The Palm Springs City Council has opted to add some flexibility to its medical marijuana ordinance, the Desert Sun reports.
Under a 4-1 vote, a new amendment will give the council discretion to review applicants hoping to open medical marijuana facilities as the council sees fit — even if those applicants don’t fit within the ordinance’s standards.
The ordinance was too rigid before and put the final decision “in the city manager’s lap, which is not where it’s supposed to be,” City Councilman Chris Mills said Wednesday.
Councilman Lee Weigel, the dissenting vote, disagreed.
“The City Council’s job is to set policy … it is not to do the work … that the staff should be doing,” Weigel said. “We’re a policy body.”
With the amendment, council can look at applicants looking to open medical marijuana facilities in Palm Springs even if they don’t meet the ordinance’s minimum 500-foot distance from churches, homes, parks and schools.
Palm Springs has narrowed its list of medical cannabis facility applicants to four: Cannahelp, CAPS Apothecary, Organic Solutions of the Desert and Herbal Solutions.
Even though the amendment approved Wednesday won’t take effect until March, an urgency ordinance could replace it in the meantime and allow the council to select its two chosen applicants Feb. 3, City Attorney Doug Holland said. That means the two facilities could be open as early as mid-February, he added.
Several at Wednesday’s council meeting repeated a commonly heard concern: Two patient facilities wouldn’t be enough for Palm Springs. They implored the council to allow more.
Mark Adams of Herbal Solutions asked the council to consider allowing four facilities. Two facilities likely could handle patient demand — but they wouldn’t be able to cultivate locally all the medical marijuana for those patients, as recommended by the ordinance, he said. “If they really want to control medical cannabis, it needs to be a closed-loop system. Otherwise, you won’t be able to tell where the medicine comes from,” he said.
“Two dispensaries alone, it’s not as easy to find as you might think. I’ve seen people suffer,” said Palm Springs resident Larry Nielsen, adding that he was a terminally ill medical marijuana patient. The ordinance prohibits for-profit dispensaries and allows only not-for-profit cooperatives or collectives.
Councilwoman Ginny Foat said she supported allowing more than two facilities, but the council opted on that limit “in the spirit of compromise.”
“We had the votes for two, or none,” Mayor Pro Tem Rick Hutcheson added. “I think it’s very courageous of the city of Palm Springs to take this step.”
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