New Round of Grass Prohibition Likely at City Council Tuesday 1-12

The City Council agenda, released yesterday, indicates that the Dispensary Ban will NOT be onthe agenda, as suggested by the attorney who contacted me. (http://64.175.136.240/sirepub/pubmtgframe.aspx?meetid=162&doctype=AGENDA )

This was confirmed last night by Mayor Rotkin who had a brief interview with me on Free radio (http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb100107.mp3 --download and go the last 1/3 of the audio file).

It's hard to know whether the two existing dispensaries are "meeting the needs of Santa Cruz" based on the peculiar finding that only 25% of their customers are from inside the city (or is it the county?). That seems to me a pretext rather than a good reason to limit dispensaries, and no evidence that local need is being met is actually provided. The claim is simply asserted--in the face of testimony from others that it isn't. It may be that folks from out of city (or county) are just richer and able to buy more, plus other cities like populous San Jose have only recently opened dispensaries.

In any case, should the same standard be used for liquor stores, bars, pharmacies, and other retail businesses? "We won't give allow you to open up because so much of your business comes from out of town!" Such a position would be laughed off the agenda and roundly denounced by the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Association, etc. However because of the paranoia and prejudice against marijuana, it takes tangible and credible form in some minds. The Planning Department, the Planning commission, and the City Council is pandering those those unjustified apprehensions.

Rotkin continues to back to Reefer Madness notion that we have to pander to the "perception", the "fear" that allowing additional dispensaries (in the extremely restricted areas allowed under the 2000 ordinance) would "create a bad image".

While Rotkin says he supports legalizing marijuana, I don't seem him bringing up the issue at City Council. His "Office of Compassionate Use", set up to provide low-cost marijuana, is still a dead letter. He had no objection to the neutering of Measure K (which did provide oversight to ensure police made marijuana possession on private property in the city the lowest enforcement priority) in May of 2007. He has expressed no concern at the rise in marijuana busts and the use of felony charges against small dealers downtown.

Full disclosure: his position is like that of every other city council member, but Rotkin claims to be a socialist and postures up at the university as some kind of enlightened activist.

Rotkin suggested the New Dispensary Ban might be on the second January agenda (1-26), but wasn't clear or sure about it.

There's more time to organize against this Planning Department-orchestrated Ban if people want to do so.