The City Council voted 4 to 1 on Tuesday, Feb. 16 to extend a temporary ban on medical pot dispensaries for 10 months.

City Councilman Jeff Haferman cast the lone no vote, saying he worried that the temporary ban could bleed into another year. "I'd be more comfortable with 60 or 90 days," he said.  And, Haferman said he doesn't go along with efforts to shut down My Caregiver, a medical marijuana coop whose opening sparked the current debate.

"We're not far off in the way we're thinking," signaled City Councilman Frank Sollecito, a former Detective Sergeant with the Monterey Police Department. "I was involved in the War on Drugs in the '70s and it hasn't gone that well," he said.

City Manager Fred Meurer wanted to know whether the City Council's goal was a permanent ban on medical pot—provided a long awaited California Court of Appeals decision from Anaheim deems such bans legal—or whether the council wanted its staff to craft rules to govern dispensaries.

Haferman spoke in favor of the latter option, and got a second from City Councilwoman Nancy Selfridge.  City Councilmembers Chuck Della Sala and Libby Downey both said they wanted to wait and see if bans were legal.

"I'm more mixed up than anybody," Sollecito said. On one hand, he'd spent years busting people for drugs.  On the other, his own son died of cancer and used cannabis to relieve his pain. What is more, Sollecito's own work with an organization that fights leukemia had convinced him medical marijuana helps some people.

"I want to support the motion. It's the compassionate thing to do," Sollecito said, closing the debate. Staffers will study marijuana regulations in cities of similar size, like Palm Springs, and report their findings to the City Council.