Some officials in Fort Pierce are worried about their city. But we're wondering if they aren't worrying about the wrong things.

Specifically, some officials are thinking about banning medical marijuana dispensaries because they're concerned dispensaries could move into troubled neighborhoods and make things worse.

Commissioners Rufus Alexander and Reggie Sessions, who represent lower-income parts of Fort Pierce, say their constituents have enough problems without medical marijuana.

"We are reeling from crack cocaine," Alexander has said. "The city of Fort Pierce has been labeled or targeted the worst of the worst. Why would we want to label ourselves as a medical marijuana dispensary?”

The city commission will host a workshop later this summer on the issue. Last fall, some 65 percent of city residents — and 70 percent of St. Lucie County residents — voted "yes" on Amendment 2, which legalized the use of medical marijuana for medicinal purposes.

We're seeing this time and again throughout Florida, public officials who think the public was wrong to approve Amendment 2, and who seek to thwart its implementation — if not statewide, then in their own communities.

This isn't to minimize the root of the concern expressed by Alexander and Sessions. Yes, Fort Pierce has a drug problem, which has led to a violence problem. Police say there have actually been fewer shootings than average this year in the city. But that's cold comfort when you hear gunfire in the night.

So it's natural to worry about things that could make it worse — either the actual violence, or the perception that the city is a less-than-law abiding place.

But caution is one thing; fear is another.

There persists, in the mind of many public officials, this idea that dispensaries are tantamount to drug houses, the latest iteration of the "pill mills" that bedeviled Florida. As if zonked-out stoners will be hanging around out front smoking joints, selling dope to minors and terrorizing law-abiding citizens.

Advocates — and now the state itself — say that's not going to be the case at all.

Instead, new state rules require that dispensaries be treated like pharmacies. Both are, simply, places where sick people go to get medicine. So while cities retain the right to ban dispensaries, if they opt not to they may not limit the number of dispensaries. And wherever zoning permits a pharmacy, it must also permit a dispensary.

Convinced that the two remain very different things, some city officials around Florida are beginning to balk. Coral Gables, for example, has passed a citywide ban on shops selling medical marijuana, with city officials saying that whatever Florida law may say, federal law still deems marijuana a Schedule I narcotic.

That's true, though it's also a dodge. Coral Gables councilman Vince Lago gave it away when he suggested that permitting dispensaries could impact "the quality of life of our residents."

"My biggest fear is that this could spiral out of control," said Lago, who most likely would never say the same thing about a new Walgreens opening down the street.

Coral Gables and Fort Pierce are different cities, but Lago obviously worries about the same thing that concerns Alexander and Sessions.

Maybe it was inevitable; maybe the idea of marijuana as medication rather than intoxicant is still too new, at least in Florida. Maybe our history with pill mills gives public officials reason to be extra cautious. Maybe in places like Fort Pierce, where neighborhoods already hang in the balance, Sessions and Alexander are wise to suggest that the mere possibility dispensaries could cause problems should keep them out — at least for now.

But should the city ban dispensaries it may have the effect of denying legitimate medication to city residents who would benefit from it and may have no other way to obtain it.

Prudence is one thing. But fear rooted in this notion that medical marijuana and recreational pot are basically the same thing is no way to craft public policy — in Fort Pierce, or anywhere else.