Draconian Santa Rosa MMJ Ordinance

In response to local outrage over misbehavior
around one local dispensary, the Santa Rosa city
council has adopted a draconian emergency
ordinance drastically restricting ALL of the
city's 3 dispensaries for the next 60 days while
it contemplates further action. The emergency
ordinance perversely restricts hours of operation
to 9 to 3 M-F and 10 -2 Sa and forbids
consumption within 150 feet of a dispensary.
This exemplifies the evils that can be caused
by one thoughtless rogue operator in an
unregulated market.
Note that similar problems have NOT been
observed since adoption of regulations in
Hayward, Berkeley, or Oakland. There is a
serious lesson here for everyone in the cannabis
community.
- D.G.

Doc Knapp of SAMM reports:
>Dear folks,
>
>What I hear from the City is that, if there
>continues to be a steady stream of apparently
>health twenty-something's frequenting
>dispensaries, Resource Green in particular,
>there is a very serious risk that Santa Rosa
>will ban dispensaries totally. We will do
>everything we can to save the day but it is an
>uphill battle. More complaints and negative
>media will likely result in a ban.
>
>Peace,
>Doc
>


ORDINANCE NO. 3717


URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SANTA ROSA ADOPTING AND IMPOSING A MORATORIUM ON
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW MEDICAL MARIJUANA
DISPENSARIES

THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF SANTA ROSA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. Purpose and Findings. The purpose of
this ordinance is to prohibit the establishment
of new medical marijuana dispensaries within the
City of Santa Rosa and to place conditions and
requirements on existing dispensaries.

The Council based on the materials and testimony
presented finds and determines as follows:
Medical marijuana dispensaries have been
established at a number of locations in the City
and, as a consequence, some local agencies have
reported increases in illegal drug activity,
illegal drug sales, robbery of persons leaving
dispensaries, loitering around dispensaries, and
other increases in criminal activity.

Each of the three known medical
marijuana dispensaries in the City has been
involved in a serious crime. In September 2004,
the father of the owner of one dispensary was
robbed at gunpoint after he left the
establishment and was followed home. The
suspects thought he carried cash or marijuana.
The other two dispensaries were broken into by
burglars who stole marijuana and smoking
paraphernalia, among other things.

One of the existing dispensaries is
located a block away from an elementary school
and is in a “drug free zone.” It is also next to
a City park. Residents and nearby businesses
have reported loitering, excessive traffic,
unpermitted use and blockage of their off-street
private parking facilities, public urination,
smoking marijuana in public, excessive litter,
and vandalism in the area. The United States
Department of Justice’s California Medical
Marijuana Information Report has advised that
large-scale drug traffickers have been posing as
primary caregivers to obtain and sell marijuana.
In addition, the State of California and the
County of Sonoma have not yet implemented a
statewide identification card program for
qualified patients and their primary caregivers.

The three dispensaries known to be
operating within the City are operating without
having obtained any City discretionary or
regulatory review or approvals or permits and the
City has not adopted conditions or regulations
governing such operations. To protect residents
and businesses from the harmful effects of
medical marijuana dispensaries, the City needs
time to study and adopt a permit or licensing
procedure and background check procedures,
determine the appropriate zoning districts for
such uses, and adopt regulatory standards and
conditions to be imposed on such operations.

A comprehensive set of procedures,
restrictions and regulations cannot be enacted
without due deliberation, and it will take an
indeterminate length of time to work out the
substance and details of such requirements. It
would be destructive of any proposed restrictions
and regulations if, during the period they are
being studied and considered for adoption,
parties seeking to avoid their operation and
effect are permitted to operate in a manner that
might progress so far as to defeat in whole, or
in part, the objectives of the requirements and
regulations. As a result, it is necessary to
establish a moratorium and prohibition on the
establishment and operation of any new medical
marijuana dispensaries and locations in the City
pending the completion of the City’s further
review of their impacts and possible adoption of
permit and location requirements and operating
regulations and conditions.

Section 2. Moratorium on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries.
During the period this ordinance remains in
effect, no person, business or entity shall open,
or commence doing business as a “Medical
Marijuana Dispensary” within the City, and no
City permit or entitlement for use shall be
issued or processed for a medical marijuana
dispensary.
“Medical Marijuana Dispensary” or “Dispensary” as
used in this ordinance means any facility or
location where medical marijuana is made
available to and/or distributed by, a total of
three or more of any of the following: a primary
caregiver, a qualified patient, or a person with
an identification card, in strict accordance with
California Health and Safety Code sections
11362.5, et seq. A “medical marijuana dispensary”
shall not include the following uses, as long as
the location of such uses are otherwise regulated
by the Santa Rosa City Code or applicable state
law: a clinic licensed pursuant to Chapter 1 of
Division 2 of the Health and Safety Code, a
health care facility licensed pursuant to Chapter
2 of Division 2 of the Health and Safety Code, a
residential care facility for persons with
chronic life-threatening illness licensed
pursuant to Chapter 3.01 of Division 2 of the
Health and Safety Code, a residential care
facility for the elderly licensed pursuant to
Chapter 3.2 of Division 2 of the Health and
Safety Code, a residential hospice, or a home
health agency licensed pursuant to Chapter 8 of
Division 2 of the Health and Safety Code, as long
as any such use complies strictly with applicable
law including, but not limited to, Health and
Safety Code Section 11362.5, et seq.
Section 3.
A. The Council imposes the following
conditions and requirements on all existing
medical marijuana dispensaries operating within
the City as conditions of their continued
operation:

1. The days and hours of operation of each
dispensary are limited to: Mondays through
Fridays, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; Saturdays, 10:00
a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; Sundays, closed.
2. Consumption or use of marijuana in any form
is prohibited: (a) on a dispensary’s premises;
or (b) within 150 feet of a dispensary’s premises.
3. No loitering by customers of a dispensary
within 150 feet of the dispensary is permitted.
4. No harassment by employees or customers of a
dispensary of neighbors of a dispensary.
5. A dispensary shall comply with
all provisions of Health and Safety Code sections
11362.5, et seq.

B. If any existing medical
marijuana dispensary fails to comply within these
requirements and conditions, within three days of
the date of the adoption of this ordinance, it
shall cease doing business within the City and
its continued operation shall be unlawful and
constitute a separate misdemeanor for each day of
its continued operation.

Section 4. Immediate Threat to
Health, Safety and Welfare. Based on the
findings and conditions set forth and described
in Section 1 of this ordinance, the Council of
the City of Santa Rosa, pursuant to City Charter
Section 8, declares this ordinance is necessary
as an urgency measure to preserve, and address
existing and immediate threats to, the public
health, safety and welfare all as described in
Section 1. The Council determines that the
establishment of additional medical marijuana
dispensaries would result in additional threats
to the public health, safety and welfare.

Section 5. It is the City Council’s intention
that nothing in this ordinance shall be deemed to
conflict with federal law as contained in the
Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. Section 841,
so as to allow any activity under this ordinance
that is validly and constitutionally prohibited
under that Act.

Section 6. The City Council declares that
nothing in this ordinance shall be construed to
(1) allow persons to engage in conduct that
endangers others or causes a public nuisance, (2)
allow the use of marijuana for non-medical
purposes, or (3) allow any activity relating to
the cultivation, distribution, or consumption of
marijuana that is otherwise illegal.

Section 7. Conflicting Laws.
During the continuation of the effectiveness of
this ordinance, the provisions of this ordinance
shall govern. If there is any conflict between
the provisions of this ordinance and any
provision of the Santa Rosa City Code, or any
City ordinance, resolution or policy, the
provisions of this ordinance shall control.

Section 8. Severability. If any
section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or
word of this ordinance is for any reason held to
be invalid and/or unconstitutional by a court of
competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not
affect the validity of the remaining portions of
this ordinance.

Section 9. Effective Date. This
ordinance is declared to be an urgency measure
and if adopted by the affirmative date of at
least five Councilmembers, shall become effective
upon its adoption.

IN COUNCIL DULY PASSED AND ADOPTED this 5th day of April, 2005.

AYES: (5) Mayor Bender; Councilmember Blanchard, Condron, Pierce, Sawyer

NOES: (0)

ABSENT: (2) Councilmembers Martini, Rabinowitsh

ABSTAIN: (0)

ATTEST: Susan Stoneman
APPROVED:Jane Bender
City Clerk
Mayor

APPROVED AS TO FORM:

Brien Farrell
City Attorney