Santa Barbara mulls limits on medical marijuana dispensaries

(Santa Barbara Noozhawk) Santa Barbara residents showed up in force once again for an Ordinance Committee meeting Tuesday regarding the city’s marijuana dispensaries.

During 90 minutes of public comment, residents discussed ideas for revising the city ordinance, as well as opinions on the existence of dispensaries in Santa Barbara.

Misusing marijuana is a big concern among residents, but there isn’t much information available on how big a role dispensaries play in recreational and underage marijuana use.

I doubt dispensaries have more of a role in underage consumption than do the teenage marijuana dealers in every school in the country.  The dispensaries at least require a check for state ID.  As for the recreational use, the dispensaries require a doctor’s recommendation, so that point needs to be taken up with doctors, not dispensaries that are following the law.

Besides, just what the hell is “misuse of marijuana” anyway?  If you have a headache and you smoke pot and you feel good, is that medicinal or recreational?  Now let’s say you don’t have a headache and you just smoke pot to feel good, is that misuse?    Somehow, it is only OK to smoke pot to feel good if you felt bad before smoking it?  Why do we have such a puritanical need to make sure people aren’t experiencing joy without first feeling pain?

The use of medicinal marijuana isn’t recognized in the public school system, and police have both formally and informally cited many students for possession or use on campus, according to Armando Martel of the Santa Barbara Police Department.

The Santa Barbara School Districts have reported 178 suspensions from controlled substances, most from marijuana.

Superintendent Brian Sarvis told the committee Tuesday that one student told him the substance was so easy to get that it may as well be in the school vending machines, adding that Martel doesn’t think those cases have been traced back to dispensaries.

Before dispensaries, around 85% of high school seniors say marijuana is easy or fairly easy to get.  Most can get it within the day, many within the hour.  After the dispensaries, around 85% of high school seniors still say it is easy to acquire.  Medical marijuana has nothing to do with teen access; teen access is rampant because of marijuana prohibition.

David Hughes spoke on behalf of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and said the group requests a prohibition of dispensaries near residential zones and special-needs facilities, such as sober-living complexes.

State law bans smoking medical marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school, recreation center or youth center. Although dispensaries don’t allow smoking or consuming on-site, there’s an anomaly in enforcement if the locations are within that 1,000-foot boundary — as many are, he said.

Residents also have expressed concern with dispensaries near residential areas, especially the pending dispensary at Paseo Chapala.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve read about the public’s concern about marijuana dispensaries in their neighborhoods, especially around schools. What amuses me is that the public seems so much less concerned about liquor stores in these same areas. The following maps show you bits of Santa Barbara, California. I’ve mapped out the location of schools and given you a 1000′ radius from them so you can see how many liquor stores and pharmacies are within that area.  I mapped 34 liquor stores in my Googling, only the ones with Santa Barbara addresses, and I decided not to show grocery stores, where in California you can buy many spirits that would only be in liquor stores in other states.

So I’m able to quickly find ten schools or pre-schools for underaged children where the sales of intoxicating liquors and/or controlled substances are sold to adults within 1000 feet of that school, drugs that can easily injure and kill when used irresponsibly, but I’m supposed to be frightened if a provider of a non-toxic herb sells to adults within 1000 feet of those sale schools?