[420 Girl]

Redding has extended its ban on new medical marijuana collectives to June and voted a final time to impose tight restrictions on cannabis clubs.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to push the ban, first imposed Oct. 20, out through the first half of 2010 to give the Planning Commission time to consider new zoning to regulate where cannabis clubs can operate in town and where marijuana cultivation will be allowed.

The Planning Commission likely will vote on new zoning for collectives and cultivation Dec. 8.

The council on Tuesday also voted 4-1 to impose permit fees on medicinal cannabis clubs.

The city will charge collectives $710 for a permit and $624 to renew the permit each year -- a key part of the new regulatory ordinance. Those fees would cover the costs of conducting criminal background checks and thrice-yearly inspections for each business, Police Chief Peter Hansen said.

Vice Mayor Missy McArthur voted to extend the moratorium on new cannabis clubs but against the fees.

"I am happy to see the chief is figuring out how to pay for this ordinance," McArthur said. "But given my concerns about the legality of this ordinance and my feeling, as some of the speakers said, we should be taking more time, I am voting no."

Redding hosts at least 20 medical cannabis clubs, with some estimates as high as 40. Many of these businesses have opened in the past few months.

The regulations are designed to weed out profit-driven dope dealers from legitimate medical marijuana collectives, which are supposed to be nonprofit, Redding officials have said.

Collectives must allow the police chief access to their records so authorities can determine whether the business serves qualified medical marijuana patients, under the new ordinance. McArthur has worried that provision may violate patient privacy rights.

Redding also will require doctors to specify medicinal amounts in their medical marijuana recommendations to collective members, limit cannabis sales to dried bud and ask members to verify that they don't belong to more than one collective in Shasta County.

About a half-dozen speakers Tuesday challenged the legality of the ordinance. They urged the council to scrap it and draw up less restrictive rules that are closer to the state attorney general's guidelines for medicinal marijuana use.

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