School Hosts Parent Meeting on Growing Concerns Over Marijuana

» Parent on 02.11.10 @ 08:49 AM

Call, email, write the council and demand that they choose the fate of our city over the interests of the few drug opportunists. We have enough problems to solve without our politicians creating more.

Attend the council meeting on Feb. 23 and ask each member who supports dispensaries (Williams, House, Schneider and Hotchkiss), to tell us all why they don’t support kids, families, and schools.

Ban dispensaries. The law doesn’t say we have to have them.

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» Tony Vassallo on 02.11.10 @ 11:47 AM

Santa Barbara City Council tried to control dispensaries by adopting a regualtioy ordinance in March of 2008.  It didn’t work because it was to permissive.  The version on the table now set for a Public Hearing and vote by Council on Feb.23rd still has many legal flaws and does not meet the concerns by a cross scetion of the community.  Given the maelstorm of California court cases questioning the legality of dispensary operations our City Council should error on the side of caution and hold off adopting any ordinance until the law is clear on this issue and the State does it’s part by adopting standards and regulations to insure proper control of the drug from growing to testing,distribution and consumption by the “seriously ill” who qualify for it under the provisions of Prop 215. 

What we have now is a circus. With Santa Barbara being the only place in the Tri-County area that has sanctioned dispensaries our Coucil has unwittingly sent the message to all that we are soft on Marijuana violations and enforcement of the law.

If we have a new ordinance at all it should stand the test of meeting State Law first and not be approved in phases I and II as proposed now, to satisfy the interests of dispensary operators.

Pressure on City Council members is great and this is a time when local politicians must be carefully watched on how they handle this issue because the safety and welfare of our community is at stake.  Many of us, like my wife and I, were fooled into voting for Prop 215 back in 1996.  We thought pharmacies were to distribute marijuana to the “serioulsy ill” with the same controls as other dangerous drugs.  Nobody in our community wanted an ordinance that permitted dispensaries to locate every 500 feet from each other and within that distance of of our schools.  And, “special needs” facilities such as the Salvation Army,that house residents in alcohol and drug recovery programs, are on record not wanting dispensaries anywhere near them, yet a dispensary is now proposed right across the street from them at 430 Chapala.  This is truly a big mistake and shows the weakness of the present and proposed Phase I ordinance to be voted on Feb 23rd.

In my view dispensaries do not belong anywhere downtown. Downtown neighborhoods are struggling with safety stabilization issues and pemitting dispensaries downtown saturated with at risk populations of teenagers, college students, those housed in the many recovery facilities and the general attraction of those outside our area to downtown for partying purposes can only lead to encourage large sacle recreational use of marijuana.  This will change our downtown environment in unwanted ways.

To the Tax and Tolerate crowd I say let the matter be settled first at the State level through proper Statewide voting.  we shouls not jump the gun and encourage recreational use of the drug.  It’s illegal.

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» Buce Holms on 02.11.10 @ 01:35 PM

Ill-informed parents who don’t know the difference between sniffing glue (perfectly legal) and medical marijuana (controlled dispensaries).

Oh well, this stupid issue is great fodder for the news outlets - but that’s about all.

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» Light on 02.11.10 @ 03:53 PM

ALL of the problems associated with cannabis are due to its PROHIBITION, not the proliferation of dispensaries.

The article makes some claims that are laughable:

1. Dispensaries are the cause of crime because of their profitability. -Are you serious? What about the profitability and crime involved when cannabis is on the BLACK MARKET? It’s a more likely scenario that our control-freak leaders don’t want ANYONE profiting off of something they have worked so hard to suppress. The reason for this? There is MONEY in it. The people profiting off of cannabis’ prohibition are the ones who are actively working to suppress it.

2. More potent cannabis has lead to brain abnormalities in our children. -Utter disinformation. Cannabis has been used safely by humans since ancient times. Yes, even for young adults! Researchers have shown that stronger pot is a good thing, as one can imbibe less and achieve the same effect. Remember, cannabis is non-toxic and daily use has shown to cause no brain damage like the gov. would have you think: http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20030701/heavy-marijuana-use-doesnt-damage-brain

It’s a war of information. The powers that be want you to believe that cannabis is harmful, never has medical value (unless you are terminally ill, ha), is grown by illegal immigrants in our forests, etc.

Me? I’m just a hard-working individual who uses cannabis occasionally and I’m TIRED of the IGNORANCE.

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» Why So Mad? on 02.11.10 @ 05:50 PM

I’m a little confused as to why so many people have such strong opposition to this issue. I never even notice the dispensaries when I drive past them. I have never noticed groups of unsavory characters loitering outside of the dispensaries. Do they have a deleterious effect on surrounding businesses? The clientele seems to come from all walks of life. When I was in high school in Santa Barbara, the dispensaries were not in existence but if you were in the market for Marijuana it was always readily available.

I think a lot of people don’t like the fact that some individuals who don’t have the traditional educational background of your average successful person are enjoying thriving businesses. In this economic environment, where honest, hard working people are barely surviving I can understand the outrage that comes from watching “drug dealers” make out like bandits.

However, the dispensary owners are not the only ones profiting from the operation. If you want to access the dispensaries, you must first see a doctor to get your prescription and renew it annually. These doctors are prop 215 profiteers. Both the state and the federal government are collecting taxes from these operations; weather the taxes be in the form of income taxes or payroll taxes. Is there sales tax on pot? What about the property owners who lease the space? They are profiting off the dispensaries. Think of how many empty businesses line our city, do you really think if the dispensaries disappear other businesses will take their place. Apparently one of the few ways a business can survive in Santa Barbara is to sell contraband.

While marijuana dispensaries are utterly unrelated to illegal immigration, they seem to have a number of elements in common. Both are issues that the city has decided to look the other way on. Being in the United States without proper documentation is clearly illegal yet socially acceptable. We don’t want ICE kicking down doors and dragging our neighbors and friends away simply because their papers aren’t in proper order. Yet many of the opponents of the dispensaries would have the clientele of the dispensaries labeled as criminals and drug addicts despite them having proper documentation and authorization to use in the proper setting. I would be curious to know whether the community as a whole feels that marijuana dispensaries or illegal immigration is a greater threat to the safety of our streets, the educational environment of our schools, and the economic future of our area.

I’m sick of hearing people blow the dispensary issue out of proportion. To me a much larger problem for our area is how do you get the cost of living in line with local wages? How do you get commercial rents in line with realistic potential revenues? How do you stop slum lords from renting a 2 bedroom “West Side Charmer” with a beautiful view of Bohnett Park for $2,500?

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» Too bad you guys weren't at the meeting... on 02.11.10 @ 07:40 PM

Though Noozhawk did a great job of covering it here. But some of the comments indicate you don’t get what’s happening. The job of the PTA is to worry about children, their safety, their education, and their welfare. Yes, kids have been getting medical marijuana cards, getting pot, bringing it to school and telling shocked administrators ‘hey, it’s legal’.

There IS data suggesting that teen alcohol and cigarette use is down, and decreasing. This is great! It shows that the intervention messages are working. However, teen marijuana use is on the rise, and is significantly on the rise in Santa Barbara County. This seems obviously tied to the loosening of the culture around marijuana, which is brought on with the presence of dispensaries.

Santa Barbara is the ONLY city in three counties to allow dispensaries. San Luis Obispo has a ban, as does Ventura. So dispensaries, who cater to mainly recreational users, are getting all the traffic from the surrounding counties. Unfortunately, as Deputy Banks pointed out, dealing in marijuana through dispensaries also attracts the nefarious characters that come with the drug trade, and we’ve seen a big jump in marijuana-trafficking crimes in the past few years in Santa Barbara County.

As crime affects the general public, and with them, children, PTAs have every right to question what’s going on, and get involved.

If you’re not pro-kid, then you’re anti-kid. If you favor more marijuana access, trafficking and sales, then you favor more kids getting hold of it, and that’s anti-kid.

It’s really simple.

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» SB Frank on 02.12.10 @ 08:18 AM

Words, words, words - feelings, feelings, feelings.

The majority of us have gone to school and at least graduated from High School.  We should know the value of logical thought.  LETS GET DATA, PRESENT IT and then TALK ABOUT IT.

Lets put the feelings to the side and lets see the hard data and stop making illogical jumps to conclusions.  The information can be gathered but it looks like nobody has done that.

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» Council v. Residents on 02.12.10 @ 11:59 AM

Why are our city leaders demanding data to prove that allowing MORE pot sales is bad for our community? It’s time for them to prove that it is good for our community. Just try. Where is the benefit to our families when we already have substance abuse destroying lives?

We have legal alcohol and cigarettes causing difficulties galore. We don’t need more. The pot is better than…argument is just stupid. More drugs are simply more drugs. More drugs will not make us better or smarter or live more fully.

It really does take a village to raise children. Villages need leaders who have the vision and courage to help them thrive.

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» Light on 02.12.10 @ 12:53 PM

“The pot is better than…argument is just stupid. More drugs are simply more drugs.”

Embarrassingly false. You have got to be joking me. You mean to say that all drugs are the same?

Cannabis is essentially harmless. What about the effect high fructose corn syrup and caffeine have on kids? Why do you not so fervently oppose THIS kind of health issue?

Cannabis can and does help countless individuals live a fuller, better life. Who the heck are you to tell us all about something you know little about?

Wait til your kid goes to college. Intelligent peers around him/her will be using pot. Depending on how much propaganda they have absorbed throughout their youth, the longer they will abstain, but when they do partake, the wall of lies you built will come crashing down. This is when you, and law enforcement, will find it is nearly impossible to restore trust once it has been shattered.

Being pro-pot is not anti-kid, you debate-skewing fearmongerer. Take a hint from those of us who understand balance and responsibility.

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» SB Parent and Local on 02.12.10 @ 02:33 PM

Much ado about nothing, and I have young children.

Everyone below already provides info to refute most of the ridiculous claims above.  I get that the PTA doesn’t want a dispensary too close to the schools.  That’s fine, they would have the same objections to a liquor store.

However, to claim that kids are getting pot from the dispensaries is absurd.  The dispensaries are much more expensive than your typical dealer-these stores sell their “medicine” to middle and upper class working folk.  The high school kids will still get their drugs from that guy everyone knows.

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» RE: Um, Bill, the School Superintendent says diffe on 02.12.10 @ 05:34 PM

Did you even read that article you linked?!  Here’s a quote: “Judging by the packaging , it does not appear the drug came from a medical dispensary, Sgt. Daniel Castaneda said.”

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» Bob on 02.12.10 @ 07:26 PM

Since my last posting 24 hours ago we are starting to get some real data on the connection between Medical Marijuana dispensaries and its affects on School age children.  Unfortunate for the position taken by the PTA, the data points very strongly toward there being no connection at all.  Two articles posted and both refute the connection between medical marijuana and marijuana use in schools.  Here are the quotes:

According to Armando Martel of the SB Police Dept. “almost none of the marijuana confiscated at schools has been traced back to dispensaries.”

“Judging by the packaging , it does not appear the drug came from a medical dispensary, Sgt. Daniel Castaneda said.

The ball is still in the court of the PTA board members to present real data that justifies Medical Marijuana dispensaries as an issue that affects the health, safety, education or general well-being of children and youths, which, according to the California State PTA Nonpartisan policy, is a requirement for taking a position on a topic.

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» Do we want to be a pot culture in this town? on 02.13.10 @ 10:25 AM

Read the article. A PTA is concerned, and rightly so. They learned this isn’t the pot of your youth, it’s a lot stronger. It can cause psychotic episodes and do a lot of damage to young brains. The sheriff’s deputy pointed out that there’s a big increase in illegal trafficking activities, some of these players are bringing large calibre weapons to our communities. Our city is allowing the sale of an illegal drug, and with a number of dispensaries that exceeds both the number of pharmacies and Starbucks. If parents weren’t concerned, they’d be irresponsible. You’re not helping your cause by lambasting them, or demanding they ‘prove’ why they’re concerned. The proof is already there. The correct question is do we as a metro area want this situation? Use some logic…

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» Data for Bob (from a PTA parent, not from GVJHS, b on 02.14.10 @ 02:09 PM

Dispensaries in and around the city of Santa Barbara (17):

Dispensaries In the city proper:

Permitted
GreenWell
500 N Milpas

Green Light (not yet open)
631 Olive St

Pacific Coast Collective
331 N Milpas

Non-conforming
AMG / Healing Gardens
100 E Haley
Issued cease-and-desist letter by city attorney

Sacred Mountain
27 Parker Way
Issued cease-and-desist letter by city attorney

Santa Barbara Patients Group
3128 State St

Hortipharm Caregivers
3516 State St
Issued cease-and-desist letter by city attorney

Illegal (phone numbers working as of 2/8/10)
Compassion Collective of Santa Barbara
2915 De la Vina

1437 San Andres St
The Healing Center (THC)

Online: 
420sb.com  
  805-624-6747  

Wonderful Life Grassroots Apothecary
(location on Weedmaps.com is shown at corner of Carrillo and De La Vina Sts) 
  805-453-5488

Santa Barbara County Unincorporated (all phone numbers working as of 2/5/10):
Santa Barbara Care Center

Macfarlane David
5814 Gaviota St, Goleta,  CA
(805) 845-4316?

Choice Cooperative Goleta
6336 Lindmar Dr
Suite 101
Goleta, CA
93117
(805) 967-4080

Helping Hands Wellness Center
Suite F4, 4141 State St.,
Santa Barbara, CA? - 
(805) 692-1419?

Grass Roots
158 Aero Camino
Goleta,  CA
(805) 845-3196

Miramar Collective
2173 Ortega Hill Rd.,  Summerland, CA
(805) 722-2262?

The Green Room
2560 Lillie Ave. Suite B (upstairs)
Summerland,        California
Zip Code     93067
Phone Number       805-565-1444

Humanity, an illegal dispensary on Bond St, 1/2 block from SB Jr High, was just shut down in January for illegal trafficking.

You posted the figure for pharmacies - dispensaries way exceeds that. The number of Starbucks in the metro area is 11.

Now that you have data, prove to us that recreational use and trafficking, both of which are illegal, aren’t going on. Do a search on ‘marijuana guns trafficking’ for Santa Barbara, and you’ll pull a slew of articles from 2009 and 2010 that show major crimes in our area related to marijuana trafficking. Some of these have been close to area school, and children. Here’s what my search yielded:

2009:
•  In April, campers stumbled upon a marijuana grow that contained 13,000 plants worth about $26.6 million in Aliso Park near New Cuyama. Two men guarding the plants threatened the hikers and required them to stay and wait for a ‘boss’. The hikers fled, but on the drive out of the backcountry they crossed paths with two men in a pickup truck who chased them. The men were later arrested with sniper rifles in the truck.
•  Also in April, an armed extortion occurred at a West Downtown marijuana dispensary where two owners held the third at knifepoint.
•  In July, the Sheriff’s Department discovered a $75 million illegal grow north of East Camino Cielo. 25,000 plants were eradicated.
•  In August, the La Brea fire was started by a campfire from an illegal pot-grow operator in the mountains. 30,000 plants were found near the blaze. A Mexican drug cartel is the prime suspect. The fire burned over 75,000 acres.
•  A marijuana dealer who purported to be a dispensary, operating from a trailer on Cacique St , was shut down
•  The multi-law-enforcement-agency execution of Operation Apehanger, which was an enormous bust of illegal marijuana trafficking and large-caliber weapons. 11 were arrested, and one of the residences was directly across from the Monroe school. There were children in the home.
•  Seizure of $800,000 in marijuana plants and cash in a bust in Goleta. The pot was being grown in sophisticated indoor gardens.
•  In November, an enormous drug trafficking bust was coordinated across 5 counties, with the grow located off West Camino Cielo Road, in the Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County. There is a homicide tied to this, though the body has yet to be found. 17 people (including 2 juveniles) were taken into custody. Size of grow (majority harvested): 5,000+ plants. The street value = $15 million.

2010
•  Bust of 4 people in a marijuana trafficking ring. The total value of the marijuana and plants seized during the operation has a total combined street value of approximately $490,000.
•  Bust of the dealers at the illegal dispensary on Bond St.  Six were arrested, and 63 lbs of marijuana was found buried in a yard in Santa Ynez. Two of the dispensary employees were also investigated for an assault with a deadly weapon against a former employee. This is the second time in two years this dispensary, operating out of a home within ½ block of Santa Barbara Junior High, has been shut down.
•  An apartment fire that broke out from marijuana oil production in a residence apartment on De La Vina St in January, endangering a family with children in the adjoining apartment. The marijuana oil was to be sold to a dispensary, to be used in edibles.
•  The bust over the past weekend of 100 lbs of marijuana from a traffic stop. This is the second time this individual has been prosecuted for trafficking. The first was when he owned the ACME Collective on the Westside

The question isn’t do dispensaries cause crime? the question is does allowing dispensaries open the door for trafficking crimes? and the answer is overwhelmingly ‘yes’. We’re the only town allowing pot sales in 3 counties. All the major trafficking crimes occur here. You can’t uncouple dispensaries from trafficking - allow one, and you bring in the other.

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» The difference with bars on 02.15.10 @ 07:45 PM

Is that they sell a substance that is legal in the US. Dispensaries traffic a substance that is illegal at the federal level, and illegal for recreational use in California. We’ve had legal alcohol for 80 years, and tobacco for a lot longer. The social costs for both are extremely high, no debate there. But that doesn’t mean we need to add another mind-altering substance, with all its issues, to the mix.

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» Why on 02.16.10 @ 06:20 PM

Why all the talk about pot, alcohol, prescription drug, and tobacco? What we really need to talk about is why is our need to check out is so strong? Why are our addictions more powerful than our connections to each other?

We live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Why are our residents statistically more violent, more prone to drug abuse, and more depressed? Is something wrong with our water or what?

Is too much of the good life bad for humans? Let’s consider how we can make checking in better than checking out.

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» openyoureyes on 02.18.10 @ 09:54 AM

Right on!

Getting rid of pot is just a start. Cigarettes and booze do a lot more damage. They are much more addictive and cause may more deaths; auto accidents, cancer, liver failure, etc. 
Bring back prohibition! Ban tobacco!

Booze destroys more families and lives than pot.

While we are at it, lets get rid of other addictive drug and doctor / dispensary systems, Oxycotin is one. It might have prevented Rush Limbaugh’s addiction.

Viagra leads to promiscuity and should go along with suggestive side-by-side bathtub commercials.

Lets get rid of scanty clad women on TV that excite men to commit crimes of passion.

The Muslim World have it right; cover up women from men’s evil eyes.

And bring back punishment that will deter crime. Hanging suspects by their thumbs comes to mind. It kept Hitler’s opponents quiet. Crucifixion worked too.

Its the liberals that cause all of our problems.

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