Bernard Jimenez Fresno County

Selma, Fowler try to block medical marijuana plan

Fresno supes likely to OK pot-dispensary ban

Fresno County supervisors are expected to enact a ban on medical-marijuana dispensaries next week. But the fight over medical pot likely won't end there.

Advocates of the drug are preparing to launch a signature drive to overturn the ban after Tuesday's Board of Supervisors' meeting. Local dispensary owners already are vowing legal action to block the law.

"We're not backing down from this fight," said Sean Dwyer, proprietor of the California Herbal Relief Center on Shaw Avenue. "No one is going to walk away and close up shop. That's just not going to happen."

Fresno County considers ban of medical marijuana shops

Fresno County will shut down medical marijuana dispensaries if an ordinance being considered today by the Board of Supervisors moves forward.

The proposal would ban the retail sale of marijuana and limit cultivation to a handful of industrial areas. Grow sites, under the new law, would be tightly controlled.

Currently, none of the more than 15 known dispensaries in the unincorporated county meet the terms of the proposed ordinance. The proposal would give the dispensaries, the bulk of which are in the county island of Tarpey Village and the town of Friant, six months to comply, which essentially means shutting down.

Fresno County medical pot sellers on shaky ground

While advocates of medical marijuana say Fresno County is trying to run their trade out of town, county leaders believe it is more trouble than it's worth, with dispensaries turning into a neighborhood nuisance and becoming financially corrupt. Authorities raided five dispensaries last week.

Fresno County leaders are facing a last-ditch effort to block their new medical marijuana restrictions – but not just from advocates of the drug.

The cities of Selma and Fowler are asking the county to reconsider its ordinance out of fear it will push the marijuana trade into their backyards.

Cities object to Fresno County's outdoor cultivation ban ...

Fresno County leaders are facing a last-ditch effort to block their new medical marijuana restrictions – but not just from advocates of the drug.

The cities of Selma and Fowler are asking the county to reconsider its ordinance out of fear it will push the marijuana trade into their backyards, Kurtis Alexander reports in the Fresno Bee .

The county regulation – approved by supervisors July 12 but requiring a second vote next month – bans storefront marijuana sales in unincorporated communities, but it allows indoor cultivation in select industrial areas, including the outskirts of cities along the Highway 99 corridor.

“I’m strictly opposed to having medical marijuana in our vicinity,” said George Rodriguez, Selma’s mayor pro tem.

A letter written by Selma officials to the Board of Supervisors last week claims that nearby pot grows would undermine city efforts to revitalize stretches of Highway 99 and prompt more crime in and around the city.

The letter asks that other areas be designated for growing marijuana instead.

Fowler officials have registered similar concerns.

Officials there, however, stopped short of asking that cultivation along Highway 99 be disallowed, requesting only a say in who is allowed to grow.

“We don’t believe this is in the best interest of the community. [But] if you’re going to force this upon us, this is what we’d like to see,” Fowler City Manager David Elias said.

Today, county planners are expected to meet with representatives from Selma and Fowler as well as Kingsburg to try to resolve concerns.

All three cities bar marijuana sales and commercial grows.

County leaders are expressing mixed reaction to the latest protest.

Planners maintain that cities have little to worry about in terms of causing blight or crime since the ordinance sets strict rules on where and how marijuana is harvested, even inside the designated industrial zones.

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