City Weighs Medical Pot Ban

This article was posted in The Daily Journal. Medical marijuana businesses could be banned permanently in Redwood city if the Planning Commission agrees with city staff that enforcement will be costly and time consuming, crime could escalate and ongoing conflicts between state and federal policies make regulations challenging. 

City staff has looked at the legal and safety issues of regulating medical marijuana and how other cities have dealt with the issue. San Carlos, San Mateo and San Mateo County permit the facilities while Colma, San Bruno, South San Francisco, Millbrae, Brisbane, East Palo Alto, and Half Moon Bay do not. 

California voters passed the Compassionate Use Act, in 1996, allowing sick patients to either grow their own marijuana or have a primary caregiver grow it got them. In Augusr 2011, the Legislature passed another bill giving local government more power to regulate marijuana districution facilities through enforcement of zoning regulations. 

It sounds to me that redwood city is skeptical of opening more facilities within the city. It seems as if they want to see how it goes with other cities having medical marihuana facilities before Redwood city makes their decision. Redwood city is worried that we will have more crime. The reason why we would have more crime is because teenagers, even though they don't have a medical condition, get these cards to purchase marijuana illegally. There are doctors that will just write up prescriptions for a card, for only $100. If more and more people start getting these cards, there will be more selling and dealing of marijuana on the streets, and isn't that considered illegal?

I don't understand why they are looking to have medical marijuana facilities in cities so close together. If they are going to do it at all, I think that they should spread the facilities out within a certain amount of miles. I feel like the more facilities, especially in close proximities, the more the crime rate and expenses there would be.