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Bozeman City Commissioners tightened their grip on medical marijuana businesses Thursday, passing temporary restrictions on new shops in town.

The six-month ban prohibits new medical marijuana shops from opening within 1,000 feet of schools or daycare centers that opened before March 1.

This does not completely ban new businesses. Businesses currently operating within the 1,000 foot boundary will be allowed to stay open but cannot add new customers.

The restrictions generated debate from commissioners.

"Having a marijuana caregiver is a little like picking your doctor. We're now potentially limiting five caregivers, unless they have the economics to move to another place," Bozeman City Commissioner Carson Taylor said.

"If we're expanding the number of patients close to a school and then realize four months from now that we wish we hadn't done that, it will be grandfathered in and we'll be stuck. That to me is a larger communal that overweighs the interest of several patients," Bozeman City Commissioner Chris Mehl said.

There are currently five active medical marijuana business licenses in Bozeman with another 13 in the approval process. At least one of the businesses is within 1,000 of a school.

In a change from the proposed restrictions, the Montana State University campus will not be one of the schools with the 1,000 foot boundary.

These restrictions will last six months, but city officials hope to start looking at the issue again within four months.