City Council Preview - Nov 15

The big item for next Council meeting is the City’s proposed response to the passage of Prop 64 allowing recreational use of marijuana to people over 21 and allowing commercial marijuana businesses to operate, subject to state and local regulation. The new law authorizes a local government to “reasonably regulate” indoor cultivation in private residences, ban all outdoor cultivation of marijuana unless it is federally legalized, and ban all commercial marijuana-related businesses. The City already regulates medical marijuana.

RATIONALE

The City report recommends that the City Council adopt an ordinance banning or regulating all marijuana uses to the fullest extent allowed under State law. There are several reasons for this aggressive approach –

• Crime: “The California Police Chiefs Association’s position paper contains documents and persuasive anecdotal evidence that marijuana dispensaries have been associated with, among other things, robberies, home invasions, and other violent crimes.”
• Environmental Impact: “Cultivation in general can create air quality, energy, and water quality damage and impair building maintenance and safety.”

HYPOCRISY?

I find it amusing that the City staff are impressed with anecdotal evidence about possible crime associated with marijuana, when they consistently ignore the well documented association between violent crime and alcohol. City staff consistently omits the plethora of studies about crime and alcohol when suggesting we add more and more stores selling alcohol into a City already saturated with stores selling alcohol. Yet the undocumented anecdotes about crime and marijuana are taken seriously and as pivot points in recommending against the use of marijuana.

I find it equally amusing that staff are suddenly worried about the environmental impacts of marijuana cultivation on air, energy, and water, when they consistently recommend building more and more homes where the impact on air, energy, and water are far more serious.

Did I miss something?

Is it OK to have more alcohol even when we know it results in more crime, but God forbid someone smokes marijuana with their window open?

Is it OK to overburden our power grid and our water supplies by building 5,000 new homes, but God forbid a few people grow marijuana in their homes and use some grow lights and a quart of water?

PROPOSAL

Here is what the staff propose -

All outdoor cultivation is prohibited.

All commercial activity is prohibited.

Indoor cultivation allowed but

• Only in personal residence,
• Only in enclosed and lockable “dedicated cultivation area” that may not be used for sleeping, cooking, eating, bathing, or any other residential activity.”
• Only for 6 or fewer plants.
• Not visible from any public place
• Not produce odor or sound that is a nuisance

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the City Center update.