After voting in Bob Leone as the new mayor and Merl Abel as mayor pro tem, the Yucca Valley Town Council strengthened the town’s ban on medical marijuana last night by adopting a resolution prohibiting marijuana cultivation. Council members also directed staff to prepare new stand-alone ordinances that clearly prohibit marijuana cultivation and medical marijuana dispensaries, to replace the current ordinance. These actions are in response to a new California law that goes into effect January 1. The law would require all marijuana growers, distributors, and delivery services to be licensed by the state. To prevent the state from having sole control over medical marijuana dispensaries, municipalities must adopt their own ordinances by March 1. Managing editor Tami Roleff says it wasn’t a surprise how the council voted. Tomorrow, in part 2 of her report, she’ll cover the rest of the meeting…
Speaker after speaker stood up to tell the town council that Yucca Valley residents voted down Measure X because they didn’t want medical marijuana available in the town, and they wanted to keep the “riff-raff” out. They urged the council to retain local control over marijuana dispensaries by adopting the resolution and crafting a new ordinance against dispensaries, mobile delivery services, and marijuana cultivation. A few people spoke about the benefits of medical marijuana for seriously ill people, while acknowledging that they already knew the council would vote against them. The town council voted unanimously to follow staff’s recommendation to prohibit marijuana cultivation and dispensaries in the town, with an exception for growing medical marijuana for personal use. Tomorrow, in part 2, traffic and road safety improvements.
YUCCA VALLEY TOWN COUNCIL STRENGTHENS BAN ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA
