Oceanside Council To Take Up Medical Marijuana Again

You are listening to KPBS Midday Edition. Marijuana advocates have been successful in Oceanside more so than other North County cities in convincing the city Council to let some marijuana businesses to legally operate but not dispensaries. City Council has agreed to regulate commercial conservation decibel cultivation, but so far legal medical marijuana dispensaries are not allowed in the city. The Oceanside city Council host a workshop on medical marijuana and may make changes to the city ordinance passed three months ago. We are joined by Oceanside City Councilman Jerry Kern who spent a year meeting with stakeholders to come up with the proposed medical marijuana ordinance for the city. Councilman McCurn thank you for being here. The main topic of discussion in today's workshop is whether or not to allow medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. What would you like to see the city Council do? >> I would like to hear the original ad hoc report. We work a year on this. We came up with what I thought was a good compromise was to allow for dispensaries in the city of 180,000. I thought it was a good compromise. I would like to see it go back to that. Like you said in your intro, the supply-chain side, we have worked out. There is not much resistant vessel resynthesis to the supply-chain side. We've allowed manufacturing and delivery and testing in industrial zones. But everyone gets upset about that dispensaries which is the public face of Cannabis. >>> Why do you think medicinal marijuana dispensaries is a sticking point. Is there a chance that the city Council might change their mind today or later? >> It is the public face. People have a conception of the illegal dispensaries that are operating in San Diego and elsewhere. They have a lot of problems. They pop up, all-cash business, they have issues. The police report that our chief McCoy is bringing for today sites San Diego as the third problem. It's not the legal dispensaries but the illegal ones that keep popping up. Hopefully we get movement on that. I do not know. >>> Do you think the council will be more likely to allow a business based in Oceanside that delivers medicinal marijuana as opposed to a storefront? >> We allow delivery service only for license shops outside of our jurisdiction. If we have license shops within our jurisdiction that is delivery only, that may eliminate the stigma of people hanging out in front a pot shops. But the actual medical marijuana facilities. Maybe there is a compromise. It is not what I would want. I want to go back to the original ad hoc recommendation. We need three votes. I don't know if we will get that third vote. >>> Because the city Council did not vote to regulate dispensaries, a group called Oceanside access for safe access has gotten signatures to get an initiative on the ballot for 2022 allow recreational marijuana and the city would you think about that? >> I moved against the initiative process in general because you lose control. One of the things we are doing tonight is correcting the mistakes made during the ad hoc committee report. We wanted Cannabis to be a regulated abuse. We called it that. Within our code regulated use has a definite definition. The separation roles of 1000 feet, if you are in South more Hills growing, that meant you could not open up a greenhouse within 1000 feet of a greenhouse of your neighbor. The nice thing about writing ordinances to the city is that if you make a mistake, you can come back and corrected. The problem with the citizens initiative, if there is a mistake, I have not read through the whole initiative process yet, if there is a mistake, you cannot correct it without a vote of the people. I am hesitant to go down that route. I understand the frustration. We have worked on this for a year. They have not seen movement on it. I can understand where they are coming from. >>> Thank you so much for joining us. >> Thank you, I appreciate your time.