As many of us know, cities throughout California have taken it upon themselves to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. Local politicians seem to most commonly say they’re concerned about the societal costs to their communities should they allow these “seedy” businesses move in. It turns out there are even greater costs to the cities that the council’s never thought of … financial. Now you might want to sit down before reading further, but San Bernardino’s City Attorney has just said that the city is spending too much money fighting the losing battle of justifying their ban in court and is calling for a special City Council committee to develop guidelines for allowing dispensaries to operate legally within the city limits.
San Bernardino City Attorney Gary Saenz said that the city’s pot shop prohibition has cost taxpayers dearly when it comes to defending City Hall in court and policing allegedly rogue collectives.
He wants a special City Council committee to develop a plan that would create parameters for legal medical sales within city limits.
In a prepared statement, Saenz said:
We will present a plan which essentially acknowledges the futility and high cost of attempting to completely eradicate marijuana dispensaries with our current system, by which we will continue to spend hundreds of thousands and eventually millions but will never significantly achieve success.
Yes, an elected law enforcement official just said that. There’s more:
Instead, by conceding to California’s policy of allowing marijuana use for medical purposes, and permitting dispensaries that are highly regulated, we can move the distribution of medical marijuana from the black market to the regulated market.
Three members of the council agreed to sit on a committee and help develop a dispensary legalization plan that could be considered by the City Council on August 4th.
Read the whole article: The 420 Times
