Pubdate: Tue, 18 Oct 2005
Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2005 The Fresno Bee
Contact:  http://www.fresnobee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/161
Author: Tim Sheehan, The Fresno Bee
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

VISALIA APPROVES NEW REGULATIONS ON MEDICAL POT

Dispensaries Will Be Limited to Certain Zones.

VISALIA - Jeff Nunes said he "absolutely" looks forward to complying
with a new medical marijuana ordinance adopted Monday evening by the
City Council.

Visalia City Council members unanimously approved the new ordinance
regulating where and how Nunes - who heads Visalia's only known
medical marijuana dispensary - or others may grow, process, distribute
and use marijuana for medical purposes according to state law.

As the executive director of Visalia Compassionate Caregivers, Nunes
provides marijuana to about 300 patients whose doctors have
recommended the drug. He'll have four months to find property in the
city's service commercial zone and relocate his dispensary from East
Main Street, in the city's downtown commercial district.

"We'll move wherever they want us to be," he said.

Council Member Don Landers, a sheriff's lieutenant who was the lone
vote against the ordinance in its first reading two weeks ago, offered
the motion to approve the new law.

"It was pretty clear two weeks ago which way the rest of the council
was going to go with this," Landers said of the change in his
position. "If you can't be part of the solution, you're part of the
problem."

Nunes said he welcomes the ordinance. He first approached the City
Council in March asking for the city to develop rules permitting the
responsible use, cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana for
those who need it.

"I think the city's doing a great job in that everything is going as
smooth as it is," Nunes said after the vote.

The ordinance itself walks a fine line between conflicting state and
federal laws.

Proposition 215, approved by 55.6% of California voters in November
1996, declared that ill people have the right to use marijuana for
medical purposes when recommended by a doctor and allows possession or
cultivation of marijuana by the patient or a "primary caregiver."

The law also protects physicians from punishment for recommending
marijuana to patients.

Patients use marijuana to help relieve nausea from cancer treatments
or AIDS, chronic pain from injuries or arthritis and symptoms from
ailments such as glaucoma or anorexia.

But medical use of marijuana is illegal under federal law, and federal
agents can enforce that prohibition in California or other states with
medical marijuana laws.

A major provision of Visalia's ordinance, which takes effect in 30
days, is limiting medical marijuana operations to certain zones within
the city.

As drafted, the ordinance would allow medical marijuana dispensaries
or cultivation only in pockets of the city zoned for service
commercial uses. Most of that property lies east of downtown Visalia.

Landers offered an amendment, agreed to by his council colleagues,
that would also allow medical marijuana in agriculture zones.

"To me, part of the solution is to allow this in the ag zones,"
Landers said.

He expressed concern about having a dispensary or other medical
marijuana businesses in the area east of downtown. "With all the
things we're wanting to do with east downtown ... hopefully this will
eliminate conflicts."

Even in the allowed zones, medical marijuana operations would be
prohibited within 500 feet of any residential zone or within 1,000
feet of "sensitive" uses such as schools, parks, libraries or churches.

Nunes, who recently moved his offices from Mooney Boulevard to East
Main Street, plans on separating different functions of his operation
in order to comply. He'll move Visalia Compassionate Caregivers into a
service-commercial area and cultivation to an agriculture zone.

A related entity, Medicinal Marijuana Awareness
and Defense, provides information and education
services and will remain on East Main Street,
Nunes said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake