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The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that cities and counties have the right to ban medical marijuana dispensaries within their borders, despite the existence of a state law that protects patients using the drug.
The court said the scope of Proposition 215, or the Compassionate Use Act approved by state voters in 1996, and a related state law is “limited and circumscribed” and does not prevent local governments from prohibiting marijuana storefronts.
The Danville Town Council unanimously voted to adopt and extend its original 2009 medical marijuana ban in September 2011; the added section 32-94 of the Danville municipal Code bans medical marijuana dispensaries within Danville town limits.
The ban will prohibits dispensaries and forbids conditional land use permits, variances or licenses for distribution. Town officials cited reports that crime increases in cities with medical marijuana dispensaries and deemed the ban necessary to protect the public health and welfare of Danville residents.
“I have not heard from anyone in the community that we should open a dispensary,” then-Vice Mayor Candace Andersen said. “Quite the contrary, I have heard great opposition in our local blogs.”
Currently, 193 California cities — including more than 40 in the greater Bay Area — ban medical marijuana dispensaries, according to statistics compiled by Americans for Safe Access, a marijuana advocacy group.
Twenty counties, including Contra Costa, prohibit dispensaries in unincorporated areas.
The court issued its ruling in a lawsuit in which a Riverside dispensary known as the Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Center was challenging a city zoning law prohibiting such facilities.
Proposition 215 and the state’s Medical Marijuana Program law of 2003 protect seriously ill patients who have a doctor’s recommendation from being prosecuted under state law for using the drug for medical purposes.
Lawyers for the Riverside dispensary unsuccessfully argued that local bans should not be allowed because they conflicted with the two state laws.
But the court, in a decision written by Justice Marvin Baxter, said the state measures are merely “incremental steps toward freer access to
medical marijuana” and do not require local governments to allow dispensaries.
Baxter wrote that nothing in either law limits the authority of a city or county “to regulate the use of its land, including the authority to
provide that facilities for the distribution of medical marijuana will not be permitted to operate within its borders.”
Americans for Safe Access Chief Counsel Joseph Elford said, “This ruling maintains the status quo” since it upholds existing bans.
At the same time, Elford said, the decision “seemingly allows localities to choose to regulate marijuana dispensaries” and thus permit them to exist.
Forty-four California cities currently have regulations that allow dispensaries, including Oakland, Martinez, San Jose, San Francisco and Santa Rosa, according to Americans for Safe Access.
Ten counties, including Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Sonoma, also have such laws.
Jessica Lipsky contributed to this article
Jessica Lipsky contributed to this article
Jessica Lipsky contributed to this article
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Good,….this was the right decision. I believe in the saying “Those that create laws, should be chosen by voters.” We as a community told out elected officials we don’t want dispensaries, and we certainly don’t want courts to over-ride our wishes (like they do in so many instances!).
Actually, courts override voters wishes in very few cases. That’s just another canard of the right. Although I would agree that in “Bush v. Gore” that is exactly what happened.
to danville Independent
Regarding your statement “I believe in the saying “Those that create laws, should be chosen by voters.”” I am glad to see you are a supporter of the Affordable Care Act.
One of the BEST decisions that has ever been made! Thank you God! Another life saved!
Hi, Tom! Not to get off the subject at hand, but yes: I DO support the Affordable Health Care Act! (Yes,…it does need some tweaking, but I am for the law….). For those that are not, or have a different opinion,…vote somebody else into office and change the law. That’s the correct course of action, in my book!
It is only a matter of time before marijuana is legalized and grown in Danville. End the cannabis prohibition today!
IT IS CALLED DEATH PANELS 4 A REASON—and elites are exempt!!!
In order to allow supporters to claim that the law’s Medicare cuts would be realized in the future, it tasked IPAB with reducing payments to providers or eliminating payments for certain treatments and procedures altogether. These reduced payments will force providers to stop seeing Medicare patients, the same way an increased number of doctors have stopped taking Medicaid patients. This will lead to access problems, waiting lists and denied care for seniors.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obamacare-ipab-boehner-mcconnell-death-panels-2013-5#ixzz2SuDnWoBC
The marijuana debate is your typical realist versus idealist moralistic crusade. The idealist in part thinks that outlawing marijuana and prohibiting dispensaries is going to rid our society of the evils of marijuana, or at least prevent our children from exposure to it. The typically republican idealist wants “scientific” studies to prove that marijuana indeed helps with pain and appetite, yet they can’t seem to get their arms around the idea that thousands upon thousands of scientific research reports show that we are undergoing anthropogenic caused global warming. Basically, the republican belief is “live by our morals and don’t get in the way of our making money.”
Yet even with all drugs illegal, alchohol for 21 year olds, and marijuana for sick people, all of our children have unfettered access to any drug they want. The 21 year old rule for alcohol sales and consumption is flaunted every day and night by our high schoolers. In fact it is the most abused “drug” and it is the most legal!!!!
So maybe it is time we wake up and try something different, legalize marijuana and start parenting again. The best way to stop use of drugs by your kids is good parenting, not relying on schools and laws to prevent same.