Pubdate: Tue, 07 Feb 2012
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Press Democrat
Contact:  http://www.pressdemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author: Brett Wilkison

SONOMA COUNTY SUPERVISORS CAP POT CLINICS AT NINE

Nine medical marijuana dispensaries will be permitted in the areas of 
Sonoma County outside city limits, the county Board of Supervisors 
decided Tuesday.

The cap, proposed and under review since last year, is designed to 
prevent an over-concentration of cannabis outlets in the county 
government's jurisdiction.

A three-member majority of the board -- Valerie Brown, Mike McGuire 
and Efren Carrillo -- voted to set the cap at nine, the number 
recommended by the county Planning Commission last month and endorsed 
by the board for study last year.

Nine is equal to the six permitted dispensaries in the county, plus 
two approved last month by the Planning Commission -- both await a 
review by the Board of Supervisors -- and third that is going through 
the application process.

Supervisor David Rabbitt and board Chairwoman Shirlee Zane favored a 
cap of six dispensaries. They voiced concerns about underage use of 
pot and said a lower number of outlets was adequate to serve the 
county's medicinal marijuana patients.

Medical marijuana advocates reacted to the vote with mixed opinions. 
Some supported a cap while pushing for a higher number of legal 
outlets. Others said a limit was unwarranted and would restrict 
patients' access to the drug, which California voters made legal for 
medical purposes in 1996.

"I'm disappointed. I don't think that nine dispensaries are enough to 
serve the population we have," said Kumari Sivadas of the Sonoma 
Alliance for Medical Marijuana.

Other providers or advocates said the limits are appropriate.

The county joins four local cities that have allowed dispensaries 
with caps. There are two outlets in Santa Rosa, one in Cotati and one 
in Sebastopol. The remaining six cities in the county ban dispensaries.

The Board of Supervisors' move is the first phase of a larger attempt 
to overhaul the county's 2006 medical marijuana ordinance, a set of 
rules county leaders now see as inadequate to govern the burgeoning 
North Coast marijuana trade.

Later this year, supervisors are expected to look at tighter 
regulation of medical pot gardens.

The limit on dispensaries was seen as the easier of the two phases. 
But it was still troublesome because officials said they had little 
reliable data to show how many county residents use medicinal 
marijuana and how a cap might effect that population.

Information provided to the county last year by medical marijuana 
stakeholders suggested that 2 to 3 percent of the population uses 
medicinal pot, equating to a Sonoma County patient base of 9,700 to 
14,500 people.

Based on those numbers and an average patient load among currently 
permitted dispensaries of 1,000 patients, county planners said a 
total number of 13 dispensaries in the county -- including four in 
the cities and nine in the county area -- would suffice.

Some providers agreed. "I think that nine dispensaries is an 
appropriate number to be serving the 150,000 people in the 
unincorporated area," said Robert Jacob, executive director of Peace 
in Medicine Healing Center, which operates dispensaries in Santa Rosa 
and Sebastopol.

But Sivadas, the Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana 
representative, estimated that up to 5 percent of county residents, 
or nearly 27,000 people, may use medical marijuana. Nine dispensaries 
won't be able to serve that population, she said. "I think we should 
be looking at a more," she told the board.

Several members of the audience spoke in favor of tighter limits or 
banning dispensaries outright.

Summer Stone, a Santa Rosa Junior College student, said allowing a 
greater number sent the wrong message to youth. "We know that they're 
there and we know that people are using them for other reasons 
besides medical (care)" she said.

Zane, a foe of new dispensaries in her Santa Rosa-centered district 
- -- there are two plus a third seeking the board's approval -- brought 
forward several county health officials to testify about drug 
addiction and rising marijuana use among local teens.

"Right now we don't have a shortage of dispensaries and it is a major 
health issue," Zane said.

Fellow board members Brown and Carrillo frowned on her tactics, 
saying the presentations were off topic.

"The question before us today is whether we should limit the number 
of medical marijuana dispensaries," Brown said.

Rabbitt said he preferred the lower cap of six because he saw and 
heard of no shortage of supply for medical marijuana patients.

"I see this more as a business opportunity and less as patient need," 
he said. "Six dispensaries is working now and six should work in the future."

McGuire backed the cap of nine and then offered a list of ideas for 
the county's second phase of work on the issue, including 
standardized security measures for dispensaries, a crackdown on 
marijuana delivery services and a proposal that dispensary operators 
voluntarily tax themselves.

Carrillo was expected to be the least likely supporter of a cap 
before Tuesday's hearing. The west county supervisor has potentially 
the most dispensaries in his district: two have permits, a third is 
awaiting the board's say next month and a fourth is in the application line.

But Carrillo became the swing vote, saying nothing prevented the 
board from revisiting its decision in the future.

"I think moving forward with the cap is the right idea," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom