"MEDelivery, a medical marijuana delivery service with clients throughout the county, has set up shop as MEDelivery's Dispensary in a small shopping center on San Pablo Dam Road. Owner Don "Buzz" Fowler got his business license amended to the new address March 16."

Posted on Tue, Apr. 11, 2006

Supervisors to vote today to block new dispensaries
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/email/news/14314835.htm

By Tom Lochner
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

A cannabis club is in business in unincorporated El Sobrante, just as the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors prepares to vote on an urgency moratorium today on the opening of any new ones.

MEDelivery, a medical marijuana delivery service with clients throughout the county, has set up shop as MEDelivery's Dispensary in a small shopping center on San Pablo Dam Road. Owner Don "Buzz" Fowler got his business license amended to the new address March 16.

Elsewhere in unincorporated Contra Costa, MariCare, a former Concord cannabis club, has reopened in Pacheco. MariCare was forced out of Concord late last year after that city's council, invoking federal law, enacted a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, popularly known as cannabis clubs.

California's Compassionate Use Act, approved by voters in 1996, allows people to possess, use and grow medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation to treat chronic pain, cancer, arthritis, AIDS and other illnesses. It also envisioned a "safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana."

The federal government considers marijuana an illegal drug with no medical application.

County Supervisor Gayle Uilkema, the sponsor of the proposed moratorium, said she acted after hearing from constituents that dispensaries might be about to open in Pacheco, Rodeo and an East County location she would not name. Rumors placed at least one of the potential dispensary sites in a residential area, she said.

"I almost had the sense that a tsunami was coming at us and that there was literally nothing we could do about it," Uilkema said.

Currently, no county zoning ordinances address cannabis clubs.

Rodeo and Pacheco are in Uilkema's district. El Sobrante and East County are not.

"When I got the calls about the residential use, I said, 'Stop. Let's take a deep breath,'" Uilkema said. "Let's examine what are the potential impacts. In the meantime, let's put a stop to this.

"One of the dilemmas that we're looking at is, there's a conflict between federal and state law," Uilkema said. "Our board has not discussed that. We haven't educated ourselves yet. We have a lot of work to do."

Critics, including Americans For Safe Access, a patient advocacy group, say local governments have had ample time to regulate the dispensing of medical marijuana in the almost 10 years since voters approved it. The group has sued Concord for its ban on cannabis clubs.

Uilkema said she introduced the moratorium on an urgency basis because the potential proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries absent any zoning regulations poses "an immediate threat to public health."

She said there may be "legitimate marijuana uses for people who are very ill."

The urgency moratorium initially would be for 45 days and could be extended.

Fowler said his dispensary will dispense by appointment only to those with the proper credentials, such as a state medical marijuana identification card or a doctor's recommendation plus another medicinal ID card. He will continue to do deliveries, but now some of his patients who don't want to wait for once-a-month deliveries will have a faster alternative.

"Before, I used to go to them," Fowler said. "Now they can come to me."

Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@cctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

The proposed urgency interim ordinance prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries will come up for discussion about 10 a.m. today in the Board of Supervisors chamber, 651 Pine St., Martinez.