It was disappointing to learn that the Deschutes County Commission decided to punt Monday on marijuana land-use rules for the county.

The three-person body is clearly worried about being sued over any rules it might put in place. It has chosen instead to delay action on them for at least 90 days. During the 90-day period it will create a citizens committee to make further recommendations on just what the county should do.

The commission has already taken testimony. It has listened to its planning commission and its legal advisers. It should have exercised its own collective good judgment and adopted rules in accordance with what it’s heard.

Commissioner Tammy Baney expressed concern about being sued if rules were too restrictive. Oregon has a right-to-farm law, for one thing. Rules designed to limit marijuana growing and processing so much as to make it invisible may well violate that law.

But the commission’s real problem no doubt stems from the fact that while Measure 91, the recreational marijuana ballot measure approved by voters last year, was approved easily inside the city limits of Bend, it was rejected in many precincts outside city limits. Commissioners’ regulations will apply only to those rural precincts. It’s natural for the commission to want to approve something that keeps voters there happy.

Commissioners cannot hope to appease many of those who opposed 91. Voters in Oregon have said the growth, manufacture, sale and use of marijuana is legal in this state. Lawmakers earlier this year approved a framework for allowing that to happen in an orderly fashion.

There’s nothing to be gained by waiting 90 days to approve marijuana rules for Deschutes County. Marijuana-related lawsuits will not have been resolved. A citizens committee might supply cover for commissioners, but that’s about all. Rather, the delay simply makes it even more difficult for those who hope to establish legal businesses here to do so. It’s a waste of time.

Treat marijuana businesses like the legal businesses they are.