June 7: Stakeholder Meeting Regarding Medical Marijuana
SJCBC received this email from the city of San Jose today.
On June 7 (from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, City Hall – 200 E. Santa Clara Street), staff will be holding the first in a series of stakeholder meetings to (1) present the framework for the draft medical marijuana ordinance, (2) collect public comment/input, and (3) answer questions. It is staff’s goal to ensure that the community is engaged at key points in this process.
As background, Council directed the Administration on March 30th to develop a draft Medical Marijuana Ordinance to establish regulations, provide analysis regarding a ballot measure for the November 2, 2010 election, and to conduct the appropriate community outreach.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA ORDINANCE
Stakeholder Meeting
Monday, June 7, 2010
6:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
City Hall – Council Chambers
200 East Santa Clara StreetSan Jose, CA 95113
Background: At the March 30, 2010 City Council meeting, the City Council directed the City Manager to develop a draft Medical Marijuana Ordinance to establish regulations for the control and taxation of cooperatives for possible placement on the November 2, 2010 Election.
Meeting Purpose: It is the City’s experience and belief that timely and informed community involvement promotes meaningful public discussion resulting in public policy and decisions. The purpose of this meeting is to ensure stakeholder participation and input at key points in the process. At this meeting, City staff will be (1) presenting the framework for the draft ordinance, (2) collecting public comment/input, and (3) answering questions.
Parking Instructions:
For your convenience, please use the Fourth Street Parking Garage, located right next to City Hall (Wing). Parking validation will be available at the meeting. Please bring your parking ticket with you.
ADA Access:
To arrange accommodations under the Americans Disabilities Act to participate in this public meeting, please call Alexandra Orologas at (408) 535-8100 or (408) 294-9337 (TTY) at least three (3) business days before the meeting.
Testimonials
Editor, Mercury News [12 June 2010]
A laundry list of bad ideas was awkwardly presented at the stakeholders’ meeting this past Monday evening (7 June).
Among a nearly full house and long line of speakers within the City Council chambers were several people associated with Alphabet Soup preschool. The rest of the speakers were primarily in support of the dispensaries and appalled at the proposed “urgency ordinance” and its numerous flaws.
Most of us in the audience sympathize with the preschool being saddled with an adjacent “smoke shop”… on the other hand, nothing would multiply the traffic in the neighborhoods of dispensaries more effectively than reducing the estimated 50 now operating within San Jose to ten… by a lottery, rather than any sort of competition based upon merit?
As a certificated patient myself, I don’t like having to wade past the porn and tobacco utensils in the back of a “smoke shop” to acquire the paraphernalia necessary to smoke or vaporize my cannabis. I should find such accoutrements within the clean, well-lit environs of my favorite dispensaries. Oh, you can only belong to one, and the police get the patient lists to make sure?
Get real. We [I'm an ASA member] would much rather support our city –by patronizing its tax-paying and employment producing dispensaries– than sue it. Lose the entirety of this bad set of ideas. Come up with sensible and justifiable regulations that promote safe access for those of us who have a documented medical need for cannabis.
Richard P Steeb