Council extends moratorium 4 months

Anderson City Council voted unanimously on Nov. 17 to extend the city's moratorium on medical marijuana collectives for four more months, until April 4, 2010. The extension will provide time for the city planning commission to recommend proper zoning code classifications for medical marijuana dispensaries and medical marijuana cultivation, Anderson Planning Director John Stokes said.

Perhaps more importantly, the extension will allow for the conclusion of various court cases throughout the state that will test the legal footing of how restrictive a city can get with ordinances for medical marijuana collectives and medical marijuana cultivation.

"We're hoping there may be some direction from the courts in that period," Stokes said. "Is there some sort of constitutional right that you have to allow (people) access to medical marijuana? I don't think the courts have ruled on that yet."

One court case in question involves the City of Anaheim, and it is expected to conclude in January, he said.

As such, the city council directed city staff to pursue zoning ordinances to regulate both aspects of medical marijuana as strictly as the law allows.

Prior to the vote, each member of the council stated a case against the use or cultivation of marijuana within the city limits; however, council discussion was largely geared toward illegal uses of the drug and not its state-legalized medicinal use.

Councilman James Yarbrough cited a conversation he had with an unnamed Anderson citizen who was allowed to grow six medicinal marijuana plants. Yarbrough said the man admitted he wasn't in any pain that required the medicinal marijuana and also sells four of the six plants the law allows.

Chairman Keith Webster read aloud numerous negative effects of smoking marijuana as well as its effects on youth and public safety from statistics furnished to him by Shasta County Health Officer Andrew Deckert.

Chairwoman Melissa Hunt cited instances of people complaining of neighbors growing marijuana and of the odor raw marijuana plants emanate.

If people cannot enjoy their yard because of the odor next door, then we shouldn't have that in the city, Hunt said.

Mayor Butch Schaefer did address alternatives to cultivation of medical marijuana in the city by naming various brand-name pharmaceuticals based on THC. With those drugs available, people could still get "comfort for their ailments," Schaefer said.

Schaefer went on to describe a landlord who had to strip carpeting and repaint in order to get the smell of marijuana out of the house, presumably caused by a previous tenant's cultivation efforts.

Gina Munday, who owns and operates The Green Heart medical marijuana collective in Anderson, told the council that the business boasts 941 members. Traditional garden centers, she said, are not allowed to speak to customers about growing medical marijuana.

"We're providing a safe access at Green Heart," she said.

"I don't see evil in marijuana. I don't see good in it, but then I don't need it," said Anderson resident Ellen Cody, 83, who attended the meeting.

She added that, if the city eventually bans medical marijuana, then the black market will be the one to make money on it.

"In medical marijuana, (the city has) the means to control it," Cody added.

Despite any decisions made by Redding or Shasta County, Mayor Schaefer reaffirmed that he wanted a highly restrictive ordinance for the City of Anderson relating to all matters of medical marijuana.

Also in favor of a ban on medical marijuana uses, Anderson resident Stan Neutze said the City of Anderson should make up its own mind regarding regulation rather than relax its stance to create a homogenous ordinance with the county.

"A compromise of virtue is poor policy," Neutze said.