[420 Girl]

If Nevada City plans to adopt an ordinance for medical marijuana dispensaries, they will do it at the last minute — and might not have unanimous support for such a plan when they do vote next month.

Meanwhile, Oakland residents overwhelmingly voted this week to approve a first-of-its kind tax on medical marijuana sold at the city's four cannabis dispensaries, the Associated Press reported.

Questions were raised Wednesday as to whether the medical marijuana dispensary even belongs in Nevada City, and how it would succeed as a nonprofit entity.

Councilman David McKay wondered if a dispensary would ruin the town's quality of life.

“Is Nevada City the right kind of place? When you go to (the dispensary in) Colfax, it's on the other side of the freeway. ... Nevada City is so compact.

“We're a different kind of makeup it doesn't mean we wouldn't want it ... but I don't think we're the right entity to take this on. Most of the people who would come to this wouldn't even be residents of Nevada City,” he said.

Councilwoman Sally Harris, who visited the dispensary in Colfax, shared similar concerns.

“If people need medical marijuana, I'm OK with that,” Harris said. “The concern was about the community. They're worried that it will have a negative impact on it. I think we have to be concerned about our residents as our primary constituents.”

The ordinance requires stringent background checks and bars the sale of any related paraphernalia, and will be further modified before it comes before the council in two weeks, just a day before the original moratorium expires.

Two people have expressed an interest in opening up a dispensary for patients with medical recommendations — allowed under California's Proposition 215, but illegal under federal law.

The council faced a mid-August deadline to either extend an emergency ordinance prohibiting such shops or craft one that would allow their presence in the city.

Businessman Harry Bennett took out a business license this spring and met several times with city staff to outline his proposal. Bennett is a medical marijuana user.

Council members never explicitly expressed a desire not to allow these shops; rather, many of them expressed a desire to craft an ordinance that better reflected the flavor of the town.

Some residents explained how medical marijuana helped them; and mayor Reinette Senum said the criminalization of marijuana was hurting its ability to be used as an effective treatment for pain.

“This has been an amazing learning experience,” said Senum, who also visited the dispensary in Colfax. “It does upset me that marijuana has been looked down upon, and been criminalized.”

Senum praised the operation in Colfax.

“It's not persian rugs and water bongs out in the parking lot,” she said.

A number of residents said they didn't even know the issue was up for discussion Wednesday until they read news reports.

“I don't think you've looked at the community to the depth that you could,” resident Susan Mills said. “I don't think the community has had the input they've needed.”

The city pledged to communicate with businesses and the Nevada City School District prior to Aug. 12, the next regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council.


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