Council could lift smoking ban for pot fest – San Jose Mercury News
The smoking ban in city parks could be lifted for the second time since it passed three years ago, as city leaders are considering allowing medical marijuana patients to light up during a festival at San Lorenzo Park at the end of the month.“It’s not like a recreational marijuana event,” said Councilman Mike Rotkin, who supports the temporary lifting of the city’s 3-year-old ordinance that bans smoking in parks.
“It’s not a smoke-in, it’s not like the 4/20 thing up on campus,” Rotkin said.
That April 20 event attracts thousands of people to Porter Meadow at UC Santa Cruz each spring to celebrate the so-called 4/20 cannabis culture holiday.
Instead, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana would like the ban lifted so its 200 members can self-medicate while they enjoy the organization’s annual festival. Wammfest, a medical marijuana, hemp and music festival, is scheduled for Sept. 27.
“As patients, its really important to have access to the medicine in the most indiscreet and reasonable fashion,” said Valerie Corrall, co-founder of WAMM.
The item will be considered on the City Council’s consent agenda today. The council unanimously approved a similar temporary suspension of the smoking ban for last year’s event.
A closed tent will be available at the festival for those who need to administer their prescription drugs, and no pot will be for sale or distributed, Rotkin said.
Santa Cruz police reported no problems with last year’s festival. But after Measure K was passed with 60 percent of the vote in 2006, Santa Cruz police are forced to make adult marijuana-related crimes on private property a low priority.
Remember when people were allowed to smoke cigarettes in airplanes and elevators? Now you can’t smoke a cigarette in a public park, but you can smoke marijuana! What a country!
Seriously, though, this is a wonderful victory for Valerie and the movement. Police will always tell you our cannabis community events are by far the most peaceful scenes they have to patrol. A reporter asked police at the Seattle Hempfest, with its 150,000 people how it compared to patrolling Seahawks or Mariners games where beer is served, and the police said Hempfest was “a Girl Scout camp” compared to policing half the number of beer drinkers.
And while I support perfectly healthy people smoking weed in the park, there is no doubt that many patients would have no possible way to enjoy a nice sunny day in nature without being able to medicate. Life is tough enough when you have a debilitating injury or illness – letting them smoke cannabis in the park is the compassionate thing to do.
