19D - ACCEPT VERIFICATION VOTER INITIATIVE

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INI'T'IATIVE MEASURE TO BE SUBMITTED DIRECTLY TO THE VOTERS Committee of proponents, who are registered voters of the City of Santa Ana, sponsoring the petition; Cheyenne Kutil Dennis Kutil TEXT OF THE PROPOSED MEASURE: MEDICAL MARIJUANA CONTROL ACT: Pursuant to, and consistent with California taw concerning medical marijuana, the City of Santa Ana shall enact an ordinance amending in its entirety Article XIII of Chapter 18 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code, in order to impose strict regulations on medical marijuana collectives to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the community, WHEREAS, the Compassionate Use Act ( "CUA "), adopted by California voters in 1996, and the Medical Marijuana Program Act ( "MMPA "), enacted by the State Legislature in 2003, decriminalized the cultivation and use of marijuana by seriously ill individuals upon a physician's recommendation and provided California's qualified patients and their primary caregivers with specified immunities under state law, thereby helping to ensure that qualified patients and their primary caregivers, who possess and use marijuana for medical purposes, are not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction; WHEREAS, the Santa Ana Police Department ( "SAPD ") has reported that at one time there were over sixty (60) marijuana dispensaries in the City of Santa Ana and that as the number of marijuana, dispensaries and commercial growing operations proliferated without sufficient legal oversight, the City and its neighborhoods have experienced negative secondary effects, including an increase in crime at certain locations associated with unregulated marijuana collectives; WHEREAS, there presently are no ordinances in the City of Santa Ana specifically regulating or monitoring the location, zoning standards, or other aspects of the locations and facilities where medical marijuana will be dispensed to eligible persons under state law; WHEREAS, medical marijuana facilities must operate with reasonable regulation, to ensure that those who are seriously ill residents of the City benefit from the palliative effects of medical marijuana have access they are provided under state law; WHEREAS, by implementing a fair and reasonable registration process for medical marijuana collectives, the City will be able to maintain order while avoiding undue burdens on its already strained financial resources; WHEREAS, the City has a substantial and clear interest in ensuring that medical marijuana is distributed in an orderly manner, and in protecting the public health, safety and welfare of its residents, its businesses, the neighborhoods in which medical marijuana collectives operate, while ensuring compassionate access by seriously ill residents to medical marijuana in accordance with the CUA and the MMPA; 19D-4