The City Council will vote Monday on a controversial medical
marijuana ordinance that could pave the way for one of the county’s
first dispensaries in downtown Gilroy.
The City Council will vote Monday on a controversial medical marijuana ordinance that could pave the way for one of the county’s first dispensaries in downtown Gilroy.
The ordinance is the first step in allowing the city to cleanly process an application for a dispensary called MediLeaf, submitted last May. While dispensaries are legal businesses under county and state law, city staff and attorneys have struggled to evaluate MediLeaf’s application in the absence of local regulations. One of MediLeaf’s co-applicants, who looked at other cities’ ordinances and drafted Gilroy’s along with police and staff, has accused the city of dragging its feet. The application must also go before the planning commission because of its unorthodoxy.
Cities throughout the county have cagily dealt with their own applications, and responses have ranged from moratoriums and outright bans to detailed ordinances and special planning exemptions. With all the commotion, Council member Perry Woodward said he wants the city to finalize an ordinance and move forward with the application, lest a lawsuit ensue.
“I’m concerned that the city will expose itself to a lawsuit if we deny this current application, so I’m hoping we can craft an ordinance that will avoid a lawsuit and allow this business to operate in as responsible of a way as possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, outspoken dispensary opponent and Gilroyan Ron Kirkish has been rallying public support and blanketing the council with e-mails supposedly conveying the opinions of residents and business owners near the dispensary’s proposed location at Ninth and Monterey streets.
A long list of restrictions in the proposed ordinance regulates store hours, security requirements and products. Yet, nearby business owners said they need more assurance. MediLeaf could open next door to Pinocchio’s Pizza, something owner Tony Oliveri said he has been ambivalent about in front of customers on either side of the debate, and very much concerned about inside his own head.
“This is a family neighborhood pizzeria that’s been here for 26 years. I’ve built up my family trade, and I don’t want it to go away,” said Oliveri, who lives with his wife next door to their business. The couple worries about break-ins and whether their customers will feel safe parking in the same parking lot as the dispensary.
Kirkish contacted Oliveri and has recruited school teachers, developers, church-goers and other residents to oppose MediLeaf’s application. Among other reasons, he said physicians over-prescribe medicinal marijuana.
Patient records seized during searches of six dispensaries revealed 52 percent of customers purchasing marijuana were between 17 and 30 years old, according to an April 2009 report by the California Police Chiefs Association. Only 2.5 percent of patients submitted a doctor’s recommendation for AIDS, glaucoma or cancer, and some of the dispensaries were profiting more than $300,000 a month in violation of state law, according to the report.
“Until the state can put limits on what ailments doctors can issue a prescription for, people who really need it should just be out of luck and can use prescribed medicine or go outside of Gilroy,” Kirkish said,
At Monday’s 6 p.m. special meeting, the council will also receive updated state attorney general information concerning the effect of dispensaries on cities. Council members have expressed concerns about the legality of medicinal marijuana dispensaries, since federal law prohibits any use of marijuana while state law permits it for people with a prescription.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley announced Thursday his office will prosecute the hundreds of dispensaries throughout the county as they are operating illegally, he said. The announcement comes despite reports from Los Angeles law officials who – along with officials in small, agrarian-based cities like Tulare – said a couple months ago they have not noticed an increase in crime associated with the shops since Californians approved medical marijuana in 1996.
A recent lawsuit in Southern California could further muddy the legal waters. On Sept. 22, California’s second district court of appeals upheld a Claremont city ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, a move which calls into question if cities have the power to bar citizens from setting up shops, despite state laws permitting it.
James Suner, a representative for MediLeaf applicants Batzi Kuburovich and Neil Forrest, said these lawsuits sprung up from “renegade” dispensaries without permits or regulations, and the problems they encountered wouldn’t apply to the proposed Gilroy dispensary.
Contrary to Kirkish’s picture of a city hostile to the dispensary, Kuburovich said he has received overwhelming support.
That includes Kelley-Jo Wendlandt, who has smoked medical marijuana or eaten laced brownies to relieve the pain of a debilitating and worsening spinal condition for the past eight years. To get her medical marijuana now, Wendlandt’s husband has to drive her to Santa Cruz or Oakland.
A collective called SJCBC recently opened in San Jose, and police there have responded to two suspicious persons reports without making arrests – according to a public records request – but San Jose planners could not immediately say how the business was operating under city law because San Jose’s 1997 marijuana ordinance disappeared from the books in 2001 after a massive zoning code rewrite.
Opening a dispensary here will help folks like Wendlandt and the larger community, Kuburovich said.
“It will create jobs, generate tax revenue, reduce crime and we intend to donate back to the community,” he said. “We would like to run this properly, asking permission rather than forgiveness, above the board and help those who need [marijuana] obtain it legally and properly.”
Vietnam veteran Richard Diehl recently obtained his medical marijuana card and said nothing compares to cannabis.
“I can get any prescription painkillers for free with my veteran’s benefits,” he said. “I don’t like the side effects of other painkillers … Many people have horrible debilitating diseases. We need this dispensary.”
Council member Cat Tucker, who says she’s received nearly 30 e-mails – primarily from opponents – says she thinks medical marijuana has a legitimate use.
“My best friend died in 2002 – a painful death. I saw firsthand how [medical marijuana] could’ve been beneficial,” she said. “But the key here is to find out the negatives and side effects and weigh it all out.”
