which gave medical marijuana users a reprieve from state law enforcement. But the drug is still considered illegal under federal law, and agencies such as the FBI have been actively pursuing owners and operators of the clinics.

The cities of Placentia and Tustin have passed 45-day moratoriums in an effort to sort out the discrepancies between the laws, the battle over which has been waged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Tustin, the council passed an urgency ordinance in February after a clinic was shut down by police because an undercover officer was able to buy marijuana without a prescription.

CONTACT US: The Cypress City Council meets at 7 tonight in council chambers at City Hall, 5275 Orange Ave. 714-445-6694 or skandyba@ocregister.com