MAYOR’S WIFE USES HER FACEBOOK PAGE TO PUSH LB CITY COUNCIL FOR TOUGHER MEDICAL MARIJUANA ORDINANCE
By Dave Wielenga
The Long Beach City Charter doesn’t give her an official voice and she isn’t registered with City Hall as a lobbyist, but Nancy Foster is the wife of Mayor Bob Foster—and on Monday night she leveraged whatever influence comes with that connection to support additional restrictions to Long Beach’s medical marijuana ordinance.
Three city council members—Gary DeLong, Gerrie Schipske and Patrick O’Donnell—have placed an item (by sweet coincidence, No. 13) on Tuesday night’s council agenda that would tweak the ordinance the council passed after considerable debate seven months ago.
Writing on her Facebook page in a missive that was posted at about 5:30 this evening, Long Beach’s First Lady not only commended DeLong, Schipske and O’Donnell, but also urged other members of the city council to support them.
“Los Angeles went from having over 800 marijuana collectives to a strict Medical Marijuana Ordinance which has reduced the collectives in LA drastically,” Nancy Foster wrote. “Right now three Council Members feel an obligation to make Long Beach’s Marijuana Ordinance more restricted as well. They are Council Members DeLong, Schipske and O’Donnell. I encourage other Council Members to join them on Tuesday night!”
Retooling the medical marijuana ordinance could complicate a compromise that was reached after considering many legal and emotional issues. Furthermore, it may undo a process that has been underway for months—some $777,000 in permit fees have been collected and a lottery has awarded 32 collectives the right to sell marijuana at 37 sites—and incite legal challenges.
Nonetheless, DeLong, Schipske and O’Donnell are asking the council to approve a request that the city attorney add these new restrictions to the medical marijuana ordinance:
• Collectives cannot be located within 1,000 feet of a Park, Library, or Day Care facility as licensed through the City of Long Beach.
• Limit the number of dispensary locations to 18 citywide, and no more than 2 dispensaries per district.
• Restrict the cultivation of Medical Marijuana to Industrial Zones.
• Require the collectives to produce Audited Financial Statements by a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and submit their annual Sales Tax report for the Board of Equalization.
• Restrict hours of operation to Monday through Sunday 9:00am to 5:00pm
• In lieu of a Public Hearing provide a 45-day input/comment period while allowing the public to review submitted applications. Include an additional noticing to property owners once a permit is issued.
• Upon implementation of the amended ordinance, create a 1-year moratorium banning additional applications and request City Departments to come back and provide a report to City Council of effectiveness, impacts, and cost implications of implemented ordinance.
• Require permitted Collectives to have security cameras consistent with the Long Beach Police Department’s requirements.
• Provide effected applicants a 60-day period to resubmit for an allowed location.
10 Comments
i hope some enterprising lawyer hooks up with a medpot patient and sues long beach under the fed disability act. the city is making access to LEGAL medicine increasingly difficult.
Pot is not classified as “medicine” under Federal law, therefore an ADA lawsuit is laughable.
It’s real easy for someone who has all of their needs addressed to dictate to those who don’t. I wonder when she sleeps on her twenty mattresses if she can still feel the pea?
[...] MAYOR’S WIFE USES HER FACEBOOK PAGE TO PUSH LB CITY COUNCIL FOR TOUGHER MEDICAL MARIJUANA ORDI…The Long Beach City Charter doesn’t give her an official voice and she isn’t registered with City Hall as a lobbyist, but Nancy Foster is the wife of Mayor Bob Foster—and on Monday night she leveraged whatever influence comes with that connection to support additional restrictions to Long Beach’s medical marijuana ordinance. Three city council [...] READ MORE|November 8, 8:07 pm Advertiser Jump to a section All Writey!/Wrongy! Bars & Clubs Books Business California City Halls Commie Girl Community News Education Elections Environment Essays & Asides Featured Features & Opinions GreaterLB TV LA & OC LBReport Music News & Politics On Screen Profiles Restaurants Sports The Arts Theater Vector Control Visual arts [...]
Restrict the cultivation of Medical Marijuana to Industrial Zones?
Redevelopment Proposal for Tom Dean’s disputed, industrial-zoned tank farm at Loynes/Studebaker:
“Cannabis Depot!”
Do you really think all of Nancy’s “needs” have been addressed? Looking at Bob Foster I find that hard to believe.
all it takes is one successful case to establish precedent.
Just because the feds say it isn’t medicine doesn’t make it so. Even they can’t agree amongst themselves. Consider the NIDA program wherein a small number of patients are provided marijuana as medicine. 21% of the people who try cannabis have a negative experience and should not use it. But for the 79% who have a positive result access should be unfettered by an ordinance that is overly restrictive and irresponsible toward the ill and infirm. If it were not for William Randolph hearst and his greed, cannabis would be available in every drugstore in the country, just as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. You couldn’t swing a dead cat in a drugstore without hitting something containing cannabis as one of its ingredients. Mr. Hearst was worried that he coudn’t extract enough profit from his timber holdings if he had to compete with cannabis. How would he have ever built his castle if he had to compete with an easily renewable resource such as cannabis?
I wonder how Ms. Foster would fare if all of her anti-depressive meds were denied her?? No problem, her hubby and his tax-paid team would bail her out.
I wonder if there is a cure for “reefer madness”–give it to Ms. Foster quick before she goes off the deep end.