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File Number: 12 -343 Code § 11362.83 also authorized cities and other local governing bodies to adopt and enforce rules and regulations consistent with the Program. (D) While the MMPA intended to clarify the scope of the Act, neither the Federal nor the State government has implemented a specific plan "to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana," leaving numerous questions unanswered as to how the CUA and the MMPA should be implemented, particularly in regard to the distribution of medical marijuana through facilities commonly referred to as medical marijuana dispensaries. (E) The chief purposes of the Compassionate Use Act are: (a) to give Californians the opportunity to obtain and use marijuana in the medical treatment of illnesses for which it provides appropriate relief, as recommended by a physician, and (b) to ensure that patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medicinal purposes upon recommendation of a physician are not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction. As such, the primary intention of the Compassionate Use Act was to provide seriously ill Californians with the right to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, without facing criminal penalties otherwise imposed under State law, and not to legalize marijuana for recreational use, legitimize illegal drug use or fuel the market for illegal drug sales. (F) The Compassionate Use Act is limited in scope, in that it only provides a defense from criminal prosecution for possession and cultivation of marijuana to qualified patients and their primary caregivers. The scope of the Medical Marijuana Program is also limited in that it establishes a statewide identification program and affords qualified patients, persons with identification cards, and their primary caregivers an affirmative defense to certain enumerated criminal sanctions that would otherwise apply to transporting, processing, administering or distributing marijuana. (G) The Compassionate Use Act and Medical Marijuana Program Act do not appear to have facilitated the stated goals of providing access to marijuana for patients in medical need of marijuana, but instead the predominant use of marijuana has been for recreational and not - medicinal purposes as provided in a report issued by the California Police Chiefs Association in September 2009, entitled "California Police Chiefs Association Position Paper on the Decriminalization of Marijuana ": "[I]t has become clear, despite the claims of use by critically ill people that only about 2% of those using crude Marijuana for medicine are critically ill. The vast majority of those using crude Marijuana as medicine are young and are using the substance to be under the influence of THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] and have no critical medical condition." ( "White Paper on Marijuana Dispensaries" issued by California Police Chiefs Association's Task Force on Marijuana Dispensaries, available at the City's Community Development Department, noted as Exhibit A). (H) Facilities purportedly dispensing marijuana for medicinal purposes are commonly referred to as medical marijuana dispensaries, medical marijuana cooperatives, or medical marijuana collectives; however, these terms are not defined anywhere in the Compassionate Use Act nor Medical Marijuana Program Act. Significantly, nothing in the CUA or the MMPA specifically authorizes the operation and the establishment of medical marijuana dispensing facilities. (1) Further, neither the CUA nor the MMPA require or impose an affirmative duty or City of San Leandro Page 2 Printed on 711012012