Pubdate: Wed, 8 Apr 2009
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2009 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Shaun Bishop, Daily News Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)

SAN MATEO COUNTY SOON MAY START REGULATING MEDICAL MARIJUANA CLUBS

A long-awaited San Mateo County ordinance that requires medical 
marijuana clubs to obtain operating licenses and follow certain 
conditions got the nod of a subcommittee Tuesday despite some 
concerns raised by local cannabis distributors.

The ordinance, drafted by the county counsel's office, adds new 
requirements for medical marijuana cooperatives or collectives -- two 
of which recently opened up in the unincorporated North Fair Oaks 
area near Redwood City.

"I'm very much in favor of having marijuana available to people who 
need it for their health, and I think having an ordinance like this 
makes us make sure that it's done in a safe practice," said San Mateo 
County Supervisor Carole Groom, who along with Supervisor Rose Jacobs 
Gibson sits on a board of supervisors subcommittee that deals with 
health issues. The full board could review the proposed ordinance April 28.

Medicinal marijuana was legalized in California in 1996 through 
Proposition 215, but federal law still prohibits cannabis possession.

The county's ordinance comes more than 18 months after federal agents 
raided three medical marijuana dispensaries in San Mateo and shut 
them down after the district attorney's office alerted the U.S. Drug 
Enforcement Administration that they were operating illegally.

After those raids, supervisors called for a model ordinance 
regulating marijuana businesses that cities could adopt. The San 
Mateo City Council on Monday adopted an ordinance almost identical to 
the county's proposed one.

"We care about all the businesses in our community and we want to 
make sure they're all safe and that we actually have some oversight," 
Jacobs Gibson said.

Under the ordinance, each cooperative would have to get a license 
from the county that comes with several conditions, among them that 
the cooperative must operate at least 1,000 feet away from a school, 
recreation center or youth center; install an alarm system and window 
bars; and refrain from selling cultivated marijuana or exchanging 
anything of value for marijuana.

Some of those requirements concern Jhonrico Carrnshimba, the 
president and CEO of Universal Healthcare Cooperative Corporation, a 
North Fair Oaks cooperative that began distributing marijuana to 
patients in February.

Carrnshimba, who helped run one of the San Mateo clubs that was shut 
down, said he has made a concerted effort to make his club a true 
cooperative, establishing a five-member board of directors and a 
membership sign-up process and offering other services such as yoga 
classes and counseling.

He said he hopes to discuss changing parts of the ordinance, 
including its prohibition of edible products laced with marijuana, 
which he said could affect cancer patients who need cannabis but 
cannot smoke it.

"We'd like for (the county) to work with us to do an ordinance," 
Carrnshimba said. "They're not really looking out for the patients."

Robert Simmons, a Belmont resident who says he runs a "mobile 
dispensary" that distributes marijuana to patients, told the two 
supervisors that the prohibition against selling cultivated marijuana 
would have the effect of "ostracizing patients and forcing them to 
buy marijuana outside of the county."

But Chief Deputy County Counsel Penny Bennett said selling marijuana 
is already a violation of state law.

She said the county's ordinance is not about abolishing medical 
marijuana facilities in the county but about "regulating them and 
making it safe." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake