Claremont continues to move towards establishing an ordinance to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries.
Sort of.
The City Council at its last meeting September 11th voted to extend Claremont's moratorium on the dispensaries. The moratorium was ending this month, but the council action last week added another year to the ban.
In the meantime, according to Tony Krickl in last Saturday's Claremont Courier, city staff will work on the ordinance, which Claremont City Manager Jeff Parker estimated would take six or seven months to put together and get to the City Council for a vote.
The Krickl article (not posted online) quoted City Councilmember Linda Elderkin, who along with Councilmembers Sam Pedroza and Ellen Taylor voted to establish the marijuana ordinance:
"I am only interested in a very restrictive ordinance that allows just those who are truly in need of this service to benefit," council member Linda Elderkin said.
One gets the impression that Elderkin, Pedroza and Taylor may be regretting their vote, which was not overwhelmingly popular among rank-and-file Claremonters. If past performance is any indicator, you can expect the city to drag out the ordinance process and come up with something so restrictive as to make it prohibitive. Something like requiring dispensaries to have a licensed medical doctor on site at all times, or some other such requirement that would be impossible to meet.
This gives Elderkin and friends the illusion of having made a law without actually having to come up with working one. At least, that's our predication. Let's see how it plays out.
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