Pubdate: Fri, 11 Dec 2009
Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Press-Enterprise Company
Contact: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html
Website: http://www.pe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830
Author: Darrell R. Santschi
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES BANNED IN HIGHLAND

Permanent: The Highland City Council is one of a  growing number of 
governments to take the action.

HIGHLAND -- The moratorium on medical marijuana  dispensaries in
Highland will become permanent next  month.

The City Council voted 5-0 Tuesday night to give final  approval to an
ordinance banning the dispensaries.  There was no discussion.

The decision came nine months after the council first  imposed a
moratorium on the dispensaries and three  months before the moratorium
was due to expire.

The Highland City Council is one of a growing number of  governments
to ban dispensaries either permanently or  temporarily. Among the
others are San Bernardino,  Yucaipa, Loma Linda, Beaumont and San
Bernardino  County. Earlier this month, the Calimesa City Council
extended what had been a 45-day ban through Oct. 19,  2010.

California communities have been enacting bans after  the U.S. Supreme
Court declined in May to hear  challenges by San Bernardino and San
Diego counties to  a law enacted by state voters in 1996
decriminalizing  the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

In a report prepared for the Highland council last  month, city
planners noted that federal law still  prohibits the possession and
sale of marijuana. They  also cited a California Police Chiefs
Association  report "detailing the negative secondary effects
associated with medical marijuana dispensaries."

Medical marijuana advocates have contended that  dispensaries are
legal under state law and that banning  them will force medical
marijuana patients with legal  permits to buy marijuana on the black
market. 
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