By Andrea Swayne
The Dana Point City Council voted unanimously on Monday to a first reading for adoption of an ordinance explicitly banning the sale of marijuana by dispensaries along with its cultivation in and delivery to the city.
The special meeting was set in response to the state’s new law, The Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2016, establishing a combined state and local licensing system for commercial marijuana businesses.
According to City Attorney Patrick Munoz, the special meeting was necessary in order to allow time for the required second reading and vote by City Council, 30 days after the first reading, to officially adopt the ban before the state’s March 1, 2016 deadline.
Because commercial medicinal marijuana business are not expressly permitted by the city’s zoning laws, the practice is technically considered banned in Dana Point.
But with the new state law cities wishing to enact bans on the cultivation and delivery of cannabis are required to adopt specific ordinances to do so. In cities that choose not to, state law will take precedence.
The city’s new ordinance, Munoz said, explicitly bans all commercial marijuana activities in Dana Point.
The law will not prohibit qualified medicinal marijuana patients in Dana Point from filling their prescriptions at legally operating dispensaries outside of the city but they may neither grow nor receive cannabis via delivery service.
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