Pubdate: Wed, 30 Oct 2013
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Santa Cruz Sentinel
Contact: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/submitletters
Website: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/394
Author: Jason Hoppin

AFTER YEARS OF DELAYS, SANTA CRUZ COUNTY BOARD FINALLY PASSES POT RULES

SANTA CRUZ -- A divided Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on 
Tuesday approved a suite of new medical pot rules, adding the 
county's name to a small roster of California governments to 
effectively sanction a gray area of green commerce.

The 3-2 vote puts into place new restrictions on the operations, 
location and staff of the approximately dozen dispensaries in 
unincorporated areas of the county, an effort to encourage good 
business practices in an industry still viewed as illegal by federal 
law. Eventually, the new rules will ban any new clubs.

"I think this is a good ordinance for creating a good set of rules 
that give limited immunity (to medical marijuana dispensaries), but 
allow access to this medicine, which has been prescribed by a doctor 
who has to put their license on the line," Supervisor John Leopold said.

An early supporter, Supervisor Zach Friend became the strongest 
opponent of the regulations, saying changes that developed during the 
past month seem more about protecting the industry than patients. Not 
only were novel cultivation rules sidetracked to a to-be determined 
task force, but a 600-foot buffer around parks was removed, which 
Friend estimated roughly quadruples the allowable space for pot clubs.

"We're doing it in the name of commerce, not safety and access, and 
it's just not something I can support," Friend said.

Supervisor Greg Caput, who is seeking a prohibition on growing 
marijuana outdoors or in residences near parks, also voted against the rules.

First discussed seriously in 2010, the rules are aimed at 
professionalizing an industry for which Santa Cruz has earned some 
repute. The debate was fringed by federal raids elsewhere and a case 
on municipal dispensary regulations that went all the way to the 
state Supreme Court, all of which served to slow progress on the rules.

The law is expected to go into effect Dec. 6, and pot clubs will be 
required to not only hire security, but run their employees, who must 
be at least 21 years old, through a LiveScan background check. Hours 
will be restricted to between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., and clubs must be 
sited in commercial areas and not within 600 feet of a school or each other.

Supervisor Bruce McPherson also included a 300-foot buffer around 
residential neighborhoods, a rule that does not apply to existing clubs.

Once the law goes into effect, new clubs would have 60 days to obtain 
a seller's permit from the state Board of Equalization. The board 
also clarified that state permits without an identified location that 
complies with the new rules would be disallowed, a move that appears 
aimed at trying to head off a potential "green rush" of prospective 
business owners obtaining seller's permits in the hope of one day 
opening a dispensary.

Medicinal or not, marijuana is embedded in Santa Cruz culture. But 
the means of supplying that demand is a source of growing concern, 
with houses being turned into marijuana grows and concern that large 
outdoor gardens are causing severe environmental damage.

Neighbors, board members and many in the medical marijuana industry 
have sought to regulate cultivation -- potentially an even more gray 
confluence of federal, state and local law.

But after late objections from pot growers -- including through a 
newly formed professional group, the Association of Standardized 
Cannabis -- the Board of Supervisors last week voted to kick the 
issue of cultivation to a task force, which has not been formed. 
While the board wanted a set of recommendations quickly, it is not 
clear how long the task force process will take.

Supervisors who voted in favor of the rules Tuesday bristled at 
Friend's suggestion that the county had handed over regulation of the 
industry to those being regulated, a move he said undoubtedly would 
result in weaker cultivation rules.

"I can't imagine that my looking at this and trying to regulate this 
was dictated by anybody outside," Board Chair Neal Coonerty said.

"I think that's hyperbole to say that the residential restrictions 
are gone," said Leopold, who hopes to address the task force at the 
next county board meeting. "We haven't come to any conclusion on the 
cultivation."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom