SAN DIEGO — Mayor Bob Filner is proposing an ordinance to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to operate in commercial and industrial areas for a $5,000 annual permit fee and a 2 percent city tax on sales.
In addition, the proposal calls for dispensaries to be at least 600 feet away from K-12 schools, public parks, child care facilities, playgrounds and other dispensaries. There isn’t a distance requirement from churches, libraries and youth-serving facilities -- restrictions that were included in a failed 2011 ordinance.
Filner also included a ban on pot vending machines which received local attention earlier this month when Medbox Inc. announced it was taking deposits in San Diego on its automated dispensing machines in anticipation of a new ordinance. The mayor said he didn’t want them to be a distraction to getting an ordinance in place.
Filner, who has been working with med pot advocates on the ordinance since January, said he’s hoping the proposal finds middle ground between the competing interests of neighborhood safety and safe access to the drug.
“That’s the emotional thing otherwise this wouldn’t be a problem,” Filner said. “How do you guarantee access to those who need it on humanitarian grounds but protect against problems that we know arise, whether it’s access to children or intrusion on neighborhood quality of life.”
He added, “So you have to find a balance and that’s what we’re trying to do here. I thought the original thing that the City Council passed was too strict. I thought that some of the things that (Americans for) Safe Access wanted were too open so we had to try to find a balance.”
The proposal -- which could go before the City Council in early April -- is the mayor’s attempt to end a years-long dispute over what rules and restrictions should be put in place for dispensaries since state voters approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1996.
The City Council approved an ordinance in 2011 that was later rescinded after a successful petition drive by medical marijuana proponents who considered it too restrictive. That plan required all of the city’s collectives to shut down and apply for permits and then limited them to some commercial and industrial zones.
Filner’s proposal allows dispensaries to operate in all commercial and industrial zones as long as they don’t violate distance restrictions.
Eugene Davidovich, local coordinator with the group Americans for Safe Access, praised Filner’s leadership on the issue and said patients in the city are in need of a common sense approach to medical marijuana.
“The lack of regulations has forced many in our community to travel long distances or use the illicit market to obtain a medication that works for them,” he said. “Mayor Filner has taken a humanitarian approach to this issue, one guided by common sense instead of a will to eradicate and undermine state law. We ... are confident that as a community we can come together on strict regulations that provide save access to those in need, ensure best management practices at dispensaries, and help establish a local industry that acts with integrity.”
