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cases, and said she has heard that medical marijuana should be between their doctor and the patient, but no one wants an unregulated or poorly regulated dispensary in their town. Also, we have talked about youth using drugs and she wanted to see what we can to encourage our federal representatives to change the drug laws to make it easier for people to use drugs to ease their suffering. She felt the law put municipalities in an untenable position, goes against the idea of a direct democracy, but in her role she needed to honor the federal law. Councilmember McGovern believes medical marijuana did have medicinal properties and helps people with different types of chronic illnesses, she believes it should be distributed by pharmacies and not storefronts, some of the dispensaries do not take themselves seriously and call themselves, “Garden of Eden, the Vapor Room, Love Shack, Sweet Leaf Collective, Mr. Nice Guy, Good Fellows Smoke Shop, Happy Days Herbal Relief and My Green Heaven Ministry. She felt these are the types of things that keep communities from wanting them to locate and operate. Until medical marijuana is elevated to the point of representing itself to be a truly controlled issue, problems would continue to exist. She said San Ramon and Walnut Creek have not taken any action on dispensaries, but have indicated they are not a permitted use and any permitted use was a violation of federal law. She confirmed with Ms. Seto that some cities have taken that avenue, but there have been some where they have and operators come in and obtain a license as a permitted use to operate as an herbal store, a holistic medicine shop or a medical office and become a dispensary after obtaining their business license. Councilmember McGovern felt that when people voted for medical marijuana they thought it was going to be distributed by pharmacies with control, and this was not the case today. She also attended the school district workshop and for many reasons, she could not support allowing dispensaries. Mayor Hosterman said she has zero interest in providing an opportunity for shady characters to operate illegally in the City, but by the same token it is clear there have been opportunities for other communities to assist in people’s pain by operating dispensaries, was most interested in understanding what the need is. She would not want to second guess a doctor’s decision, said she had children in schools, acknowledged drugs was a problem and needs to be addressed, and the latest conference was a step in the right direction to identify issues in the community. She felt staff did a marvelous job in providing opportunities for other alternatives—1) to track federal legislation and return to the Council with options if federal law was amended to allow the use of medical marijuana; 2) communicate in writing to our local congressional delegation requesting support for HR 2233 and 3) forming a task force or referring the matter to the Human Services Commission to determine whether to allow medical marijuana facilities in the city. And if these efforts were acted on first, the City would have a better view of what the need is. She supported the ban tonight on medical marijuana dispensaries knowing we can in the coming months consider other issues and learn more. In the event we find this is a need in the community that can be regulated with no negative impact, she would be willing to re-look at the issue. MOTION: It was m/s by Hosterman/Sullivan to move forward with staff recommendation for a ban and also entertain options A, B and C. City Council Minutes 9 June 5, 2007