SOUTH PORTLAND – The South Portland City Council on Monday approved a six-month moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries locating in the city.

The council vote was 5-2, with councilors Tom Blake and Rosemarie De Angelis opposed.

The moratorium is retroactive to Jan. 11, the date when a majority of councilors first indicated support for it at a non-voting workshop meeting.

Councilors supporting the moratorium said it simply allows the city time to enact zoning ordinances to determine where the new nonprofit dispensaries can locate and how many the city might allow.

The new law that voters statewide passed on Nov. 3 gives municipalities the authority to enact such measures.

South Portland voters joined voters across Maine in approving the new law, which allows for the creation of nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries to provide marijuana for individuals permitted to use the drug for “debilitating medical conditions.”

The law is designed to help people suffering from illnesses such as cancer. City voters favored the law by a margin of more than 2 to 1.

Mayor Tom Coward said the city’s moratorium only relates to the location and number of dispensaries, and not the right of authorized patients to possess the product. “It doesn’t affect buying marijuana,” he said.