The Clearlake Planning Commission held a lengthy public hearing at its Dec. 15 meeting to discuss the proposed medical marijuana ordinance, which has been in the works since earlier this year.

Two days later, on Dec. 17, the Clearlake City Council would vote during a special morning meeting to

extend for another 10 months and 15 days a temporary moratorium on the opening of new dispensaries in the city limits, while the ordinance governing them is worked out.

City officials noted in previous meetings that the temporary moratorium allows the three dispensaries or collectives currently operating in the city – Lakeside Herbal Solutions, Triple C Collective and D&M Compassion Center – to continue operating.

The Clearlake Planning Commission has so far held three hearings on the proposed ordinance – including a Nov. 5 joint meeting with the Clearlake City Council as well as at its Dec. 1 regular meeting.

Planning Commission Chair Al Bernal explained that there likely would be another public hearing, and urged people not to be frustrated – as he sensed was the case at the Dec. 1 meeting – about how they're working through the process.

A 6 p.m. Jan. 19 commission meeting will be held to further consider the ordinance, officials noted.

Ron Green, a local attorney who has worked with retired District 1 Supervisor Ed Robey to offer proposed changes to the 21-page proposed ordinance, delivered to the commission the six and half page “Green-Robey Ordinance,” which they suggested the commission use rather than the city's draft document.

At the Dec. 1 meeting Green and Robey had strongly urged the commission to toss out the ordinance that Police Chief Allan McClain drafted.

“There is so much wrong with that ordinance,” Green said Dec. 15. “It's oppressive, it's onerous, it's cumbersome, it's overly burdensome, and it's legally insufficient in many ways, some of which I pointed out.”

Green said he and Robey wanted to give the commission a document that would be a starting point. “It's not the end all, we don't believe it's perfect,” but Green said it can be more easily changed than the present proposed ordinance.

Commissioner Bill Perkins said he noticed that in looking at ordinances from some more “liberal” areas of the state that Green and Robey had left out some rules that those ordinances also included, such as not allowing people to ingest medical marijuana on the dispensaries' premises, and not restricting the distance required from certain areas, like churches, day cares and schools; the city's proposed ordinance requires dispensaries not be within 1,500 feet of such establishments. Green said that was because they didn't feel those limits were appropriate.

“It's kind of interesting, because all these liberal ones all have that,” said Perkins. “You went so far liberal, you're at one end and the chief's at the other end.”

Green replied that at one end there is no regulation, and on the other there is onerous regulation. “We tried to come up with what we thought was an ideal balance.”

Commissioner Cal Webb took issue with what he said was Green's negative tone in referring to McClain's draft document.

While marijuana is going through a transition period, Webb explained, “There's a dark side to the marijuana issue, also.”

He said there are criminal cartels involved with growing the drug, as well as murders and burglaries that have resulted.

Webb said McClain “is looking at this from a law enforcement position, as he rightfully should,” in trying to put together regulations that will allow dispensaries to operate “without the dark side of the marijuana issue become a problem in the city of Clearlake.”

Commending McClain, Webb – who also comes from a law enforcement background – said he might have drafted something similar.

Green said he believed, if the proposed ordinance passed, that it would be too onerous for dispensaries to operate.

“He does have the responsibility of protecting the citizens of Clearlake,” not just the medical marijuana users, said Webb.

City Administrator Dale Neiman interjected, saying it wasn't McClain's ordinance. He said they've had four meetings with the council, and Neiman asked McClain to draft it. City officials also met with a committee formed by Clearlake City Council member Joyce Overton and took that group's suggestions.

“The direction was, we wanted it to be tight, the proposal,” said Neiman, noting that both he and the city's attorney, Malathy Subramanian, went over the draft and proposed changes.

Neiman said Robey and Green has approached the county earlier this year and offered help drafting the ordinance. “My response was, that's the staff's job, we do that.” He said he also turned down Green's offer of free legal advice, comparing the idea of taking it to allowing the developer of the proposed Provinsalia subdivision to help do the staff report and provide legal assistance.

“It makes no sense and that's not how the process should work,” he said.

Green said he didn't know why, if Subramanian reviewed the ordinance, it had so many legal insufficiencies.

He argued with the idea that there's a “dark side” to medical marijuana in Clearlake. He said the real problems are in the national forest, where he suggested problems would be reduced if marijuana was totally legalized.

Bernal said he didn't want to throw out the city's current draft proposal. “I wouldn't want to start over,” he said, noting that could push the process back six to eight weeks.

McClain said he wanted to address the “dark side” issue.

“When I came here, the city council told me to leave them alone,” McClain said of the dispensaries.

He said the city has had three homicides over people growing medical marijuana. Even if it the drug is completely legalized, he said he didn't see the problems totally disappearing. McClain said it's not illegal to own a television, but people will still steal them, just like they steal alcohol.

“To try to build a bubble and say if we do this the right way all these things will disappear is not true,” said McClain, noting people will still want things they're not supposed to have.

Medical marijuana patient Valerie Adase, who uses the drug to treat glaucoma, said allowing the dispensaries to operate is more a matter of giving a business license, and they shouldn't be placed under “draconian” regulations.

She called the ordinance “a real waste of time.”

Liz Byrd, owner of Lakeside Herbal Solutions, would spend about an hour at the podium, going over the ordinance's points and answering commissioners' questions.

One of Byrd's main concerns was the proposed ordinance's limits on the number of members a dispensary can have – 200. She said she has almost 700 members in her collective.

“How do I decide which 200 are the most important to take care of?” she asked, suggesting they will have to send the others to the streets, where the marijuana's quality isn't carefully monitored.

Byrd, noting that she hasn't had any problems and cares for “respectable patients that use it for the right reasons,” also questioned locating the dispensaries in the light industry C-4 zoning areas, where there are chemicals that can harm patients.

McClain said the number of dispensary members is based on the limits set for dispensaries in cities of comparable size to Clearlake.

Byrd's collective currently is located 700 feet from a church – not the 1,500 feet that the proposed ordinance would require. She said that, out of respect, her collective is closed on Sundays. “We don't want to be a burden on anybody.”

She also has security measures, and won't sell to nonmembers or allow them in her establishment.

Byrd said she agreed with requiring dispensaries and collectives to have use permits and licenses to operate, and that she preferred the C-2 retail zoning areas. She said prices for product varies according to availability.

In addition, Byrd – who also uses medical marijuana for fibromyalgia – didn't agree with the proposed ordinance's rules to prevent everyone, including employees, from using medical marijuana on the premises, and is against the provision preventing some cultivation on site.

Green also went point by point through the ordinance with the commission. He said he felt the attempt to limit the number of dispensary members was unconstitutional.

He suggested that only responding to complaints and background checks were the business of the police, and that the rest of the issues relating to governing dispensaries were planning functions.

Green also asked how dispensaries could control whether or not members used medical marijuana within 1,000 feet of their establishments, as the draft ordinanc e would require.

The commission's work on the ordinance will continue at its next meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

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