The first medical marijuana provider opened in South Lake Tahoe at the end of 2008, but much of the battle over medicinal cannabis took place in 2009.

After federal agents temporarily shut down the Patient to Patient collective in January, another dispensary opened in the same month.

Tahoe Wellness Collective opened in the Bijou Shopping Center on Jan. 8 and offers marijuana to adults with state-issued medical marijuana cards or a doctor's recommendation. City of Angels 2, another medical marijuana dispensary, also opened this year.

In July, South Lake Tahoe city attorneys Jacqueline Mittelstadt and Patrick Enright said police would begin enforcement against the three medical marijuana providers. In response, dozens of medical marijuana advocates showed up at the South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting that same week.

“We're not criminals. We're patients, and we want to work with the city,” Ken Estes, founder of Patient to Patient Collective in South Lake Tahoe, said at the July meeting.

A 45-day moratorium on new dispensaries was established in November and was extended to Nov. 17, 2010, at a later meeting.

The moratorium will allow the city time to develop permanent ordinances regulating the distribution of medical marijuana, said City Attorney Patrick Enright in a Nov. 17 staff report to the City Council.

“I think its a good decision,” said Gino DiMatteo, the owner of City of Angles 2, outside Tuesday's meeting. “What everyone needs to understand is (providing medical marijuana) is a privilege, not a right.”