South Tahoe council — this bud is not for you
By Kathryn Reed
By the end of the year it’s possible South Lake Tahoe won’t have any medicinal marijuana dispensaries.
On Tuesday the council voted to have staff come up with an ordinance that would ban the three existing collectives as well as any future ones. The divided vote had Councilman Bill Crawford voting no, Councilman Hal Cole abstaining and the other three saying yes.
The vote that appeared to have more to do with emotion than fact was preceded by a presentation by City Attorney Pat Enright that spelled out how to go about banning the medicinal marijuana facilities. He said his report was not biased and that he had no opinion on which way the council should proceed, but his PowerPoint was dominated with material on how to ban these businesses.
Enright started out by saying the council could ban the dispensaries, regulate them or wait until after the November election to see what California voters say about legalizing marijuana. But his presentation did not address the latter two options in much detail.
As the council goes forward, the public will have more opportunities to comment – and likely more notice than the 24 hours given for the special meeting.
Talk of these outlets bringing more crime to town was brought up July 27, but never substantiated. Lt. David Stevenson, who was in the audience representing the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, was never asked to address the issue whether these businesses increase crime. Nor did the council ask him if they reduce the number of illegal pot transactions on the street.
Nor was it discussed if people are going to smoke pot, if it’s better for them to ingest the stuff from the dispensaries that is somewhat regulated or take their chances with what the street-grade grass might be laced with.
Six people from the public spoke, bringing a mixed response for the council to ponder.
After the decision, Shelly Arnold, who works for the Tahoe Wellness Collective, said, “We’ll fight it. They will never close us down. We’re not leaving.”
It was brought up at the meeting how it’s easy to get a prescription from a doctor for medicinal marijuana – essentially $200 and it’s a done deal. But doctors who are writing illegal scripts are not who the council is going after. Instead, the council wants the pot clubs shutdown even though some people using them are there with legitimate reasons.
Councilmembers Bruce Grego and Jerry Birdwell admitted to never having been in one. Only Councilman Bill Crawford said he had visited two of the dispensaries. Grego and Birdwell said they sat outside at least one club and said the people going in had no visible ailment requiring the use of marijuana.
Cancer patients don’t all look anemic with bald heads. Glaucoma would be hard to detect sitting in a vehicle.
This is not to say abuse isn’t a real possibility at the clubs. Arnold claims her collective alone has 2,700 patients – that’s more than 10 percent of South Lake Tahoe’s population. That is a high percentage even without the other two dispensaries included of locals in need of medicinal marijuana. It’s not known where the customers of each of the collectives reside.
In other action at the special July 27 meeting:
• The council agreed to discuss at the Aug. 3 meeting the possibility of buying the Tahoe Daily Tribune building to convert it to a City Hall.
• The council agreed to consider moving the Aug. 17 meeting to Aug. 19 to avoid a conflict with the annual Environmental Summit.
How TYPICAL of the city council to allow new business to open up and then change their minds down the road with no logical reasoning behind it.
Our city is like a jellyfish!! No spine, no plan, just floating around in the direction of the strongest currents.
Yeah, this city should just be dissolved. It’s worthless.
Funny, most long-time locals recall Grego as, “the long haired pot smoking attorney”. Bruce, embrace what you did instead of running from your past. If folks need medical treatment, they have the right.
You’d think there would be a special meeting for something more important than marijuana…
To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. ~Bertrand Russell.
The council fears what they do not know. The image of Grego and Birdwell sitting in a car outside one of the clubs and then going on to state their opinions of customer’s medical conditions is hilarious.
Buy the Trib building?? I thought the city was broke. No money for much needed services but somehow they’ll find the money to make things better for themselves?
The term bush league comes to mind.
When my brother was terminally ill he was prescribed medical marijuana and it helped him greatly. It’s up to the doctors not to give prescriptions to people that don’t need it.
This City Council is a joke. There are many more pressing issues for the city than the dispensaries. As long as they are working within the laws of California the council should leave them alone. If they go beyond the law law enforcement will step in so why do our dimwitted councilmembers waste taxpayer time on this issue? Obviously it benefits someone on the council. That is just how our city council operates.
I asked city council to show statistics if crime was even a factor around the three dispensaries which the city attorney said was a factor. And lose the ‘we have to do it for the kids’ bull please. Even without the dispensaries illegal pot is still going to be grown but don’t make those who need it for medicinal reasons suffer. Maybe if all the city council members had cancer they might vote with their conscience. C’mon Prop 19 you can’t get here soon enough.
And guess what ????? There is a Grand Jury Report to be answeres.yeah right
So what happens to the people who have cancer who need this medication to keep food down? Are they saying they know better than the doctors who prescribe the medication? Are they going to close down the doctors offices to? How can they close down a pharmacy? Do they know not just anyone can walk in and buy medication? Do they know you have to have a doctors recommendation to walk in the door? Do they have a clue about illness and medical needs for medical marijuana?
Only Councilman Bill Crawford said he had visited two of the dispensaries. Grego and Birdwell said they sat outside at least one club and said the people going in had no visible ailment requiring the use of marijuana.
Wait, Wait, Bill went in? He cant he get in unless he had a medical marijuana card? Does he have a card? Grego and Birdwell sat outside and watched people? Humm they are not suppose to do ANYTHING outside of a public meeting so they broke the law by doing so. Who are they to say people dont look sick? My dad has Parkinson and if you look at him you would never know it. These clown think they are doctors and broke the law by sitting outside of a dispensary together, outside of a public meeting. They are NOT allowed to discuss anything on a agenda without being in a public meeting. That’s the law!
Local, realistically, there are other medications for cancer patients. I know.
The whole medical marijuana thing is just an excuse for most people. It ought to just be legalized for EVERY adult who chooses to indulge. Get rid of this whole medical marijuana hocus pocus. It’s just another layer of middle men making money off it.
This is crap! If people who are seriously ill, and don’t have much time left or whatever their situation is. They should have the RIGHT to get the medical marijuana they want here in SLT. Not have to settle for some other medication like dogwoman suggests. It is unfair to these people who need it, to have it taken away!
Impeach the council, dissolve the city and save $$$.
Local, your answer to just about everything is “dissolve the city” and for the most part it seems to be a viable alternitive lately for what has been happening is unacceptable by most. I would just once like to see what alternive or possible solution you could present to dissolving the city. Sounds good as a knee jerk reaction but you have never once offered a scenario as to what happens next. You have often had great response’s to stories but like most do not offer a solution. Of course you realize that when you do offer a solution or alternitve most will shoot it down without their version of an alternitve. When one’s only job is to find fault in others they become very good at “throwing the ball in the other court” Not trying to start something but just want to see a solution to our mess.
I guess by their thinking, if someone has a headache, it’s not real, cause you can’t see it.
The big question is what real work are they avoiding to play around with this issue instead?
This will have no effect on buying pot,it will only send more Money(millions south of the border).
It’s such a old topic…plus it be on the Ca. abblot in nov.
The Police dept. got better things to do,like keep us security,keeping the Peace.