Medical marijuana rules being set ahead of state deadline

This week, cities across the Central Coast will be talking about medical marijuana and finalizing policies before state law kicks in. Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado says his city has already banned medical marijuana dispensaries.

On Tuesday, Marina City Council members didn’t pass an urgency ordinance to ban the cultivation of marijuana in the city. Instead, they’re asking staff to come back with another draft in two weeks. Council members also discussed if they want to allow marijuana deliveries in the city. All the decisions need to be made before March 1, 2016, when state regulations will go into effect for any local government that hasn’t made its own rules.

Mayor Delgado said, “If we don’t keep local control then we have to comply with state law and all of its details. We may not like those details. So it’s better to figure out what we do want, pass those details and policies, now we have what we want locally.”

Carmel unanimously passed a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation Tuesday night. Pacific Grove and Seaside will discuss their policies later this week.

We’ll update this story as soon as a decision is made.