Mobile marijuana dispensaries banned in Pismo Beach

Mobile marijuana dispensaries will no longer be allowed to operate in Pismo Beach, but discussion about regulating marijuana in the city is not over, Mayor Shelly Higginbotham said Tuesday.

"The writing is on the wall that there is going to be an initiative (to legalize recreational marijuana) in 2016 on the California ballot," Higginbotham said following the City Council's Tuesday night meeting. "We cities are trying to look at this in preparation. I think things are going to change, I think laws are going to change, and we are waiting to see that."

The City Council unanimously decided Tuesday to update its existing ban on medical marijuana dispensaries to include mobile dispensaries, because those businesses create the same "adverse impacts" as a brick-and-mortar dispensary, according to a city staff report.

The item quietly came before the council at the close of its meeting. No members of the public were in the audience by the time of the vote, and council members had no discussion on the issue before approving the ban.

Higginbotham said Tuesday's decision helps clarify Pismo Beach's existing ordinance, until a time that California and its cities can look at marijuana regulations again, and develop uniform policies regarding its distribution.

"We don't want to try and rush to come up with an ordinance that we may have to change some years down the road," she said.

The decision makes Pismo Beach the third city in the county to explicitly ban mobile medical cannabis distribution.

Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Grover Beach, Morro Bay and Paso Robles all prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries in their municipal codes, but only Arroyo Grande and Atascadero ban mobile dispensaries.

Since 2007, Pismo Beach has banned “any facility in a single fixed location where a primary caregiver makes available, sells, transmits, gives or otherwise provides medical marijuana, or cannabis, for medical purposes to two or more qualified patients or persons with an identification card.”

San Luis Obispo does not have an ordinance banning dispensaries; however, they are not listed as an approved use in the city’s municipal code and are therefore prohibited. The San Luis Obispo City Council rejected a ban on medical marijuana growing in the city in May 2014, in a vote that also would have prohibited mobile dispensaries from operating within city limits.

In August 2014, the Paso Robles City Council set a precedent for mobile dispensaries to operate within city limits, after it failed to secure enough votes to pass a proposed ban (the final vote was 2-2, with Councilman John Harmon absent from the meeting). The council elected to take no further action on the issue.

This story was originally published February 17, 2015 at 10:44 PM with the headline "Mobile marijuana dispensaries banned in Pismo Beach."