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San Diego Considers Legal Cultivation

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Impending regulations could prompt San Diego to establish cultivation regulations, legalizing cultivation within city limits for the first time. A memo was issued January 4th by Deputy City Attorney Shannon Thomas which outlines numerous ways the city could regulate the cultivation of cannabis.

“Obviously the best news would be if they passed something, but any discussion that it’s an option they are considering is very positive,” Jessica McElfresh, a local cannabis attorney, told The San Diego Tribune. “It would provide clarification to the entire population of the city of San Diego where people can cultivate medical marijuana.”

San Diego’s current and somewhat hazy cultivation limits don’t provide land-use regulations. Those limits exist only to provide immunity from growers with medical cannabis cards. Anticipation for the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act has prompted many communities to act. Local municipalities, including San Diego, fear that they may lose the opportunity to regulate cannabis if they don’t establish their own laws by March 1.

The memo, written by Thomas, recommends the city issue a temporary moratorium on cultivation until permanent regulations are established. A moratorium would require the approval of eight of the nine city council members. The League of California Cities, however, wants to ban cultivation before ceding over authority to the state.

“In an abundance of caution, we have been advising our member cities to enact cultivation ordinances — in this case a ban — to make sure they preserve their regulatory authority whether the clean-up bill goes through or not,” said Tim Cromartie, a spokesman for the league. “A ban is the quickest and cleanest way.”

The silver lining of the forthcoming implementation of MMRSA is that communities are forced to act. Otherwise they might have done nothing.

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