Rep. backs pot clinics

The city planning commission has recently voted to strip medical marijuana dispensaries out of the zoning code. But in a bit of a contradiction, the city is also represented in Congress by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, one of medical cannabis’ strongest federal advocates.

Each year Rohrabacher cosponsors the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment, which would keep the federal government from spending money on drug enforcement where it conflicts with state medical marijuana law.

It has never passed, but its 165 yes votes (226 voted no) this year were the most to date.

“It’s unconscionable that you’ve got people here who are trying to bully the local communities,” Rohrabacher said of the threat of federal prosecution.

“Whether or not a local community wants to have medical marijuana is their decision.”

Fear of a federal crackdown is one of the reasons commissioners cited when they chose to remove any possibility of applying to run a cannabis dispensary in Huntington Beach.

“The DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] has made it clear that they intend to target business owners renting to clinics as well as clinic operators themselves,” Police Chief Ken Small told commissioners at the vote last month.

The California medical marijuana initiative drew a majority of votes in Orange County, and Rohrabacher calls that a sign that legalizing usage for the very sick is “the will of the people, even in conservative Orange County.”

“This is a travesty and a total waste of resources,” he said of recent federal crackdowns on dispensaries. “The federal government should be spending its money interdicting drug traffickers, not trying to go and get someone in treatment for cancer who’s smoking marijuana so it ignites some hunger after radiation.”

There have never been any licensed dispensaries in Huntington Beach, but the city has been planning to take them out of the law ever since a City Council vote two years ago.

The council has yet to approve the change to disallow them in the future, but they are expected to vote on it in the next few weeks.