O-003-13 Urgency ordinance to expressly define and prohibit the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries and mobile marijuana dispensaries in the city

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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 United States Constitution, could regulate the intrastate manufacture and possession of marijuana in furtherance of the provisions of the Controlled Substances Act; and WHEREAS, the Colton Municipal Code does not contain an express definition for Medical Marijuana Dispensaries and absent such express definition such Medical Marijuana Dispensaries have been prohibited in the City because they have neither been a permitted use or a conditionally permitted use in any zoning district in the City; and WHEREAS, on May 6, 2013, in City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center, Inc., et al., the Supreme Court of California held that local governments can ban medical marijuana dispensaries by stating that nothing in the State of California's marijuana laws "expressly or impliedly limits the inherent authority of a local jurisdiction, by its own ordinances, to regulate the use of its land, including the authority to provide that facilities for the distribution of medical marijuana will not be permitted to operate within its borders." In this opinion, the Court further ruled that the California Constitution grants cities and counties broad power to determine the permitted uses of land within their borders, that the CUA and MMP state or imply no purpose to restrict that power, and that the City of Riverside's prohibition of marijuana dispensaries does not conflict with these statutes because the statutes do no more than exempt certain activities from the state's criminal and nuisance laws; and WHEREAS, in response to the holding in City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center, Inc., marijuana advocates have stated that they plan to narrowly interpret the Court's holding to merely prohibit the dispensing of marijuana from a stationary storefront; and WHEREAS, these marijuana advocates plan on advising marijuana dispensaries to create facilities or offices to handle or process the paperwork for joining a medical marijuana dispensary or medical marijuana cooperative as defined herein, to receive financial compensation or donations for the marijuana, or to give vouchers or other indicia of membership to new members only to later dispense the marijuana from a mobile or on- or off- site standalone delivery source independent of the office; and WHEREAS, the exact number of mobile or on- or off-site standalone delivery services operating in California is unclear, since the state does not keep a registry of mobile medical marijuana distributors. In June of 2013, at least five services within 10 miles of Colton advertised direct delivery of marijuana within the City on "Weedmaps.com", an internet commercial listing website for such delivery services; and WHEREAS, An increase in mobile dispensaries has been found to coincide with successful enforcement actions involving storefront dispensaries. hi other parts of the state, shuttered businesses turned to delivery services instead. There is reason to expect the same in the City of Colton, particularly in light of the Supreme Court of California's recent ruling upholding the City of Riverside's ban on marijuana dispensaries, the City of Colton's willingness to cooperate with federal law enforcement operations, and its own aggressive enforcement actions against medical marijuana dispensaries; and -2-