How the City is its Own Worst Enemy
Dear Friends & Neighbors,
We all know that our government, at all levels, does not make the soundest or wisest decisions, because decisions are usually not made to benefit the ordinary citizen like you and me, but instead are manipulated by special interest groups to benefit those in power and control. The city of SF is blatantly doing this right under our noses, in light of two recent decisions on Feb 2nd to unanimously approve a conditional use permit for a cannabis dispensary at 800 Taraval St, and then again on March 9th to do the same thing for a dispensary on 100 Broadway St. As of this writing on March 25th, 2023, there are over 120 permits pending for dispensaries at the Office of Cannabis. Nearly all of the permits issued so far have been rubber stamped by the planning commission regardless of the amount of opposition or nature of comments given at the public hearing. In other words, the city is carrying out a preconceived agenda with little or no support from the general public.
Why is this happening? Why is the city choosing not to listen to its own residents on matters of health and safety that affect the neighborhoods where they live and work? You can be sure of one thing -- and that is our city officials are doing it for the sake of money and profits at our expense. Enough is enough. It's time to make a change and elect new officials, ones that pay heed to their constituents instead of ignoring them or treating them as if they don't matter.
The cannabis industry is a telltale example of how our state and city officials are making bad decisions and shooting themselves in the foot. In a prior blog, we described how Prop 64, which decriminalized cannabis in 2016, had the unintended effect of igniting an illegal weed boom, whereby the illegal growers are undercutting and outselling the legal dispensaries at an alarming rate. The State of California, the City of SF, and the legal growers did not expect to see this. In addition, several folks inside city hall we have spoken with admit that our city is now saturated with cannabis dispensaries who not only have to compete among themselves, but also against the illegal growers, who can sell product for much less and of similar quality. Therefore, some of the biggest critics and opponents of the cannabis industry are -- you guessed it -- the dispensary owners themselves.
So, why is the city doing this to itself? Instead of listening to its own residents and capping the number of dispensaries that can apply for conditional use permits, they are allowing the free market to dictate this number, despite the fact that dispensaries are starting to cannibalize each other. The reason the city will not curb the roll out of dispensaries is the Office of Cannabis essentially has a monopoly on a product that, according to the CDC, has a potential for abuse and addiction and could lead to the misuse of harder drugs such as opioids. So, it's an ideal, albeit immoral, business model for the city. The downsides are the city is hurting the dispensary owners, who are finding it harder and harder to compete and run a viable business, aggravating the residents, who are opposed to the uncapped number of dispensaries, particularly the ones located dangerously close to schools, churches, playgrounds, or where children tend to congregate, and, whether our elected officials realize it or not, they may be feeding the fentanyl crisis due to the gateway nature of cannabis to more powerful drugs. The pharmaceutical companies and drug lords are already doing a fine job of creating and sustaining the opioid epidemic in our country, and so do not need any further help from our public agencies.
Please remember that cannabis dispensaries are unprecedented and experimental and so no one knows the long-term outcomes or effects on people's physical & mental health, public safety, the economy, etc. According to an article from the Wall Street Journal,
California has been at the forefront of this experiment and its not turning out well. High taxes and regulations have made it harder for state-licensed businesses to make money. Significantly higher prices in the state-regulated market have led to a boom in the black market controlled by drug cartels, which has led to violence and water theft.
As you can see, there is no prior evidence or studies the city can access to guide it's decisions, and so it is literally making up the rules as it goes along. One example is the 600 foot buffer distance from K-12 schools. Why does this rule exclude preschools and daycare centers? Why the loophole? Why 600 feet? How did the planning commission calculate this number? No one can explain it to us.
Our desire is not to ban the use of cannabis, but rather for our city leaders to be honest and acknowledge their shortcomings in trying to reap profits from this industry. And to treat the entire ecosystem with respect: from the growers to the dispensaries to the community, by giving equal weight and consideration to the voices of all the parties involved. This is clearly not happening.
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