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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US: Council says no to medical marijuana dispensaries in Temecula
Elaine Nelson Valley News Network
Friday 28 Apr 2006 The Temecula City Council sidestepped California Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act, at last Tuesday’s meeting and voted unanimously to amend the city’s municipal code and prohibit the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits. Despite an impassioned plea to council members by Martin Victor, Sr., an advocate for the dispensaries, the council opted to follow City Attorney Peter Thorson’s advice to implement the ban. Citing a “very substantial conflict between the [California] initiative measure and federal law,” Thorson’s argument centered around the “land use ordinance” prohibiting the establishment of such dispensaries. The ordinance “in no way deals with an individual’s rights to use medical marijuana,” Thorson said. California voters in 1996 approved Prop 215, which allows small amounts of marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes. Victor had petitioned the council to leave open the door for establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries so medical marijuana patients are not forced to travel long distances to obtain their medications. “Right now in our little town,” Victor advised, “we have six patients… who have to go 80 miles to get their medicine. Do you go 80 miles… or do you go right down to Rite Aid?” Victor asked the council. “Why should any sick cancer patient — AIDS patient — multiple sclerosis patient have to go 80 miles to get their medicine? Right now, as a cultivator — as a co-op — I take care of 63 patients who live in our neighborhoods. They can’t go [anywhere] to get their medicine. I want you to help them,” Victor continued. Victor knows firsthand the frustration and expense involved in traveling an intolerable distance to obtain medication. Afflicted personally with Fibromyalgia, a complex disease with symptoms that include “widespread chronic body pain,” Victor’s wife suffers from multiple sclerosis and liver disease and is confined to a wheelchair. “Instead of fighting us, help us. Don’t do this,” Victor implored. “When we make a decision, we have to deal with how it affects the city as a whole,” Council Member Mike Naggar responded in defending the council’s decision. “You have to… make a decision that serves the greater good. Right now, there’s a conflict in the law. And until that conflict can get resolved, I have to go with the higher law. And that’s the federal law.” The other council members iterated Naggar’s position with minor variations.
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