Goleta Temporarily Bans Medical Marijuana

I LOVE these stories because they drive home the point that all over the USA there are thousands and thousands of tons of pot being grown, transported, sold and smoked and there's NOTHING the cops can do about it, they don't even catch 5%. Pot should be legal. Mexico just legalized possession of small amounts of all drugs. Switzerland just legalized heroin. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and their experience has been positive. Now if you are caught with a 10 day supply of your drug or less you face an administrative court, not a criminal court, but in practice they are just not arresting people. A group of 10,000 very serious policemen, prosecutors, attorneys and citizens have formed a group to legalize ALL drugs, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (http://leap.cc ) They see what happened when we legalized alcohol in 1932 as a good example of how drug legalization would work. This foolish war on drugs has lasted 37 years and cost us over a TRILLION dollars and we are not an inch closer to stopping drugs. How many millions of Americans are we going to lock up in prison for decades? Mark Montgomery boboberg@nyc.rr.com

Heres some tips to getting an ordinance complete.

Determine your view and be prepared to stand by it as you are setting judicial president which requires consistency. Write a mission statement, such as we the council believe medical cannabis to be in need in Goleta and we hope that by giving guidance and setting boundaries(ordinance) we can "LIST GOALS HERE"

Find your objects of exposure(places to limit exposure). AKA Location
Only allow dispensaries outside a safety ring from schools. 500-1000 feet. --Pick a Number and Vote.

Maybe you want to keep a dispensary away from any government building or adjoining to any religious location unless said location waives the right. Some religions view Medical Cannabis as an acceptable remedy.
Any other safety zones... List(from citizens on open mic and counsel and panel members) and Vote on each.

Set Limits to Number and or density % among other businesses. (SB I think uses 1 dispensary for commercial block). They require it to be commercial since A) Yes the commercial area as to detour crime away from residential area NOT for raid but just for Burglary sake. Or sell a certain # of permits and only let those organizations operate a dispensary and then let them purchase the permit on the open market like hard liquor licenses for clubs/bars or dance permits.

Allow clubs employees to medicate at work as they are their long term, do not allow patients (following suit with 90% of the ordinances I have read) . Set hours of operation. 7 Days a week 9am-9pm is good operating hours. This limits the window of responsibility for Law Enforcement and also allows an ample time for patients with varying schedules to obtain their medication safely.

Next you will want to look at collecting vital information from the club owners, employees. Finger printing crosses the line in my personal opinion and increases the stress on the jail staff to "virtual book" someone or impacts another $expense to a potential job applicant. Ensure every staff member is either a caregiver or a patient them self to ensure their ability to interact with cannabis legally otherwise being physically present where cannabis exists and the person is not using Prop 215 justifiably as a defense is guilty of a crime from being in the presence of a "drug".

Collect Information on intended use, the opening plan from security plans (should meet with a law enforcement representative to ensure it works with local enforcement planning). This plan should also include storage plans for the medicine and a any cash on hand and video surveillance. More safety procedures and hardware will reduce the rate of crime.

Set costs for application and a yearly permit to maintain the added cost of "crime" if any , could also be a reduced cost of crime. Should also allocate for any special use permit administrative costs associated with any other special use permit process to ensure consistency among normal costing. Over estimating cost will again reduce the ability for a Legitimate dispensary to open doors and will keep more patients obtaining medicine on the "street" thus increasing illegal activity just for patients to maintain their doctors orders. Economically speaking you have steady demand and then AGAIN limited supply if you close a club. That JUMPS prices in other clubs and the street. Which makes it more "valuable" and attracts more criminal. The more "available through legal means" it is for patients the LESS crime you will have as the price and "street value" cannabis will have. Feel free to Verify that with SBCC Economics professors where I received my A.A.

Then set possession limits so everyone is clear on what the allowed limits are for possession of dried cannabis, concentrates, and how many plants your allowed within Goleta City limits PER patient. As some patients chose as a COLLECTIVE to grow together to reduce costs.

Then set an operating procedure for law enforcement to follow so that can safely and expediently verify the legitimacy of a patient 24/7 without having to breach patient/doctor confidentiality , or without having to speak with a representative from the doctor. For example $20 medical cannabis registry. Or something cost effective for all patients to be in compliance.
This will cut down on paperwork time and cost for law enforcement and will ensure the safety of patients acting within state law.

Well that's my $1.02 , I write the comment 20 times... mostly advice and opinion I think this time is was merely just to help get the ball rolling and to inform in more simple terms some of the problems and common pieces to other city ordinances.

Somebody please show the council person the quote from Obama regarding the lack of Federal enforcement of medical cannabis in states where it is legal.

Could you imagine being an AIDS patient with wasting syndrome and suddenly having your medicinal supply yanked from you buy an ignorant city council? Why do small groups of people like this council to create tyranny and pain for a minority of the population? Do they get off on it? How on earth do they sleep at night?

As these guys are my primary caregivers. I was there, I spoke Only 5 peeps spoke only 10 showed up On July 16th we need 100 supporters, ASA ,MPP to show up and support this very important cause. I believe we have 3 of 5 votes