No on pot ordinance

Sacramento is on a charge to cap the number of medical-marijuana dispensaries it allows to operate in the city. Last month, officials proposed a new ordinance that would limit their number to 12 (there are now 60) and impose new restrictions insofar as location, personnel and patient activities.

Needless to say, medical-marijuana advocates and dispensary owners are infuriated. Why, they want to know, would the city shutter an arbitrary number of businesses—officials admit the number 12 was a “random” choice—and deny care to patients who rely on access to medical marijuana and clubs’ free-cannabis compassion programs for the sick?

Why indeed.

It doesn’t take Tony Serra to figure out that the city will quickly be entangled in multiple lawsuits if it moves forward with this ordinance.

We suggest a different approach: (1) extend the moratorium, (2) set up a cannabis dispensary task force and give it ample time to look into what steps the city should take regarding the proliferation of clubs, and (3) be sure to invite patients who use medical marijuana and people who live in neighborhoods that currently house dispensaries to be on that task force.

Another reason to reconvene and start anew is the issue of cultivation, which the city’s current draft ordinance doesn’t even address.

If approved, this unjust ordinance could go into effect in early summer. Now is the time for residents to urge Sacramento’s elected officials to reconsider the mistaken and oversimplified approach they seem set on taking on medical marijuana.