By Jason Islas
Staff Writer

August 8, 2013 -- Anyone hoping to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Monica may have to wait another year if the City Council votes Tuesday to extend a temporary moratorium on the controversial businesses.

While the Council will only decide on a temporary moratorium at its Tuesday meeting, it will also lay the groundwork for more permanent legislation that would ultimately decide whether the business of selling pot has a place in the bayside city.

A lot has changed since the Council last took up the issue in October 2012 when it passed a 10-month moratorium on pot dispensaries. Perhaps the most significant change was a May 6 decision by the California Supreme Court which said that cities could ban the dispensaries.

“We're asking them (the Council members) to extend the moratorium so that we can” figure out what to do, said Principal Planner Paul Foley. “We want them to give us direction.”

Until now, the Council has been ambivalent about the idea. In October, then-mayor Richard Bloom said that while he didn't oppose medical marijuana use -- legal under California law -- on principal, he didn't want to Santa Monica to put itself in conflict with Federal law, under which use of the drug for any reason is explicitly prohibited.

Long-time Council member Bob Holbrook went a step further, opposing dispensaries because he believed, while a small number of people genuinely need medical marijuana, most simply take advantage of the easy access to the drug dispensaries provide.

Even though the Council has been reticent on the subject, not everyone is opposed to having dispensaries in Santa Monica.

Staff convened a community meeting to discuss the issue on February 7 which was attended, among others, by “operators of medical marijuana facilities” and patients with prescriptions for the drug, according to staff.

“All in attendance agreed that medical marijuana facilities should be permitted in the City,” staff said.

But they did favor some regulation of dispensaries, with limitations on locations, operating conditions and the number that could do business in Santa Monica.

Many supporters of medical marijuana dispensaries have pointed to West Hollywood as a successful example of the businesses working within a city, albeit with significant regulations.

According to Santa Monica City staff, West Hollywood allows only four dispensaries to operate in the two-square-mile city and limits their size to 4,500 square feet.

West Hollywood also restricts their hours and bans the businesses from operating near parks, schools, other dispensaries or in neighborhoods.

Dispensaries in West Hollywood are also required to have “security lighting, alarms and guards and provide a neighborhood security patrol within a 2 block radius during operating hours.”

While the West Hollywood model may work, allowing dispensaries in other cities has proven more complicated.

Despite State laws that allow them to operate, dispensaries have had to fight for their survival in Los Angeles. Last summer, L.A.'s City Council voted to ban them because, with nearly 400 in the city, they proved difficult to regulate.

However, the ban didn't last long and the question was put to voters in May. Proposition D, which allows up to 135 dispensaries to do business in Los Angeles while raising taxes on them, passed with nearly two-thirds of the vote.

City officials are concerned about the potential negative consequences that could come with dispensaries if they are allowed to set up shop in Santa Monica.

Staff points to a report by the California Police Chief's Association which asserts that cities which have allowed dispensaries see ramifications like increased violent crime, illegal drugs being sold near to the dispensaries and “the diversion of marijuana for non-medical and recreational uses.”

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office has also come out against dispensaries, going so far as demand that the RAND Corporation -- a Santa Monica-based think tank -- pull a study from its website that contradicted the DA's position. (“RAND Pulls Marijuana Dispensary Study,” October 17, 2011)

Even if the Council should decide that Santa Monica doesn't need marijuana dispensaries Tuesday, the drug won't be hard to come by.

“There's plenty of them in Venice,” said Foley, referring to the number of dispensaries in Santa Monica's southern neighbor, known for its bohemian culture.

And, of course, there's always West Hollywood.