Three Santa Ana City Council Members, including Michele Martinez, David Benavides and Angie Amezcua have placed an 85A item on the agenda for this Tuesday’s City Council meeting, regarding medical marijuana.
These Council Members would like to place a measure on the November General Election ballot that would allow voters to vote against the sale of medical marijuana by collectives/dispensaries. Continue reading
City of Santa Ana, Downtown Orange County
Advisory: CITY OF SANTA ANA CONTINUES PROACTIVE ENFORCEMENT ON ILLEGAL POT SHOPS
Marijuana Dispensaries issued notices to cease operations or face continued enforcement action
SANTA ANA, CA (June 11, 2013) – The unanimous California Supreme Court decision on May 6, 2013, in the City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Center validated a city’s authority to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. The City Attorney’s office reviewed the City’s current ordinance, compared it to that of the city of Riverside, and found it to be substantially similar. Continue reading
“Yesterday, medical marijuana activists seeking to overturn Santa Ana‘s ban on medical marijuana collectives showed up at city hall with 16,000 signatures of city residents who want the pot clubs back in business. The group, which formed in August 2012 and calls itself the Committee to Support Medical Marijuana Ballot Initiative, hopes to let voters decide whether to set up a registration process that would allow no less than 22 cannabis clubs to operate, or roughly one per every 15,000 residents,” according to the OC Weekly.
The Santa Ana City Clerk’s office is apparently going to validate every single signature collected, which is not the norm – usually only ten percent of the signatures are inspected.
Some residents are up in arms over this proposed ballot measure, which won’t show up on any ballots until 2014. One of my readers sent me this list of complaints: Continue reading
It looks like some residents of northeast Santa Ana are riled up about medical marijuana, which was legalized by California voters awhile ago.
Here is an email that was circulated today about a meeting regarding medical marijuana dispensaries in northeast Santa Ana:
Good afternoon everyone,
I would like to call your attention to a meeting on the proliferation of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in the City of Santa Ana. I live in North / East Santa Ana and there are currently 16 active dispensaries on 17th St. between the 5 Freeway and the 55 Freeway. The problems that these dispensaries are causing is a City wide concern impacting the quality of life for both the residents as well as the business community.
This meeting will be quite educational and I encourage everyone to attend. It’s being sponsored by the City of Santa Ana and the Santa Ana Police Dept.
The speakers are as follows:
1. Commander Ken Gominsky – SAPD Field Operations
2. Detective Michael Gibbons – SAPD District Investigations
3. Alvaro Nunez – Community Preservation Coordinator – City of Santa Ana Code Enforcement
4. Mike McCoy – SAPD Community Services Specialist
There wil also be some discussion on Unsightly Vacant Commercial Buildings and Vehicle / Property Crimes.
Date – 05/19/11
Location – Church of the Nazarene – 1500 E. 17th St., Santa Ana ( Fellowship Hall )
Time – 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m – Information tables and Safety Displays
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Informational Meeting
This is an issue that affects all of our neighborhoods City wide so I encourage you to attend and please spread the word.
Thank you,
Winston R. Covington
Co-Chairman
Meredith / Parkwood and Portola Park Neighborhood Associations
714 832 0020 Ext. # 118
Say it ain’t so Jose! I came across an item on Facebook tonight, which you can see in the graphic above, indicating that our favorite Assemblyman, Jose Solorio, is supporting the campaign against Prop. 19, called Public Safety First, which proposes to regulate and tax cannabis sales.
Prop. 19 would pour millions into California’s empty coffers. More importantly, it would be a first step in ending the drug war that has killed over 23,000 people in Mexico and put so many minorities in jails here in the U.S.
Check out this quote from the Drug Policy Alliance:
Although African Americans comprise only 12.2 percent of the population and 13 percent of drug users, they make up 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 59 percent of those convicted of drug offenses causing critics to call the war on drugs the “New Jim Crow.” The higher arrest rates for African Americans and Latinos do not reflect a higher abuse rate in these communities but rather a law enforcement emphasis on inner city areas where drug use and sales are more likely to take place in open-air drug markets where treatment resources are scarce.
And check out these excerpts, from the L.A. Times:
Saying that prohibition takes a heavy toll on minorities, leaders of the NAACP’s California chapter announced Monday that they are backing passage of a marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot.
The war on drugs is a failure and disproportionately targets young men and women of color, particularly African-American males, said Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP’s state conference.
Here is a damning fact – the Facebook page in support of Prop. 19 currently has 110,741 fans, while the Facebook page that Solorio likes, which is against Prop. 19, has only 68 fans! No bueno!
According to a new column by my friend Judge Jim Gray:
People are beginning to understand that many of the problems with youth gangs, such as shootings, drug sales, and even the recruitment of young people to that dead-end lifestyle, are directly traced to drug prohibition. Police can disrupt the drug trafficking of gangs only to a limited degree, but, they like Al Capone and other such thugs in the alcohol distribution business before them, can only really be put out of that lucrative business by a pronounced change in policy.
Should Solorio be opposing a law that will help the people of California, and especially the people in his 69th Assembly District? I don’t think so. If you agree, please click here to send a message to Solorio.
And click here to donate to Prop. 19.