Supervisors extend marijuana moratorium

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San Diego: Medical marijuana crop. (Photo courtesy of Scott Beale / Laughing Squid of laughingsquid.com)

Medical marijuana crop. (Photo courtesy of Scott Beale / Laughing Squid of laughingsquid.com)

A moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas of San Diego County was extended by the Board of Supervisors Wednesday for a period of 10 months and 15 days.

The unanimous action gives staff time to develop regulations for the dispensaries, which are supposed to provide marijuana to people with prescriptions, but are accused by detractors of operating as for-profit businesses that attract crime.

A number of marijuana providers have been arrested and charged with operating outside the provisions of voter-approved Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act. Jeff Trevathan, of San Diego, told the supervisors he’s worked at or volunteered for several dispensaries.

“They are not running as they should be running,” Trevathan said. “The proof is in the pudding and the raids (by police) are appropriate.”

Libby Jackson-D’Ambrosi said aggressive advertising and large cash flows prove the dispensaries are “more interested in profit than compassion.”

The only speaker against the moratorium, Scott Chipman of the Pacific Beach Planning Group, instead called for an outright ban on dispensaries. Chipman told the supervisors there were no dispensaries in his community in May, and now there are nine with four more being planned.

Pacific Beach landlords have been offered more than $20,000 cash for a year-long lease, he said. A group of medical marijuana supporters watched the proceedings but chose not to speak.

“Scare tactics,” is how Patty Mouton of Spring Valley described the comments of the speakers after the vote.

Michael Archuleta, of City Heights, said dispensary operators are trying adhere to the law. There are a lot of fine lines in the law not understood by most people, but they will be recognized by the courts, Archuleta said.

When the moratorium was established last month, board President Dianne Jacob said the county had been inundated with requests for clear guidelines for operating dispensaries. Supporters of Proposition 215, which passed 13 years ago, have long accused the county of dragging its feet in implementing the law.

Many of them, however, claim their compassion is being undermined by people trying to obtain marijuana just to get high or by profiting from opening marijuana stores. Also at the meeting, the board failed to give final approval to a document that consolidates fire codes within the county.

The supervisors asked staff to redraft a section on the makeup of representatives of a Fire Appeals Board, to which property owners can appeal denials of building permits for fire safety reasons. The consolidated fire code could be brought back to the supervisors as soon as next week.

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2 comments

READER COMMENTS

Comment by: me Posted: September 17, 2009, 3:46 pm

Looks like San Diego needs to get new supervisors.

Comment by: Donna Lambert Posted: September 18, 2009, 10:59 am

I would like to address some propaganda and misstatements that are regularly put out in order to legitimize the illegal harassment of medical marijuana patients and the medical marijuana community at large.

1) Most of the people who speak out against medical marijuana are receiving grants from either the County of San Diego or from pharmaceutical funded “anti-drug” groups whose sole purpose is to prevent access to medical marijuana as prescribed by law.

2)Marijuana has many well known medical effects, of which there are dozens of studies on the internet, most often done in Europe where the pharmaceutical companies do not control the government, as they clearly do in America.

3)It is easy for a local government official to make a statement that is a total lie, such as “they were making a profit” or “they were selling outside their collective”. The general public then accepts it. From my personal experience, I can tell you these are boldface lies, and people should question everything they read or hear. The reality is that the government obtains valid medical recommendations and then joins the collectives. Also, all “non-profits” are allowed to make money to pay for overhead, expenses, salaries and the like. If someone was not open long enough to pay their taxes to the state (which does issue medical marijuana sellers tax permits), how can the county come in and slander people this way?

4)A majority of voters passed prop 215, 13 years ago, legalizing marijuana for medicinal use. In 1994, the legislature, with sb420 provided exemption for sales and all sales related charges. The senate bill archives state that the intention of sb420 is to facilitate the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana for medical use. This law states that we are allowed to “collectively associate” for this purpose.

5)The previous administration wanted to use San Diego as a staging ground to try and overturn state law. Political promises were made.

6)San Diego has wasted millions of your taxpayer money in an effort to turn over medical marijuana laws, simply because this is a plant with real value, and would cut into pharmaceutical company profits

7)I am almost 50 years old. I have no criminal record. I was tricked into helping another legally valid medical marijuana patient who happened to be an undercover cop, who at the direction of the district attorneys office in San Diego, went and lied to a doctor about his symptoms to obtain a valid recommendation, then spent months, and (from my estimate) over 2 million dollars of YOUR HARD EARNED TAX MONEY, entrapped as many people as they could in the medical marijuana community. This was last February, prior to these store raids, and I am still stumbling through their court system. They then committed a swat style raid (75k for just my house)stormed my home, pointed assault rifles at me, destroyed my home, took me to jail, are dragging me through the court system (even though the courts are supposedly broke and have to close one day a week. (I have no criminal record and I am facing day to day life threatening illness. At this time, part of my liver is “nodulated”, the other part enlarged. I need to call the doctor to schedule what will almost for sure be my 3rd skin cancer surgery.) If they want to send me off to prison, to prove a point, will the taxpayers pick up the tab for my liver transplant? This is like the twighlight zone. I have spent my life following the law. I still followed the law. And now I am caught in the middle of a POLITICAL firestorm, the depths to which I could not even comprehend before my arrest. My trial is set for December 7, 2009 (At taxpayer expense)If they put me in jail, will they guarantee me the proper medical care? My immune system is virtually non-existent from the chemotherapy and the sjoegrens disease. And by the way, I do not believe I did anything wrong. I helped another patient. Considering what I know about the very real effects of marijuana as medicine, it would be morally wrong not to help somebody who presented himself as a patient in need.

Profit?? Interesting. The judge at my preliminary hearing stated that I was clearly not in it for profit. So please call the DA and ask why is Donna Lambert being put on trial for 7 felonies if the judge ruled she was not in it for profit and they want to claim profit is the issue with these stores, the cannot have it both ways. If you would like to begin to read about my story google “Donna Lambert San Diego”, look up “Drug sting no military ties”. You will begin to see the pattern of lies. If you would like to see the chaos of miscommunication of politicians in this city, look at the you tube channel sandiego420watch.

Just want to get high? - hmm - Guess the Hep C, Cirrhosis, Cancer, chemotherapy, sjoegrens disease and the injuries from the car accident I was in did not stop the DA from trying to get the judge to throw out my medical marijuana status so that they could try me as a common drug dealer. (This is standard in all medical marijuana cases.) Fortunately, they did not succeed.

One of the collectives mentioned in the NC times article, was I think one of the best collectives I have ever seen. This man, James, who is now sitting in a federal jail, at taxpayer expense, held a bi-weekly farmers market FOR MEMBERS ONLY,in which members could get together and socialize. This man James tried to donate the $5.00 entry fee (such profit) gathered from the members that attended that day to my defense fund. James is a kind and generous man. His life and his families lives will now be torn apart because of our local governments refusal to respect the will of the California voters. It is not his fault if the government agents lied to doctors (medical fraud) and presented themselves as legitimate patients in need of finding a collective to join.

If you do not care about medical marijuana, you should care about the fact that our United States Constitution is being destroyed and disrespected as we speak. Is this a country by the people, for the people? It is a violation of the due process granted by the California State Constitution to prosecute in one County which is zoned, regulated, taxed, and accepted as law in the rest of counties.

51 cities have successfully set up zoning guidelines. Many are taking in tax money. If you do not care about medical marijuana, you should care about the fact that San Diego County has spent millions of your TAXPAYER dollars on this issue, and that is why your libraries are closed, and your teachers being layed off.

Further, the question in my mind is this? On a social level, be aware that your government is no longer respecting the will of the people, and is putting out propaganda and lies, and paying “ordinary citizens” to appear in public to spread such lies. OR Am I a “Dangerous drug felon preying on military housing sites across the county”? Please google, “Drug sting no military ties.” I also have a
facebook page dealing with these issues.
It is time for the medical community and the community at large to stand up and address the issues of freedom, democracy, and our legal rights. Step 1 is to recognize and put aside the propaganda and lies that are designed to seperate us and then dismiss those who have been wrongly imprisoned.

Sincerely, Donna Lambert

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