[420 Girl]

The Shasta Lake City Council unanimously approved a 45-day moratorium on the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries at its meeting Tuesday night.

Its emergency action came after two such operations, one that opened its doors Monday afternoon, were approved at the staff level earlier this month.

Matt Franklin, manager of The Green Heart Collective on Shasta Dam Boulevard, said Wednesday that the new medical marijuana dispensary began signing up members Monday afternoon.

"We haven't had one negative" reaction from the community, he said, adding that those coming into the business are grateful it's there. "We've had no bad attitudes about this store at all."

The dispensary had signed 18 members as of early Wednesday afternoon, but Franklin said he expects a lot more to do so as word spreads that the business is open.

He noted that The Green Heart in Anderson, owned by Gina Mundy, who also owns the new Shasta Lake business, has 560 members.

But that business has been running for the past six weeks, he said, adding that he hopes the Shasta Lake dispensary will have about 100 members by the end of its first week.

The Green Heart also opened a dispensary in Mount Shasta about a week ago.

The Shasta Lake collective will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, Franklin said, adding that it eventually will offer, among other items, marijuana-medicated taffy, cookies, brownies and teas.

Only members of the collective can be customers, Franklin said, and they must provide a doctor's recommendation or prescription, which is verified by the business. There also is a $10 fee to join, and that membership can be used at the Anderson and Mount Shasta Green Heart dispensaries.

The Shasta Dam Boulevard dispensary, as well as another that's yet to open on the boulevard - 530 Collective - helped to spark the 45-day moratorium against such businesses.

But, city officials have said, they are not proposing an outright ban.

Instead, they say, the city has no rules or regulations in place to govern or restrict medical marijuana dispensaries and that the moratorium will allow it to develop such rules and guidelines.

"With a lack of guidelines, it is feasible that several dispensaries could locate to existing buildings along Shasta Dam Boulevard," Development Services Director Carla L. Thompson wrote in a report to City Manager Carol Martin.

"With an absence of adopted guidelines, and without the authority to impose conditions, it is possible that a proliferation of dispensaries could operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week."

Thompson said the moratorium would allow the establishment of guidelines that could, among other things, limit where they are located, designate hours of operation and impose other restrictions, such as their distances from schools and public parks.

The urgency ordinance, which took effect immediately, can be extended for 10 months and 15 days beyond the original 45 days. Two additional extensions also are allowed.

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