[420 Girl]

ARCADIA - City officials have made Arcadia the latest area city to temporarily ban medical marijuana dispensaries.

By a unanimous vote, the council decided last week to impose a 45-day moratorium on pot clubs. There are no such dispensaries in the city, nor have there been any applications.

Officials say the move will give the city time to consider its longer-term options.

"It's pre-emptive," Development Services Director Jason Kruckeberg said. "It's an attempt for us to study the issue and see what type of regulation would be appropriate to put in place to avoid these types of uses in Arcadia."

Mayor Robert Harbicht said cities are awaiting legal clarification on the issue.

"We're not sure what we can and can't do, in terms of regulation," he said.

Medical marijuana distribution under a doctor's recommendation was legalized in 1996, when California voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act. However, federal law prohibits any use of marijuana as illegal.

Police Chief Robert Sanderson said local law enforcement was "fully in support" of the moratorium.

"There's a lot of evidence that medical marijuana dispensaries are not operating according to the intent of what the Compassionate Use Act is all about," Sanderson said. "It's a racket, is what it is."

He added that police were concerned about the rise in crime associated with pot dispensaries.

"Information from large cities like the LAPD indicates that where there have been medical marijuana dispensaries, there's been a rise in serious crimes such as robberies, burglaries and aggravated assaults," he said.

Legal issues aside, Harbicht said he personally was against pot clubs opening in the city.

"I wouldn't want it," he said. "I think the record is clear that they draw an element to the community that increases crime and various other problems."

In August, state Attorney General Jerry Brown issued medical marijuana guidelines in order to help police distinguish between legal and illegal marijuana sellers and to protect legitimate patients from arrest. The guidelines insist that sellers operate as nonprofit collectives or cooperatives, not as for-profit businesses.

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