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Comments (1)No Pot For You
Published: February 11, 2010by Melissa Siig
On Jan. 28, the Placer County Planning Commission voted 6 to 1 to accept Planning Department staff’s recommendation to ban medical marijuana collectives, cooperatives, or dispensaries to operate in unincorporated areas of the county. The amendment to county code would also clarify that the production and composting of cannabis is not included in the definition of “crop production” or “agricultural processing.”
The staff’s recommendation was based on concerns that the presence of medical marijuana dispensaries could cause adverse secondary impacts such as increased criminal activity, illegal drug activity, robbery of persons leaving dispensaries, loitering at dispensaries, and burglaries of dispensaries. These could lead to an increased strain on the Sheriff’s Department. In addition, staff was worried about the conflict between federal and state law regarding medical marijuana. Although U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder stated last year that the federal government would not prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries that operate legally under state laws (California voters approved the Compassionate Use Act in 1996), county staff is apprehensive that such facilities could still lead to conflict between Placer County law enforcement agencies and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency since the drug is illegal under federal law.
The amendment, which is not yet scheduled to go before the board of supervisors, will go to the North Tahoe Regional Advisory Council for a vote on Feb. 11. It is not clear if NTRAC’s vote will be included as part of the planning department’s recommendations to the board.
District 5 Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery said she is frustrated that the amendment did not first go to the municipal advisory councils, of which there are six in her district including NTRAC, where the public has a chance to make their voices heard.
“If I don’t know where the community is, how can I represent them?” she said. “Otherwise it’s just the representative’s personal opinion, and that’s not good enough.”
If passed, the amendment would affect all of District 5 except for Colfax, which is incorporated and has one medical marijuana dispensary.
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