The Oceanside City Council will vote Wednesday to ban medical marijuana dispensaries, commercial cultivation and delivery before state regulations take effect in March.

Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood said city rules will not stop patients' access to the drug.

The Oceanside City Council will vote Wednesday to ban medical marijuana dispensaries, commercial cultivation and delivery.

“Medical marijuana is still there, they can get it,” Wood said. “We just don't want Oceanside distributing it right now.”

The City Council voted 4-1 earlier this month to introduce the regulations.

Councilman Chuck Lowery voted no, because allowing delivery from outside the city was not included.

The city remains against cultivation and deliveries due to safety concerns. City police records show that since 2012, 46 robberies have been related to sales, purchase, or possession of marijuana.

A dozen of the incidents involved medical marijuana, including one that ended in a shooting that left a 19-year-old medical marijuana delivery driver paralyzed.

The City Council said it would consider delivery from licensed distributors outside Oceanside at a later date.

“I think that we're going to have to look at distributing to Oceanside from out of Oceanside,” Wood said. “It is probably something that will pass in the future.”

“Until we find out from the state what they're going to do, or what they want, we had to have this issue brought up and vote something in,” Wood said.

California cities have until March 1 to adopt rules before State Assembly bills 226 and 243, collectively named the Medical Marijuana Program Act, take effect.

The cities of Solana Beach, San Marcos and Escondido have also adopted bans on dispensaries and delivery. Encinitas has reaffirmed its ban on dispensaries but will still consider whether to pass an ordinance allowing distribution from out of town dispensaries to those who qualify for medicinal marijuana.



The city of San Diego is the only city in San Diego County to have adopted regulations for medicinal marijuana dispensaries.

Promise Yee is a North County freelance writer. Contact her at promise.yee1@gmail.com. Twitter: @promisenews.

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