Pubdate: Sun, 08 Dec 2013
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2013 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Mike Rosenberg

CITY WEIGHS POT RULES

Officials Aim to Reduce Number of Dispensaries; Advocates Vow Petition Drive

SAN JOSE - Bolstered by new legal authority, San Jose leaders are 
trying again to impose rules that would sharply shrink the number of 
medical marijuana dispensaries that have proliferated across the city 
in recent years as officials struggled to regulate them.

But even as the San Jose City Council considers new rules Tuesday 
evening, marijuana advocates are promising once more to collect 
signatures that would allow voters to overturn them, reigniting a 
weed war that had been on ice while city leaders awaited key court rulings.

The state Supreme Court this spring ruled that cities can regulate 
medical marijuana shops, prompting the new proposals. Mayor Chuck 
Reed said there doesn't appear to be support on the council for a 
complete ban but said the council has a shot at passing rules that 
block dispensaries near schools, homes and other sensitive areas.

"We can't just have a laissez-faire regulation system," said Reed, 
who suggested that the city get "mean" with problem pot shops.

The regulations recommended by City Hall would limit the locations in 
which the dispensaries could operate to less than 1 percent of all 
parcels in San Jose. Pot shops would not be able to stay open within 
1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks, libraries, day-care centers 
and community centers; within 150 feet of homes; or within 500 feet 
of drug rehab centers. That leaves only 1,404 parcels left, most in 
the industrial north end of the city.

The city's pot businesses, now numbering about 80, are spread out 
around San Jose, mostly in the central part of town. They operate 
under a legal cloud: The landmark 1996 Proposition 215 Compassionate 
Use Act made California the first state to legalize pot for the sick, 
though the state more recently prevented the pot shops from operating 
within 600 feet of schools. However, federal law still makes medical 
marijuana illegal, exposing distributors to prosecution.

San Jose has not approved zoning for medical marijuana shops, making 
them technically illegal and subject to closure under city code 
enforcement. But there are no city laws specifically banning or 
regulating them.

And San Jose voters in 2010 overwhelmingly approved a 10 percent tax 
on marijuana businesses, pumping $ 5.4 million a year into a $ 1 
billion city general fund that has struggled with chronic shortfalls. 
City officials have limited enforcement action against marijuana 
stores to those that have generated complaints, are located near 
schools or failed to pay the city tax.

In pushing for the new law, city officials cite concerns from 
neighborhood and law enforcement groups, and a survey that found 
nearly half of Lincoln High School students got their marijuana from 
nearby collectives.

Angelique Gaeta, assistant to the city manager, said that if the laws 
are enacted - as soon as this coming summer - all businesses 
operating in the banned zones would be asked to shut down 
voluntarily. If they ignored that message, the city would take civil 
- - and possibly even criminal - action to shut them down.

Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Oakland-based medical marijuana advocacy 
nonprofit Americans for Safe Access, said similar regulations enacted 
in cities such as San Francisco did not result in a de-facto ban. 
Rather, the businesses clustered into the few areas where the shops 
were allowed, creating even bigger problems.

"They don't want this sort of dumping ground, if you will, where all 
the dispensaries are," Hermes said. "And it really doesn't serve the 
interest of the patients," some of whom hit the streets for drug 
deals if pot shops are banned in their neighborhoods, he said.

Americans for Safe Access says 200 cities and counties in California 
have banned medical marijuana shops altogether, including about half 
the cities in Santa Clara County. About 50 other cities have 
ordinances regulating them.

In San Jose, the City Council - half of which is running for mayor in 
June - not only has to deal with the perennial hotpotato issue before 
them, but whether the law they pass would be upheld by voters.

Medical cannabis attorney James Anthony took one look at the proposed 
map the city published showing the few places where dispensaries 
could operate and said: "That's absurd; that's not going to work."

Rather than causing problems, Anthony said the pot shops have 
installed increased security systems, raised tax money, provided jobs 
and supplied local patients with convenient access to their 
"medicine." He predicted San Jose city officials have proposed 
banning medical marijuana shops fromoperating within 1,000 feet of 
schools and other places kids congregate, 150 feet of homes and 500 
feet of drug rehab centers. Only 1,404 parcels, highlighted below, 
would be left. a repeat of the referendum drive he led when San Jose 
officials tried enacting similar regulations in September 2011.

At the time, the council wanted to limit the number of pot clubs in 
the city to 10, among other restrictions. But after medical marijuana 
supporters gathered enough signatures to qualify a referendum 
allowing voters to overturn the rules, the council early last year 
withdrew them. City officials put new regulations on hold pending 
state court decisions on other cities' efforts to regulate pot shops.

In May, the Supreme Court ruled that cities can, in fact, ban and 
regulate pot dispensaries. At the same time, the local U. S. Attorney 
General's Offi ce issued a memo declaring that federal offi cials 
would focus enforcement on pot dispensaries located within 1,000 feet 
of schools.

Reed acknowledged that city leaders' original fear that pot shops 
would overrun the city did not really materialize. Rather, it turns 
out that a few "bad actors" accused of marketing pot to kids or 
disturbing neighbors are the city's prime concern, he said. The 
number of pot clubs has also declined from more than 100 two years 
ago to 82 as of last week.

But Councilman Kansen Chu, of north San Jose's District 4, where most 
of the pot shops would be allowed to stay under the proposed rules, 
has advocated for even stricter regulations. Chu said he has received 
"many complaints" about the dispensaries and wants to ban them from 
doing business within a mile of schools, churches and the like and 
within a half-mile of homes. It's unclear how many, if any, 
properties would be left.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom