“I can’t vote for this because of all the legal threats,” warned West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon.  He was referring to the city’s medical marijuana dispensary ordinance.  It was a very tense situation. No actual legal threats had been issued.  But many cannabis advocates and lawyers alike notified the City of West Sacramento that its draft ordinance had numerous legal vulnerabilities.  

For starters, the city is attempting to force dispensary patrons to purchase a state issued identification card.  That will not pass legal muster, because the California state I.D. card program is explicitly voluntary.  

West Sacramento city officials are also trying to limit their dispensaries’ clientele to residents of the city.  Health attorney and West Sacramento resident David Brock cited fundamental rights such as freedom of association, due diligence, and California’s Medical Marijuana Program as reasons why the limitation would be illegal.

The futility of these proposals were underscored when City Planner Steve Rikala announced that only 20 Yolo County residents had purchased the state I.D. card.  Of those 20, only 2 to 4 were West Sacramento residents, depending on who had moved!

Council Member Wes Beers suggested putting a, “poison pill” into the ordinance, at the Council’s December 16, 2009 meeting.  If anyone threatened legal action, the ordinance would go away, according to Beers’ proposal.  But what the city would do in lieu of regulating dispensaries was not clear.  Maybe a ban on dispensaries, maybe a protracted moratorium.  Either way, it would mark a clear step backwards in local pot distribution regulation.

Votes taken at the city’s Planning Commission the next day brought the city closer to passing an illegal ordinance.  By majority, and sometimes unanimous votes, the Commission signed on to the unconstitutional I.D. card requirement, as well as the unlawful city residency mandate.  There is a wide disconnect between advocates for medical marijuana and city officials, at this point.  Policymakers with police powers are ignoring advice from their most knowledgeable partners on this issue, and imperiling West Sacramento’s ordinance as a result.

In order to save their medical marijuana ordinance, the City of West Sacramento will have to carefully modify it to bring it into compliance with law.  As it stands, the ordinance will not survive legal challenge.  Unless city officials buck up and rise to this challenge, they are liable to end up with the worst of both worlds: no medical marijuana dispensary regulations, and continued street corner marijuana hawking.

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Big Beef
written by Pamela, April 27, 2010

The biggest problem I have most with the ordinance is that it took them this long to think there's a problem. Didn't the city officials see???? the the numbers rising in beginning and think yea there should be a cap, not lets cut the numbers down, close businesses & lay people off due to that. The rules should of been in place when this all started, but with reasonable rules of location. What are they going to do when there's 12 dispensaries and the lines are ridiculously long, the city will say "oh no we need to shut them down there's too many people going in" I hope its legalized this November, I'm tired of watching cannabis get slammed, this patients are sick. My girlfriend suffers from IBS, its very painful and cannabis helps with the nausea, pain, cramps, diarrhea. It's been demonized for way too long. I'm glad she has a place that she can go to get her medicine, rather than in a drug dealers house, its safe and I think the city is getting out of control.

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