Pubdate: Fri, 06 May 2011
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2011 The Orange County Register
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321
Author: Doug Irving
Cited: Americans for Safe Access http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org
Bookmark: http://www.drugsense.org/cms/geoview/n-us-ca (California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Americans+for+Safe+Access
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)

BILL WOULD BAN MARIJUANA SHOPS NEAR HOMES

A state senator from Orange County is pushing a bill that would 
outlaw medical-marijuana dispensaries near homes written with a 
recent battle in one Anaheim neighborhood very much in mind.

The bill would forbid dispensaries from opening within 600 feet of 
any homes or residential zones. It would also clear the way for 
cities or counties to enact even stricter restrictions.

Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, authored the bill after a dispensary 
opened on a residential cul-de-sac in Anaheim earlier this year. 
Neighborhood protests and a police investigation helped drive the 
shop out last month.

"We really had a conflict, a major clash," Correa said.

His bill is one of at least five authored by state lawmakers this 
year to refine California's medical-marijuana rules. One seeks to 
better tax medical marijuana; another would prohibit employers from 
discriminating against qualified medical-marijuana users.

Those bills, written 15 years after Californians first allowed 
medical-marijuana sales, underscore the explosive growth of the 
industry. Trade magazines and websites list dozens of dispensaries in 
cities here and across the state.

Last year, the state legislature prohibited dispensaries from opening 
within 600 feet of schools. Correa's bill would follow that, 
requiring that same buffer zone -- about the length of two football 
fields -- between a dispensary and any homes.

It would also allow cities or counties to trump that buffer zone with 
their own local requirements which could be stricter or softer than 
the 600-foot rule.

The bill was sponsored by Anaheim, which has sent council members and 
staff to Sacramento to describe the experience on Chestnut Street. 
The dispensary that opened there was on the ground floor of a 
two-story building beneath a family's apartment.

"Our residents have legitimate concerns," Councilwoman Kris Murray 
said. "They want to raise their families in safe, clean environments."

Marla James uses medical marijuana for the rheumatoid arthritis in 
her fingers and the phantom pains in the left leg she lost to 
diabetes. She's the Orange County president of Americans for Safe 
Access, and she agreed that people should have a say before 
dispensaries open in their neighborhoods.

But she said cities should handle dispensaries the way they do liquor 
stores by notifying neighbors, giving them time to register their 
concerns, and taking what they say into account. "It should be up to 
the neighborhood," she said, "not up to a nanny state."

The Senate's Public Safety Committee endorsed Correa's bill earlier 
this week. But it still has to wind its way through more committee 
hearings before it would approach a vote of the full senate.  
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake