By Breeana Greenberg
In response to a public initiative currently underway to repeal the Dana Point ban on cannabis retail operations, about two dozen people gathered on the night of Monday, June 20 to attend a discussion. to the city council on the impact of marijuana on the community.
Paul Wyatt, a former board member, moderated the panel, which included several speakers, including Foundry Treatment Center CEO Ben Cort, a family medicine and addiction specialist, Dr. Daniel Headrick, and Scott Chipman, a San Francisco leader. Diegans for Safe Neighborhoods.
The panel did not include representatives of medical or policy-related groups who are in favor of dispensaries for recreational marijuana use.
Marci Mednick, a community development specialist and leader in Providence Mission Hospital’s youth substance prevention initiative, convened the panel after learning about the citizens’ initiative.
“We wanted to get all the information out to the people at Dana Point and try to have a forum where we could all have a good conversation and be really informed about what we should do in response to this initiative,” Wyatt explained.
Wyatt was in Dana Point City Hall when Proposition 64 was passed, legalizing recreational marijuana use in California for those over the age of 21. At the time, the city discussed how it should react to Proposition 64 and decided to take “the prudent approach and continue to ban retail cannabis shops in the city,” Wyatt said.
“This initiative would change this position; that is the purpose, “Wyatt continued.” The city is not here tonight to take a stand on this. … In fact, they are not allowed to intervene in an initiative when they are in the process of qualifying ”.
Cort, author of Weed Inc .: The Truth About the Pot Lobby, THC and the Commercial Marijuana Industry, made a presentation about what he experienced in Colorado after the legalization of marijuana in 2012.
“Personally, I open my book with this: I don’t care about the casual use of adults,” Cort said. “Their brains are completely myelinated; do yours. Don’t drive, don’t let kids see it, whatever it is. What matters to me is youth use, a little bit, because youth use is where the problems come from. ”
Citing a 2016 study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Cort explained that the decreased perception of youth risk associated with cannabis use leads to an increase in youth consumption.
“SAMHSA has given us 60-year-old data that tells us that the lower the risk perception, the greater the likelihood of use,” Cort said. “The more often someone sees something and interacts with it, the lower their perception of risk.”
Speaking about how the potency of cannabis has changed over the years, Cort added that the potency of THC, the main psychoactive compound found in cannabis, has greatly increased since the 1970s. Humanity has interacted with cannabis plants for millennia, Cort said, but never at the THC levels the market offers today.
“In 1950, when we started measuring THC, we see what happens naturally inside cannabis, which is between 0.2 and 0.5% THC,” Cort said. “We have found mummified examples of cannabis in tombs in ancient Asia and Africa, which should tell you how important this plant has been forever.”
Cort explained that the potency of THC in cannabis until it was originally criminalized was doing very little harm to the brain and human body. He added that as the potency of THC has increased, so has the rate of cannabis dependence.
“Now, as we’ve seen the potency of THC increase, more importantly, the gap between THC and CBD is widening, we’re starting to see more and more issues associated with that,” Cort said. “I want you to pay close attention to that, because that’s the nature of marketed sales of anything, certainly anything with addictive potential.”
Dr. Headrick spoke about his experience as a family physician and addiction specialist at Headrick Medical Center and the damage that cannabis use has done to some of his patients. While there have been studies showing promising medical treatment with marijuana, Headrick stressed that bringing dispensaries to Dana Point is progressing too fast.
“There is really conclusive evidence that it helps with chronic pain in adults, it helps with chemotherapy-induced nausea, it helps with muscle spasms with multiple sclerosis,” Headrick said. “There is moderate evidence that it helps with short-term sleep problems caused by sleep apnea and fibromyalgia. There is still a lot of research to be done.”
Headrick added that some research is being done on cannabis use to treat PTSD, osteoporosis, traumatic brain injury, stroke, heart attack, cancer and seizures, but “much more research is needed. “.
Headrick added that despite the potential, there is a well-documented drawback associated with marijuana use.
“Decreases your IQ, decreases your test scores, decreases your athletic performance, decreases your high school graduation, decreases your employment after high school, decreases your memory, the your GPA, your driving skills, “said Dr. Headrick.
The concern of Dr. Headrick to allow dispensaries to operate at Dana Point is the risk that cannabis poses to the developing brain of children. Her dream is that children who go to high school never try an alcoholic or a drug at the age of four, hoping to prevent children from using it before they start.
“Good discoveries will be made with CBD and THC in low doses, but we have to go slowly, and I really think a dispensary is going backwards, mostly because of my dream,” Headrick said.
The third panelist, Chipman, is a small business owner and community activist with San Diegans for Safe Neighborhoods. The group advocates for helping local law enforcement and shut down cannabis retailers in San Diego.
“We know everything we need to know about marijuana,” Chipman said. “We have to spread it to everyone we know. But a Compton couple kept the marijuana shops out of Compton; it would only take these little people here to keep the marijuana out of Dana Point, going door to door, getting literature, explaining- to your neighbors “.
“Wondering what message you want to send about Dana Point?” Chipman continued. “Do we want to take in drug traffickers? Do we want green crosses to tell our children that we agree? Or you mean, ‘No, we’ll be different, we’ll be a radical kid, we’ll be the one who doesn’t use.’ ”
Chipman added that 75% of California’s cities and counties do not allow the retail sale of cannabis in their cities. Michele Leonhard, a resident of Dana Point, noted that the neighboring town of Mission Viejo voted against legalizing cannabis sales during its May 24 meeting.
“There are cities and towns across the state that have voted to keep this from going into their city,” Leonhart said. “So I don’t understand why this beautiful beach community that is all about health and living well would bring something like that to the city.”
Following the city council meeting on Tuesday, June 21, Aaron Smith, director general of the National Cannabis Industry Association, spoke with the Dana Point Times.
“It’s not necessarily for everyone, but cannabis is, by far, with all objective measures, a safer substance than alcohol,” Smith said. “Some people prefer to have a glass of wine or two at the end of the night, some prefer to have a vape or two of cannabis at the end of the night, and people should be able to make those decisions.”
“California voters clearly agreed with that, as did the vast majority of Americans across the country,” Smith continued.
Smith said cannabis is already being consumed at Dana Point, regardless of the extent of the vote.
“The question is whether or not those who consume it are buying it from a local community business or traveling through the city limits to buy it elsewhere, where they pay taxes to another community,” Smith said. .
Smith added that the National Cannabis Industry Association has seen this happen throughout the state of California, where cities are losing tax revenue to neighboring cities that allow the retail sale of cannabis. In addition, there is a danger that people will get their cannabis from the “underground market,” in terms of products that have not been properly tested or labeled, Smith said.
During the table, Chipman argued that anyone over the age of 18 with a medical marijuana card can sell the drug illegally on the street and in schools.
In California, with the passage of Proposition 64, recreational marijuana use is legal for people 21 years of age or older, and medical marijuana use is legal for people 18 years of age or older.
“If you’re 18, you can get a card, you can order marijuana as if you could order a pizza, only to have it delivered to you,” Chipman said. “You can order it from 15 different stores this afternoon and receive 15 deliveries, and now you are the local distributor. You are the distributor of the institute “.
Smith argued that clandestine cannabis sales are occurring due to lack of access to legal cannabis, adding that people prefer to buy cannabis through an authorized facility. He also noted that it is already a crime to market marijuana to minors and that approving the proposed voting initiative would not change that.
“This initiative doesn’t make it legal,” Smith said. “It goes against the law under the current law and under any future law.… This should not happen. If someone does this, they should be prosecuted. That is not the intent of this law.”
The petition has until August 12 to collect signatures from 10% of registered voters and receive verification from the Orange County Voter Register to run in the next general election.
Breeana Greenberg
Breeana Greenberg is the Dana Point Times City Journalist. He graduated from Chapman University with a bachelor of arts degree in English. Prior to joining Picket Fence Media, she worked as a freelance reporter for Laguna Beach Independent. Breeana can be contacted by email at bgreenberg@picketfencemedia.com
