San Francisco is one place that you could enjoy having a joint for medical or recreational purposes, but there is a bit of fight on such regulations in the Hippie Hill area. It is surprising that some people are fighting the use of marijuana in the area after the sensitization of its benefits. With a broad legal market for marijuana coming soon to California, there is the need to address such issues with the locals.
Having the local rules that favor the use of pot in the city has not gone down well with some critics. Most of them being old Chinese immigrants who have come out strongly opposing the use of marijuana. This has in turn restricted the ease of pot flow in the area.
Several San Francisco supervisors on the implementation of pot regulations are also divided on the issue. They will however take a vote in an aim to deal with the stop-gap measure. This should allow the sale of medical and recreational marijuana in the licensed outlets in the area. The flow of pot will be monitored before they can allow for new marijuana outlets to be set up in the area.
People are allowed to protest the use of pot everywhere in the city. It should be treated like smoking cigarettes where you cannot just smoke them anywhere. For most businesses, they fear that those smoking pot would start abusing it and make them city smell of pot all the time. For some, they wish that it was time to have the anti-prohibition city they used to know and love. This has been supported with evidence of people smoking weed in various parks and neighborhoods.
Supervisor Jeff Sheehy is a regular user of marijuana for mitigating pain due to older HIV medications. He says that people have the wrong information about the use of recreational cannabis. He further added that cannabis is now legal and it is time that people accepted it. There is no doubt that those who have used it can agree with his statements.
What might be a surprise to many, more rules are being introduced to keep the abuse to a minimum. Sheehy has been calling for keeping the recreational pot stores to be 600 feet away from any school. This is better as compared to the radius required by liquor stores and those that sell tobacco. Currently, the marijuana dispensaries are located at least 1000 feet from any schools or any recreational center that might serve minors. These measures are put in place to ensure that minors are not exposed to the use of cannabis.
Ellen Lee, who is a social worker at the San Francisco Community Empowerment Center has been at the forefront of the protests against recreational cannabis. She claims that there is no need to give the children the impression to the children that it is good to use marijuana. She further protests that the drug is still illegal under the federal law. The continued frustrations from the elected officials is what drives her further to make the protests.
The Chinese-Americans are also on the forefront for fighting the recreational cannabis regulations. They are also represented in the political clout where the mayor is Chinese-American. This is the same to some other elected officials in the city. So, they cannot just be ignored when they have something to say about the regulations.
Another supervisor Aaron Peskin has pointed out that currently only 46 existing stores are allowed to sell marijuana to the adults. The existence of more stores has been limited with an aim to help give time to handle the zoning regulations. He further said that there would be more places to buy pot starting January.
There is no doubt that a solution will be reached at the end of all the consultations. There is the need to come up with regulations that would favor either side. There might be some compromises, but the ultimate goal is to have cannabis regulations that would still make the non-users feeling comfortable staying in the city.
Looking forward to new cannabis regulations…