City Council Votes Down Ban on Marijuana Dispensaries

In a reverse course, the San Leandro City Council voted down a proposed ordinance banning medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits. 

The council voted 4-3 on Monday night not to print an ordinance that would have made permanent a temporary moratorium on marijuana collectives and cooperatives. The temporary moratorium expires on Sept. 30, 2011. 

The vote represents backtracking from what seemed several months ago to be firm support on the council for keeping pot dispensaries out of the city. In early March, the city council directed staff to draft an ordinance banning dispensaries. That vote was 5-1; only Councilmember Jim Prola spoke up in defense of dispensaries. (Councilmember Michael Gregory was absent.)  

Nevertheless, Councilmembers Ursula Reed and Pauline Cutter, along with Vice Mayor Gregory, joined Prola on Monday in voting down a permanent ban.

Prola gave a long and impassioned speech, citing evidence of marijuana's medical properties and challenging the assertion of some public safety officials, including Captain Steve Pricco from the , that pot collectives attract crime. 

“We’re encouraging crime by not regulating, taxing and controlling it like other cities are doing,” Prola said.

Reed seemed less sure, but said she was voting against the ordinance because of doubts—about the relative danger of legalizing sales versus keeping it underground, and about the potential statewide legalization of the drug for recreational use in the coming years. 

"We do have to keep in mind that there is a possibility for legalization, and then what’s the city going to do? Reed asked. "And, as Prola stated, are we promoting the crime because we’re promoting the back-door situation? I’m not sure, but at this time I’m voting 'no' on it." 

Marijuana can be grown legally in San Leandro under state law if growers have authorization to do so for medicinal purposes under Proposition 215. However, the federal government, which considers marijuana illegal, has threatened action against neighboring Oakland over plans to authorize large-scale grow operations there. 

Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli said most growers in San Leandro sell to the illegal market. She suggested that allowing medical marijuana dispensaries wouldn't change this fact. 

“Even if we had legal dispensaries in our town, we would still have people growing marijuana for street use,” she told the city council.

Spagnoli also suggested that making legal pot more readily available could be dangerous for youth, saying that more and more children were "getting their hands on medicinal marijuana.” 

Several representatives of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, which represents medical cannabis workers, showed up to encourage council members to vote down the ordinance. 

Dan Rush, from Local 5 in San Jose, said that outside legal counsel hired by the City of Oakland will provide that city in the near future with a recommendation on how to proceed with its medical marijuana ordinance. He suggested San Leandro would be wise to wait until that happens before deciding how to go forward.

Rush also said the union has worked with other cities and counties across the state to institute a merit-based cannabis dispensary ordinance, which includes bonus points for employers who hire out-of-work local residents. 

"Cities and counties that follow our program create hundreds, if not thousands of sustainable, single-earner, union jobs in their cities," Rush said. He also suggested the industry could bring in hefty annual sums in "sustainable tax revenues" to the city.