Pacific City Council members voted unanimously Monday night to place a 60-day moratorium on new, medical marijuana cooperatives.

State law says as many as four patients can grow up to 60 plants for their personal medicinal use in a medical marijuana cooperative, which must be at the residence of one of its members.

Pacific Mayor Leanne Guier said the City already has a ban on growing, processing and selling marijuana for retail or medical purposes, but, “we had to go through the process because (the state Legislature) has now added a cooperative.”

On July 1, the state merged the recreational and the previously unregulated medical marijuana markets.

But Guier said a city the size of Pacific, which, as recently as the 2010 Census, had a population of 6,606, simply does not have the resources to regulate marijuana.

“It’s not like we condemn anybody for using it or having it,” she said, noting that there are nearby options to obtain marijuana outside of the city.

Voters in Washington passed a statewide ballot initiative on Nov. 6, 2012, to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Elsewhere

Guier said she would like to have a town-hall meeting in October to prepare for potential flooding along the White River.

“We want to be very proactive this year, talk about the flood season and what to expect,” she said. “Last year, there were some surprises. We didn’t realize the loss of (the White River’s channel capacity) had grown so much. It turned out to be a big deal.”

Ken Brettmann, senior water manager for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Seattle District, said in February that “the White River is losing channel capacity at a rapid rate.” He said the in-stream flow was 20,000 cubic feet per second in 1948 compared to about one-quarter of that rate now.