LAKE COUNTY — A group of volunteers submitted a referendum petition to the county Wednesday afternoon in an effort to halt a recently passed ordinance that established regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries.
The volunteers collected more than 3,500 signatures from registered Lake County voters as part of their petition, according to marijuana activist Weston Mickey, who coordinated the signature effort.
“We”re just looking to protect patients” rights,” Mickey said. Volunteers worked for nearly three weeks, beginning in late August, to collect the signatures.
The ordinance passed by the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) in mid-August would establish a number of regulations for dispensaries, including allowing a maximum of five in the unincorporated areas of Lake County.
There are currently 10 existing dispensaries that have operated in the county”s jurisdiction since the BOS enacted a temporary moratorium in September 2009. Three of those 10 are located in one of the five areas the county would allow dispensaries to operate under the ordinance.
Mickey first submitted the referendum petition against the ordinance to Kelly Cox, clerk to the BOS. The signatures were then taken to the Lake County Registrar of Voters for a raw count.
The raw count revealed 3,540 signatures, Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said. Her office has 30 business days to verify that 2,115 of the signatures are valid. Fridley said this is the first time a referendum petition has been submitted to the county since the 1990s.
If the required 2,115 signatures are validated, then Fridley would prepare a certification of the totals to take to the BOS. The BOS would then decide whether to rescind the ordinance or have the issue placed on the ballot.
The referendum petition submission has “put a stay on implementation of the ordinance” until the signature verification process is completed, Cox said. The ordinance was scheduled to take effect today.
Cox added that the stay puts existing dispensaries in a precarious position, as without the ordinance taking effect, the Lake County Zoning Ordinance doesn”t have a provision allowing any dispensaries in the unincorporated county.
As a result, enforcement action could be taken against existing dispensaries, a scenario Cox said he doesn”t expect. “From a practical standpoint, I don”t think staff will act without direction from the Board of Supervisors,” he said.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
