[420 Girl]

Oceanside may impose a temporary ban on medical marijuana dispensaries until city officials decide how to regulate them.

The City Council will consider an "urgency ordinance" Wednesday that would immediately prohibit dispensaries from opening and operating.

The moratorium would last 45 days, with optional extensions of nearly two years.

George Buell, Oceanside's development services director, said nobody has applied to open a dispensary, but "there have been inquiries," and a moratorium would "provide us an opportunity to study the issue."

There are no storefront dispensaries in the city.

California voters passed a medical marijuana law, Prop. 215, more than 12 years ago.

While the federal government prohibits pot, the Obama administration announced this year that it would halt federal raids on dispensaries established under state law.

Even so, cities and counties vary in their attitudes toward medical cannabis.

About 30 California cities have regulations that allow dispensaries, according to Americans for Safe Access, a medical cannabis advocacy group.

More than 110 - including San Marcos, Murrieta and Temecula - have bans.

Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, said a moratorium is "not necessarily a bad thing" if Oceanside is working in good faith on regulations.

But "if they institute a temporary moratorium to eventually ban the conduct outright in the city of Oceanside, then I would say they're taking the wrong approach," Hermes said.

In a report to the council, City Planner Juliana von Hacht said marijuana dispensaries pose a "threat to public health, safety and welfare," since the city has no rules to govern them. She said they've been linked to increased crime, traffic and noise.

David Blair-Loy, legal director with the San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, worried that the city's definition of "dispensary" was so broad it could affect "a single caregiver providing medical marijuana to a single patient in the privacy of the home."

Adoption of the moratorium requires a four-fifths vote.

The council meets at 5 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 300 N. Coast Highway.

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