This week, City Council discussed the merits and faults of a ban on cultivation and delivery of medicinal marijuana. Unanimously, council directed staff to draw up a plan that would seek to regulate the practice of home delivery of marijuana and cultivation.
“The city does not allow for either of these activities; however, they are not expressly prohibited either,” Associate Planner Stephanie Hawner explained at the Feb. 22 City Council meeting.
The idea for a ban came about after it was learned a provision in the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act passed by Governor Jerry Brown in October 2015 would force the city to “relinquish regulatory authority over cultivation to the state” if it did not enact a specific ordinance regulating cultivation and delivery of pot by March 1, according to a staff report prepared by the city for the Jan. 27 Planning Commission meeting.
That deadline has since been removed by the state, an issue mentioned by those who came to speak at the meeting against the ban.
“It’s an urgency ordinance and … you’re well aware the urgency has been removed,” development consultant Don Schmitz said. “I urge you to not adopt an urgency ordinance, that in fact you should direct your staff to come up with an ordinance as quickly as possible to have a regulated but safe delivery system in our community.”
Schmitz also complained that enforcement of a ban on delivery would be difficult, an issue raised by Planning Commissioners in January and by City Council Member Skylar Peak on Monday night.
“I don’t see the reason to adopt this and go ahead right now with banning the cultivation if we expressly know that it’s going on and we’re not going to be able to enforce it,” Peak said. “I don’t see any reason to do that.”
City Attorney Christi Hogin explained that a ban may be needed, now that the cat is out of the bag.
“If you’re going to ban something, and you’ve tipped your hand that you intend to ban it, then just as a matter of good practice, you better ban it, or people are going to go out and start engaging in the practice in anticipation of the ban,” Hogin said.
“It’s not a matter of days, it’s a matter of months,” she added.
It appears City Council took that to heart, directing staff to come back with an ordinance in about 90 days, regulating but not banning delivery and cultivation.
Cultivation was a hot button issue between Mayor Laura Rosenthal and Peak, who briefly argued over whether or not commercial cultivation should be banned.
“I think we ought to be licensing people to grow it on a commercial scale, if they have the conditions that permit that,” Peak said.
“Have you heard about our 36 percent water reduction in Malibu?” Rosenthal replied, citing the notoriously high water use needed to grow marijuana plants.
“Have you heard about the fact that people grow things in Malibu, and that they’re going to do it regardless? And that we should be worried about people with tropical rainforests in their front yard instead of a couple people with weed plants in their backyard?” Peak countered.
After about an hour of discussion, Hogin clarified what City Council had agreed to.
“[What I’m hearing is] unanimous agreement that the direction we want to go in is limit deliveries. If they’re allowed at all, they’ll be limited to dispensaries that are allowed in our city,” Hogin explained. “We’re sending the message that we intend to delve into the regulation of cultivation, and we’ll see where that takes you.”