Marin Co. Allows 4 Medical Marijuana Dispensaries In Unincorporated Areas

SAN RAFAEL (CBS SF) – The Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved an ordinance allowing the licensing of four medical marijuana dispensaries operated by non-profit patient collectives in the unincorporated area of the county.

No more than two dispensaries will be located in the populous U.S. Highway 101 corridor and nor more than two in the rural west county area.

There are 184 eligible sites in commercially zoned unincorporated Marin County -- 50 in the Highway 101 corridor—and 134 in west Marin County, said Tom Lai, assistant director of the county's Community Development Agency.

A fee schedule and criteria for the selection of the four dispensaries will come before the Board of Supervisors in early 2016, Lai said. Applications will be accepted in late spring and the dispensary licenses will be issued in the summer.

A licensed dispensary would have to be at least 800 feet from a K-12 school, public park, smoke shop and other cannabis dispensary. The ordinance allows but does not regulate the delivery of medical marijuana by the dispensary to its members and to labs testing the marijuana's potency, molds, fungi and other contaminants.

Dispensaries must restrict hours, provide security, set patient limits and be subject to county reporting and monitoring.

The ordinance does not protect the dispensary operator, patients, property owner or caregivers from potential federal prosecution since marijuana is still illegal under federal law.