The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Citing federal law that still makes it a crime to grow, use or possess marijuana, city administrators recommend the charter be amended to prohibit the dispensaries.
The City Council last year enacted a moratorium on medical marijuana clinics that is scheduled to expire Nov. 10.
In a report prepared by community development director Brian Saeki and senior planner David Blumenthal, city officials also cited reports of violent crime -- specifically robberies and homicides -- at dispensaries in neighboring cities.
“Besides crimes against persons and property, the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries has been linked to organized criminal activity, money laundering and firearm violations,” the report states.
California voters approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1996. The state created a voluntary medical marijuana identification card program in 2003 to protect residents from state marijuana laws.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in June that of California’s 481 incorporated cities, 132 have banned medical marijuana dispensaries. Another 101 have enacted temporary moratoriums.
Best, Best & Krieger, before they were fired as the city’s law firm, wrote a whitepaper suggesting Downey had the discretion to either regulate or prohibit medical marijuana clinics. The law firm also warned the city against “adverse secondary impacts” dispensaries could pose.
“On balance, any utility to medical marijuana patients in care giving and convenience that marijuana dispensaries may appear to have on the surface is enormously outweighed by a much darker reality that is punctuated by the many adverse secondary effects created by their presence in communities,” Best, Best & Krieger wrote. “These drug distribution centers have even proven to be unsafe for their own proprietors.”
The city of Los Angeles recently approved a restrictive ordinance aimed at corralling the city’s estimated 400 medical marijuana dispensaries. Attorneys representing marijuana dispensaries given shut-down notices have said they will sue Los Angeles to remain open.
Only one medical marijuana dispensary has operated legally in Downey. It closed after the city's moratorium went into effect late last year.
*Edited: The Planning Commission itself cannot amend the city charter. It will consider Wednesday asking the City Council to make the revisions.
**Thursday morning update: The resolution passed, 5-0. The City Council is expected to hold a public hearing on the matter in the coming weeks.
I know you must be devestated, but with the proliferation of Hydroponics shops you should consider growing your own. Why pay a middle man when you can set up a mini co-op in your own yard or grow room? So get your card from the doc, a circulation tank, and a submesion table and get into the hydroponics hobby!
According to the ONDCP, at least sixty percent of Mexican drug cartel money comes from selling marijuana in the U.S., they protect this revenue by brutally torturing, murdering and dismembering thousands of innocent people.
If we can STOP people using marijuana then we need to do so NOW, but if we can't then we need to legalize the production and sale of marijuana to adults with after-tax prices set too low for the cartels to match. One way or another, we have to force the cartels out of the marijuana market and eliminate their highly lucrative marijuana incomes - no business can withstand the loss of sixty percent of its revenue!
To date, the cartels have amassed more than 100,000 "foot soldiers" and operate in 230 U.S. cities, and the longer they're able to exploit the prohibition the more powerful they get and the more our own personal security is put at risk.