Marijuana is poured from a jar at at medical marijuana dispensary. (David McNew/Getty Images)
SAN JOSE (KCBS) — The San Jose City Council will once again take up the thorny issue of regulating medical marijuana dispensaries on Tuesday evening, including an ordinance that could severely limit where the cannabis clubs can operate.
Under these proposed regulations, medical marijuana dispensaries would not be able to open within 1,000 feet of schools, 150 feet of homes, or 500 feet from drug rehab centers. That would leave only about 1,400 parcels of land where the dispensaries could operate—mostly in the industrialized area in north San Jose.
“I don’t think they will be concentrated. If you look at the map very closely, you’ll find there is probably a thousand locations that they can go in the city of San Jose. It’s certainly several hundred locations,” he said.
Medical marijuana advocates, like Sylvia Beddoe, oppose the new rule because they say it will make it only more difficult for patients to get access.
“They continue seeing this as a joke, that we’re just a bunch of potheads and stoners sitting around and getting high—that’s ridiculous,” Beddoe said.
Some version of the new rules is expected to be passed by the Council, which is acting on its new legal authority. Last spring, the State Supreme Court ruled that cities can regulate medical marijuana shops which have prompted the new proposals.
