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A state Senate committee will hold a hearing next week on a proposal to allow local governments to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries.

(The Associated Press.)

The state Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing next Tuesday on a proposal to allow local governments to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries.

The Association of Oregon Counties and the League of Oregon Cities have pushed for the legislation. The Association of Oregon Counties also has proposed a pair of amendments to the bill, including a provision that would prohibit dispensaries within 1,000 feet of a preschool and adds some regulation to the sale of marijuana-infused products that are "attractive to kids." The law says dispensaries may not be located with 1,000 feet of a school, but does not specify preschools.

Senate Bill 1531, sponsored by state Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, and state Sen. Rod Monroe, D-Portland, would allow cities and counties to "regulate or restrict operation of medical marijuana facility, prohibit registration of medical marijuana facility, or regulate, restrict or prohibit storing or dispensing of marijuana by facility legally authorized to store or dispense marijuana."

The proposal says the changes would be effective March 1, two days before the state begins registering medical marijuana facilities.

The proposal, said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the association and the former Lincoln County district attorney, “is about local control of a virtually unregulated new marijuana business.”

“The Oregon medical marijuana dispensary program will be the most unregulated dispensary program in the Nation,” Bovett wrote in the memo. “The marijuana industry is saying ‘trust us.’ Many counties and cities are willing to do just that. Others want to wait and see. They should have that right.”

The committee holding the hearing is chaired by Sen. Floyd Prozanski, one of the sponsors of last year's dispensary legislation. Eighteen senators signed a letter asking Prozanski to hold a work session.

“This bill clarifies local government authority to regulate marijuana dispensaries, using existing land use and police powers and protects local governments from expensive lawsuits,” the letter states.

The senators' letter said the proposal allowing local regulation has support from the Association of Oregon Counties, the League of Oregon Cities, the Association of Chiefs of Police, the Oregon Farm Bureau, Associated Oregon Industries, Oregon Forest Industries Council, the Oregon District Attorneys Association and the Oregon Association of Realtors.

Last week, at the Oregon Medical Marijuana Business Convention in Ashland, state Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, also a sponsor of the original dispensary bill, said he opposes local control. He said he thinks lawmakers who oppose the proposal have a "good chance" to block it.

The issue of local control has been a contentious one since Oregon lawmakers passed a law last year creating a registry of medical marijuana dispensaries, already a thriving but unchecked industry in the state. Oregon cities, including Medford, have taken steps to restrict or prohibit dispensaries. Buckley said medical marijuana patients should have access to the drug no matter where they live in the state.

"Cities like Medford will get over it in time," Buckley said.

The hearing will be held at 8 a.m. Tuesday at the Capitol.

-- Noelle Crombie