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Support Us URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n808/a10.html

Newshawk: Herb

Votes: 0

Pubdate: Sat, 22 Aug 2009

Source: Hi-Desert Star (Yucca Valley, CA)

Copyright: 2009 Hi Desert Star

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Website: http://www.hidesertstar.com/

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3921

Author: Rebecca Unger

Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries



YUCCA POISED TO BAN MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES



YUCCA VALLEY - The fate of medical marijuana availability in Yucca Valley could be decided at Tuesday night's planning commission meeting.



The Town's moratorium on new dispensaries could be replaced by a development-code amendment prohibiting the establishment of a new business and the use of an existing business to distribute or sell marijuana.



The Town houses the only medical marijuana outlet in San Bernardino County. California Alternative Medicinal Solutions, a nonprofit health collective that furnishes medical marijuana under state guidelines, received a business permit and has been operating lawfully for about a year at the Monterey Business Center. Except for complaints that dispensaries breed crime, CAMS' operations have been incident-free.



Marijuana has been legal for medical use in California since 1996, and an ID card system identifying users as medically directed was established shortly thereafter. San Bernardino County has been fighting in court against issuing ID cards until this year, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the county's appeal.



This month the county began taking applications from medicinal-use patients who wish to get official identification cards. Applicants must appear in person at the county's San Bernardino offices, furnish a doctor's recommendation, picture ID and completed forms and pay a fee before the state will issue the card.



But unless they have green thumbs, the county's legal users might have a difficult time getting the drug. On Aug. 4, the Board of Supervisors extended an ordinance that could prohibit the establishment of medicinal dispensaries in unincorporated areas until June 2010.



Legal patients are allowed to grow a limited amount of marijuana plants for personal medicinal use.



At Wednesday's meeting of the Hi-Desert Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project at the Castle Inn in Landers, long-haired hippies and gray-haired grandparents vowed to have their legal rights respected.



"The law is on our side," Hi-Desert MAPP chairman Rich McCabe told the assembly.



"They can't ban us," agreed his wife, JoAnn. "They used to use the feds against us, but not now!"



One of the attendees was a little more cynical. "If they prohibit dispensaries, where should we get the marijuana from - the Mexican drug cartels?"

MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom



