cannabisnews.com: Berkeley Ponders Marijuana Rules





Berkeley Ponders Marijuana Rules
Posted by FoM on May 10, 2001 at 07:02:36 PT
By Tony Hicks, Times Staff Writer
Source: Contra Costa Times
As medical marijuana cooperatives pop up in the city, officials are trying to put rules in place to govern them. The City Council on Tuesday asked City Manager Weldon Rucker to draft rules within the next month for granting business licenses and permits to cooperatives.Mayor Shirley Dean said the council wants to regulate the distribution centers, where marijuana is made available to those with a doctor's recommendation. Four have opened in the city, most in retail areas. The co-ops don't have a zoning designation and haven't been subject to zoning review, raising some neighbors' concerns.
"I'm not going to comment on which are legal and which aren't," Dean said of the co-ops. "It's really unclear. That's one of the things we have to figure out."The city also will enact a moratorium barring additional cannabis co-ops until rules are in place."Obviously we don't want 20 of them in the same neighborhood," said Councilman Kriss Worthington.California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, allowing seriously ill patients to grow and use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. There is no provision for medical use of marijuana in federal law.In March, Berkeley's council passed an ordinance allowing those with chronic health conditions to grow 10 cannabis plants per year for medicinal use.Worthington wants no limit but tried to pass a compromised version in March allowing 48 plants. Berkeley's Community Health Commission recommended 144 plants -- the same amount allowed in Oakland -- which amounts to six pounds per year."It should totally be up to the doctor," Worthington said. "I think any limit is absurd."Worthington said Wednesday he'll still fight for a more lenient ordinance.Both Dean and Worthington noted that the city's ordinance allows patients to have more than the allotted amount if directed by a doctor, which Worthington said makes having limits pointless."There's a way to interpret the law to say you can have more, but to say there's a loophole that allows more than 10 -- what are the police supposed to do?" he said. Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)Author: Tony Hicks, Times Staff WriterPublished: Thursday, May 10, 2001Copyright: 2001 Contra Costa Newspapers Inc.Website: http://www.contracostatimes.com/Feedback: http://www.contracostatimes.com/contact_us/letters.htmRelated Articles:Protest Demand Increase of Marijuana Plant Limithttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9651.shtmlBerkeley Marijuana Ordinance Jeered http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9225.shtmlCity Sets Limits for Medical Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9213.shtml
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