Voters reject marijuana store fronts

Ballot initiatives to allow marijuana dispensaries in Encinitas and La Mesa are soundly defeated by voters.

In the city of La Mesa Proposition J would have repealed the city’s prohibition on the public sale of marijuana, and retail sale in the city. Proposition F in the city of Encinitas would have amended the Encinitas municipal code to authorize store front marijuana dispensaries in the small beach side city.

Similar measures were defeated in the cities of Del Mar, Solana Beach, Lemon Grove and Imperial Beach in 2012.

Opponents of the measures say this sends a clear message that residents do not want pot shops in their cities.

“Every time San Diego County voters have been given the opportunity to vote on allowing pot shops in their communities they have soundly rejected the proposals.

“The voters know pot shops are not serving the seriously ill, they are drug dealers providing drugs for recreational use,” says San Diegans for Safe Neighborhoods chair, Scott Chipman.

“Measure F and the other marijuana storefront initiatives were never about the compassionate use of marijuana for seriously ill patients,” says Encinitas resident Nancy Logan. “They are about profiteering. State law already allows for the closed network exchange of marijuana between a patient and caregiver. It does not allow for the retail sale of marijuana from a storefront.

“These pot profiteers spent a great deal of money in Encinitas and then stole 40 ‘No on Measure F’ signs from private yards.”

Marijuana dealer/profiteers and drug legalizers are targeting our small cities to make money now and establish “big marijuana” markets in hopes the drug will be legalized in California in 2016.

“The defeat of measure J validates community perceptions that pot shops have no place in La Mesa. We are not willing to sacrifice the public health and safety of our children and economic development in our community to make marijuana more easily available in La Mesa,” said Dani Womack. “Store front marijuana sales send the wrong message to our children, bring crime to our neighborhoods and cost cities both financially and socially.”

Womack is one of several community members who signed the ballot arguments against Measure J.

She is the Community Pastor at Crosspointe Life Church and Coordinator of the La Mesa Collaborative.

Marijuana storefronts have been magnets for crime.

Cities with pot shops incur substantial public safety costs and police and sheriff’s offices are not adequately prepared to effectively monitor and regulate them.

And, while drug dealers and elected officials have been in conversations over how or how not to regulate illegal drug sales, teen use in San Diego has skyrocketed with use by 11th graders up 70 percent.

San Diegans for Safe Neighborhoods calls on San Diego County Supervisors to rescind their ineffective ordinance and for the San Diego City Council to abandon attempts to regulate this lawless industry.

Scott Chipman is chair of the San Diegans for Safe Neighborhoods.