Merced deadlocked over medical marijuana dispensaries

The Merced City Council reached an impasse Monday over whether the city should begin its own process to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries or wait until the state can handle them – which isn’t expected until 2018.

Councilman Noah Lor was absent, so the remaining six members were deadlocked and put the issue off until the governing body’s next meeting.

Councilmen Michael Belluomini, Kevin Blake and Josh Pedrozo supported having dispensaries sooner, while Mayor Stan Thurston and Councilmen Tony Dossetti and Mike Murphy supported waiting for the state to develop a regulatory agency.

State officials have said they would have an agency ready to accept applications to certify dispensaries by New Year’s Day 2018, which would mean certificates go out about six months later, according to city staffers.

Belluomini said the city should move forward on its own and deliver dispensaries sooner rather than later.

“We certainly have given people the impression, the anticipation, that we’re working and crafting an ordinance that would allow the city to proceed with medicinal marijuana dispensaries ... and that that was coming,” he said.

His opponents argued the city doesn’t have the resources to regulate the dispensaries through an already short-handed Police Department. The cost for that kind of regulation was not immediately available but would be “substantial,” according to Ken Rozell, senior deputy city attorney.

Thurston said it’s “irresponsible” to try to oversee dispensaries locally without an estimate on costs for testing, licensing and regulating the cannabis. “This isn’t just a freebie thing, like opening a bicycle shop,” he said.

The council otherwise agreed to allow up to four dispensaries in Merced and that they be housed in commercial office buildings, which typically hold doctors’ offices. Medical cannabis patients would be allowed to grow up to six plants indoors per parcel of land, a more restrictive ordinance than was proposed by the council earlier in the year.

Local advocates asked the council to be less stringent and allow outdoor growing, but their pleas did not gain much traction. Susan Bouscaren, who works with dispensary Jack’s Greenhouse, said paying for the equipment and energy to grow inside adds up and is a fire hazard.

“Unless you’re experienced and know what you’re doing, there can be a big problem with that,” she said.

The council is expected to look at the ordinance again July 18.

This story was originally published July 6, 2016 at 11:20 AM with the headline "Merced deadlocked over medical marijuana dispensaries."