PLACERVILLE, CA) — The Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee will meet Thursday, October 12th to discuss proposed ordinance changes to both the cannabis cultivation ordinance and code compliance ordinance to create a civil enforcement process for marijuana cultivation. The proposed ordinance changes were initiated through a process of six different meetings of the Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee. The group agreed that the first step in providing a safe environment for medical users of marijuana and their neighbors was to create an effective enforcement process. This process would ensure that individuals who follow the County’s cultivation rules could safely use their medicine and the individuals not following the County’s cultivation rules would be brought into compliance.
On January 10th, the Board of Supervisors gave conceptual approval for the ordinance changes after receiving a recommendation from the Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee. Since January, County staff has been working on the proposed ordinances with the help of other counties that have already created civil enforcement processes.
The Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee meeting will be held from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM at the Board of Supervisors Meeting Room at 330 Fair Lane, Placerville.
The Committee is comprised of two members of the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors. The committee members have been collecting information at each of the meetings from different stakeholder groups, members of the public, and County departments regarding each meeting topic (e.g. taxation, compliance, etc.).
Background Information on the Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee
The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors created the ad hoc advisory committee at its March 15th, 2016 special meeting regarding medical marijuana. During the special meeting, the Board of Supervisors received an overview on the current medical marijuana laws and reports from County departments, stakeholder groups and the public on how medical marijuana policy decisions could affect them. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Board of Supervisors created the ad hoc Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee to collect more information on different medical marijuana topics (e.g. cultivation, dispensaries, compliance, etc.).
The County did not conduct meetings regarding medical marijuana in 2015 due to the major statutory overhauls undertaken by the State of California that resulted in the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA), signed in October 2015 and amended in February 2016. The County decided to wait before pursuing updated medical marijuana ordinances to ensure that any updates were consistent with the new State laws and regulations.
To date, the Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee has met on seven occasions: May 2nd meeting was on the structure of the future meetings, June 20th meeting was on cultivation, June 27th meeting was on niche medical marijuana businesses (e.g. dispensaries, nurseries, etc.), August 22nd meeting was on compliance procedures regarding medical marijuana rules, September 19th meeting was on taxation and fees for medical marijuana, December 12th meeting was on conceptual changes to the medical marijuana enforcement procedures (e.g. moving towards more of a civil enforcement process), and March 27th meeting was to discuss the County’s administrative decisions for Proposition 64.
credit:edcgov.us
