C.V. council opposes growing medical pot

Chula Vista City Council members have decided that the city will maintain its current laws that ban the cultivation of medical marijuana by individuals and businesses.

The City Council voted unanimously Jan. 26 to clarify existing zoning rules as they apply to growing marijuana.

“The amendments are intended to clean up existing language and they do not change current laws regarding cultivation,” said Deputy City Attorney Megan McClurg.

City Attorney Glen Googins further elaborated in an email following the meeting.

“The city’s action was timely and appropriate to clarify our existing rules regarding cultivation, and to clarify the fact that prohibited business activities in general are also prohibited land uses under our zoning code,” he said.

The council was reacting to three bills Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in October. They are collectively known as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act and went into effect this year.

Assembly Bill 243 preserves local control over medical marijuana cultivation if a city ordinance — allowing or banning growing — is in effect before March 1. It would default to state regulation if a local ordinance is not effect.

In September 2011 the City Council passed an ordinance banning medical marijuana cultivation across the board.

Several people spoke in favor of banning the growth of medical marijuana completely, while others wanted regulation of it.

Cynara Velasquez, representing the Association of Cannabis Professionals, said the city should look at zoning medical marijuana cultivation so it can be regulated.

“When something is just prohibited the way it is prohibited today, you have neither oversight nor transparency because it has been clearly occurring anyways,” she said.

There are currently 10 medical marijuana dispensaries operating illegally in the city, according to the city attorney’s office. It’s a battle the city is constantly fighting.

Velasquez recommended to the City Council that it would have more money in the budget to go after illegally operating businesses if it received fees from businesses operating within the law.

“The best response to a black market is a legal market,” she said.

Barbara Gordon, adult adviser for the County Office of Education, Friday Night Live chapter, which works with teens from local high schools, disagreed.

“The city’s possible revenue that might be gained from the cultivation I think would be offset by the problems that marijuana will pose in their city,” she said.

Gordon said the youth are the most at risk if cultivation is allowed in Chula Vista. “Our teens are vulnerable to the increase in marijuana and perception of its harmlessness, thus causing a higher use among our teens.”

Scott Chipman with San Diegans for Safe Neighborhoods, said that he and organization members have monitored the opening of pot shops in the county for the past six years.

“Putting a medical face on drug dealing does not make it a drug medicine and that’s what we have here,” he said. “We see who goes in and out…90 percent plus are males under the age of 30...we do not want to cultivate a drug and we do not want to cultivate drug dealers.”

Although the amendments keep laws regarding medical marijuana cultivation as is, they do not prevent the city from changing it in the future.