GROVER BEACH EXTENDS BAN ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA SHOPS

Grover Beach has extended its moratorium on medical marijuana
dispensaries and has taken steps to make the ban permanent.

The council voted 5-0 Monday to extend the 180-day moratorium that
would have expired April 19. Without the extension, there would have
a period before a permanent ban was in place that would have allowed
such dispensaries to be established within the city.

The council voted 4-1 to make the ban permanent. The soonest it could
become affective is 30 days after a second vote on April 20.

Mayor Larry Versaw dissented. While he said he's strongly opposed to
recreationally using marijuana or any drugs and thinks a dispensary
could be extremely problematic, he didn't want to give the message
that the city has forever closed the door on using marijuana medicinally.

"My mother died of cancer," Versaw said while trying to hold back
tears. "I do believe that in her case and a lot of cases like hers,
that marijuana could serve a purpose. If not curative, at least it
would have eased her suffering."