Pubdate: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 Source: Bulletin, The (Bend, OR) Copyright: 2013 Western Communications Inc. Contact: http://www.bendbulletin.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/62 COMMUNITIES SHOULD BE ABLE TO SAY NO TO POT DISPENSARIES Officials in two Central Oregon communities, Madras and Metolius, have said they don't believe medical marijuana dispensaries should be allowed to locate inside their city limits. If the bans are adopted, they will join Medford and several other communities that have taken similar action. The law, which allows the dispensaries and gives regulatory power over them to the Oregon Health Authority, was approved by the 2013 Legislature by relatively narrow votes in both houses. It goes into effect at the first of the year. OHA has not yet made its proposed regulations public. Like Medford officials, those in Madras and Metolius base their opposition on the fact that the dispensaries are illegal under federal, if not state, law. Medford officials note that when they take office, they swear to uphold federal law, and failure to do so would violate that oath. Meanwhile, the new law's chief sponsors, Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, and Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, argue that the law does require cities to allow dispensaries, though no language in it makes that clear. Buckley recently told the Medford Mail Tribune newspaper that legislative council soon will issue a written opinion saying cities cannot ban the dispensaries. That would be a shame. Communities long have had the power to decide, within limits, what sort of businesses they will accept. Thus, Monmouth, just outside Salem, barred the sale of beer and wine within city limits for more than 100 years, from 1858 to 2003. Hard liquor sales became legal in 2010. We don't believe medical marijuana sales would be the undoing of any of the communities hoping to ban them. At the same time, we don't believe the state of Oregon should step in and require that the dispensaries be allowed. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom