Tulare Considering Regulating Medicinal Marijuana Dispensaries

12/13/2006 (KFSN) -- Tulare County is considering regulating where medicinal marijuana dispensaries are located. Their biggest concerns are how close they'll be to schools and whether patients can smoke marijuana on premises.

In January, the Tulare County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to get advice from local and state doctors and lawyers about what it would take to enforce a medicinal marijuana dispensary land-use ordinance. County officials are considering enforcing buffer zones to keep the pot dispensaries away from kids. Jason Labue, TCRMA, says, "The County is looking at 500 ft and 1,000 ft buffer zones from sensitive uses. Sensitive uses are schools, parks, childcare centers."

Currently, the cities of Visalia and Tulare have medicinal marijuana dispensary ordinances&one dispensary in Visalia has over 800 patients. Before the county adopts their own law, their biggest concerns are location of the dispensaries, whether patients can smoke marijuana on-site and whether the dispensaries can grow marijuana.

Rick Morse says, "I think it would be beneficial to have a county-wide system for two reasons: one, it would give law enforcement the tools to be able to determine which were acting legally and to give the people who wished to open dispensaries some."

California Law allows for chronically ill patients to grow and smoke marijuana with a prescription. Though several other counties across the state have adopted dispensary laws such as San Diego, Merced and San Bernardino counties have sued the state, urging officials to ban that law."

That public hearing with state and local physicians and lawyers will take place at the planning commission meeting room on January 31st.

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