Fountain Valley Seeks to Ban Medicinal Marijuana

The Fountain Valley City Council decided at a special study session Tuesday night that the city would pursue an outright ban on medicinal marijuana dispensaries.

The city council called for a study session and looked into options for regulating medicinal marijuana dispensaries. The legal moratorium to study the situation was approved in 2010 and will legally expire in February 2012 with no way to extend the moratorium. 

“Because of the moratorium,” said City Attorney Alan Burns, “we now have a better understanding of the legal landscape.'

California has allowed medicinal marijuana as a defense for cultivation and possession under the Compassionate Use Act. On the other hand, the federal government has made no distinction between marijuana used for recreational or for medicinal purposes.

“The US Attorney’s Office has changed their stance on this matter,” Burns said.  “They are aggressively pursuing criminal and legal litigation against owners and even the landlords of buildings where dispensaries exist."

The city council was presented with three options to deal with the issue: use zoning or permits to regulate, specifically ban marijuana dispensaries, or do nothing. The use of zoning for regulation was specifically not recommended due to the recent case Pack v. Long Beach, where the court held that this type of regulation was illegal and according to the report, “is possibly aiding and abetting."

The outright ban of marijuana dispensaries was the city attorney’s suggested action. “The more tools and clearer our laws are, the more likely we can get federal support [with this issue],” Burns said.

“It behooves us as a city council to make this very clear,” Mayor Steve Nagel said. “The federal laws should be the leaders to let this happen”.

Police Chief Paul Sorrell was questioned about how doing nothing might affect the police department. “A lot of this will fall to local law enforcement to follow up on it,” he said. “It’s not much different for the police department. We will have to commit investigative resources."

One memb commented during the public section of the study. “Personally I find this law to be childish,” said Jeffery Trinkle, an advocate for medicinal marijuana. “When did it become a crime to make a United States dollar?”