Buffers won’t work
Some of the rejectors of regulated cannabis activity in our town have pleaded for extensive distance buffers around schools, day care businesses, youth centers, religious assemblies, parks and any other place they could think of where minors or other “sensitive populations” (?) are likely to be in attendance. The common rationale was that the buffers would somehow keep cannabis away from youth. And each time, one of our acceptors on the council has to reinforce the fact that youth cannot just walk in to a cannabis retail storefront. * Cannabis legalization in this state has guaranteed by law that adults 21 and over can grow up to six cannabis plants indoors, and possibly outdoors if allowed by local authorities. Every residential unit in this city or any other has at least one adult in it. And of course there are children of all ages in many residential units. Some adults with minors in their household will be growing cannabis within that residence, the garage, unattached structure on the property or in the backyard if they have a greenhouse.
With few exceptions, the places cited as needing a buffer for protection from cannabis are smack in the middle of residential zoning. The potential for hundreds or even thousands of cannabis plants to be growing in all residential areas is very high. Cannabis could possibly be grown and consumed right next door to a day care residence or across the street from a park, school, church or synagogue.
So while some rejectors are feeling victorious about keeping cannabis sales and other activity far away from youth, the fact is cannabis will be growing, processed, smoked or whatever without any legal constraints on buffers for personal cultivation in accordance with local rules. The entire issue of needing buffers to protect youth or anyone else is an illusion, without any practical value.
Stan Golovich,
Benicia
Sharing is caring!
Stan this city is protecting it’s small little city image as a very family oriented city. Go buy your pot take it home and enjoy it. No one cares Stan. You are correct it is legal. By the way Stan do you want pornography, topless dancing in town? Indian Casino. I think not. Your needle is stuck on your own personal ideals. You are a “One Trick Pony”.
If “no one cares”, why do you keep replying with these hateful, illogical diatribes? I encourage you to try some cannabis and enjoy your day. Hate is not healthy.
If you are referring to me, I do not hate. I am not also not abusive and did not call someone ignorant. “No one cares” simply means do as you please. What is healthy is to look at some other opinions and not make very hateful comments toward that person you do not agree with. I do support full free speech.
Keep the letters coming Stan. As the saying goes, “If you’re not catching flak you’re not over the target”.
Thanks, Thomas! As previously discussed here, Vallejo just evolved into allowing adult-use sales after realizing the financial impacts of not doing so. They definitely feel the threat from li’l old Benicia and they should. A large number of their market activity will shift to our wonderful town in the future. They spoke of “outside cities” delivering to Vallejo, meaning Benicia, and want Benicia-based delivery services to pay their stupid ten percent tax to them for all sales that originate here. I suspect that will not survive a legal challenge in the future, nor will it be observed by the delivery services that do not have a Vallejo address or business license. These are all discreet deliveries and would be nearly impossible to regulate for compliance.
The eleven “M” licensed dispensaries in Vallejo received their permission letters from the City of Vallejo to add “A” license activity. The state will grant them their adult-use licenses any day now. Some but not all dispensaries offer clones, so Benicia residents with an interest in indoor cultivation only have to go to Vallejo instead of Berkeley or Oakland. Check their weedmaps page or call for clone availability. I recommend using nursery pots with reservoir saucer indoors or out, and 50/50 mix of coir and perlite for healthy root zone formation. This is what I used last year and my plants had roots side to side and top to bottom in a ten gallon low profile pot.
Benicia residents with an interest in trying cannabis in a medicinal application no longer need a recommendation from a doctor. It’s the exact same product in different packaging. Just tell the cannatech what health issue you want to relieve and they will direct you in your purchase.
Who cares Stan? As you state, cannabis will be grown, processed, and consumed no matter what or where the location resides.
So why the worry about buffers? Your pot will be grown and sold no matter what.
I asked you previously, why all the anxiety about location and buffers? As you state, nothing is going to deter sales, so why are you so alarmed about “artificial” buffers?
Could it be that you are upset that not everyone believes in the same things as you? Are you upset that others might have different opinions? Is all this anxiety really about independent thought and not pot?
Very good Matter.
If you have spent the last 12 months calling for buffers, and especially if you have asked for extensive buffering that would wipe out all dispensary locations, you were either ignorant of the law or didn’t care what the law allowed. It would be impossible for minors to acquire cannabis from a regulated storefront unless it was diverted but completely possible and more likely that there will be minors involved with trespassing, vandalism, burglary, and dark market activity.
You just destroyed your argument. Yes keep them out of town. Barrier them out of existence. Go to Vallejo. Just brilliant Stan. You finally got it.
I in no way endorse the carte blanche use of Cannabis; but the range of effects that Phytocannabinoids have on the human endocannabinoid system are not only vast, they are virtually all beneficial to human health.
As we continue to sort through the emerging science of cannabis and cannabinoids, one thing remains clear: a functional cannabinoid system is essential for health. From embryonic implantation on the wall of our mother’s uterus, to nursing and growth, to responding to injuries, endocannabinoids help us survive in a quickly changing and increasingly hostile environment.
FYI
There is absolutely no evidence that Cannabis use during adolescence causes ‘irreparable’ brain damage but there is universal evidence of the long term damage of alcohol use.
The ironic thing about the claim that cannabis use is destroying the Adolescent brain is that all of the studies that point to alterations in brain structure in the hippocampus fail to acknowledge that even though the regions of the brain do appear to reduce in size as a result of cannabis use, they also increase the number of neurons and neurotransmission improves.
It is pervasive institutionalized negative bias against all forms of cannabis use that results in selective information regarding the claim that alteration of brain structure is deleterious and permanent; And, They fail to mention the positive indications of increased neural activity and efficiency.
FYI
Impact of adolescent marijuana use on intelligence: Results from two longitudinal twin studies
vol. 113 no. 5
> Nicholas J. Jackson, E500–E508
there was no evidence of a dose–response relationship between frequency of use and intelligence quotient (IQ) change. Furthermore, marijuana-using twins failed to show significantly greater IQ decline relative to their abstinent siblings. Evidence from these two samples suggests that observed declines in measured IQ may not be a direct result of marijuana exposure but rather attributable to familial factors that underlie both marijuana initiation and low intellectual attainment.
FYI
Daily Marijuana Use Is Not Associated with Brain Morphometric Measures in Adolescents or Adults
Barbara J. Weiland, Rachel E. Thayer, Brendan E. Depue, Amithrupa Sabbineni, Angela D. Bryan and Kent E. Hutchison
Journal of Neuroscience 28 January 2015, 35 (4) 1505-1512;
In sum, the results indicate that, when carefully controlling for alcohol use, gender, age, and other variables, there is no association between marijuana use and standard volumetric or shape measurements of subcortical structures.
FYI
The American Psychological Association
August 4, 2015
Teen Marijuana Use Not Linked to Later Depression, Lung Cancer, Other Health Problems, Research Finds
“What we found was a little surprising,” said lead researcher Jordan Bechtold, PhD, a psychology research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “There were no differences in any of the mental or physical health outcomes that we measured regardless of the amount or frequency of marijuana used during adolescence.”
FYI
Adolescent cannabis use and brain systems supporting adult working memory encoding, maintenance, and retrieval
BrendenTervo-Clemmensa Daniel Simmonds Finnegan J. Calabrode Nancy L.Dayd Gale A.Richardsond Beatriz Luna
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, United States
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, United States
Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, United States
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, United States
Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, United States
However, cannabis age of onset brain-behavior associations did not differ between groups with a single reported use and those with repeated use, suggesting age of onset effects may reflect substance use risk characteristics rather than a developmentally-timed cannabis exposure effect. Within repeated cannabis users, greater levels of total cannabis use were associated with performance-related increases in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation during maintenance. This pattern of significant results remained unchanged with inclusion of demographic and prenatal measures as covariates. Surprisingly, however, at the group level, cannabis users generally performed better than participants who reported never using cannabis (faster RT, higher accuracy).
Thanks for this. I wonder how many will respond to real science?
Great objective information, James. Thanks,
Pot is legal. It will be consumed. California will be a test lab for all these theories and hypothesis’s.
Why are people still trying to sell the benefits of pot? I don’t get it. The election is over. Pot is legal. Why are you still trying to sell the benefits?
Are you encouraging people to consume intoxicants? To what benefit? Is it profit you are promoting?
Are you trying to convince those to whom you disagree? Why? Does it really matter that some may have a different opinion?
I find it interesting that so many want to continue a debate on subject matter that is settled. Pot is legal. Done. Finale.
Matter, Would you be so kind to point out the debate.
Debate no. Argument yes. Look at the original note from Stan. Look at the post just above mine. Constant, almost daily posts selling the magnificent benefits of pot. Why? Why the constant selling to a public that has already voted to make the substance legal?
I am curious why people need to sell the public regarding a settled debate. There is a motivation here that does not involve making pot legal. It is something else. I suspect it is either profit based selling, or, some people cannot abide the fact that others may have different opinions. They MUST have everyone believe the same as them.
Why not just skip reading, or commenting on, anything related to the topic? Could save you a bit of grief, I’d imagine. BTW, I assumed you were alluding to James’s comment, which seemed nothing more that objective, factual and informational.
Matter you are correct. There is no debate. The folks that do not like my opinion or yours on pot will comment all day. Continuing to comment on a councilmember comment at a meeting on barriers. He new it was over but made sure his opinion was fully clear and on the record. Anyone who has followed all the comments know it is not a debates just a difference of opinion on taxes, barriers, where to place a pot shop, and worse yet the residents who did differ with them. Especially the educators and parents. That is not what they wanted to hear. They only wanted tell all of us that pot on First Street was going to make the eating and drinking places thrive because of the hungry element of pot. Well guess what that type of talk is asking folks to break the law. Cannot consume pot except in your own home. So it is very simple they are on the winning team but are still losing. How sad.
Correct Bob. The pot debate is over. It’s legal. But these constant posters feel the overwhelming need to have everyone believe what they believe.
I can accept that my belief differs from the pro pot crowd. I accept and respect the will of the people to make pot legal. I have an open mind and accept differing opinions.
I just find it humorous that these pro pot people are kind of going crazy that not everyone believes in the miraculous medicinal and financial benefits of pot. They have to have us all in lock step! Very liberal thinkers, correct?
…and yet, you keep debating this…
I am responding to a question. Which should be clear to you. I hope
This is a comment section. Both sides comment. That is fine. We then know both sides to this issue. Pot is legal. No on First Street, buffers, legal to have a storefront cannabis store in Benicia. Just certain restrictions. BIP can have wholesale operations on cannabis. Plenty of areas open for retail and wholesale operations. Even us anti retail cannabis store folks have no problem with the boundaries. Maybe you pro cannabis retail folks can tell me why there is not a retail cannabis store in the Solano Square or the adjacent property. There are empty spots. Why not on Fifth Street where that run down old Sundowner is.. Lower arsenal. I see no action at present on retail cannabis. Are they waiting till 2019 when the tax if passed takes effect on April 1st of 2019. By that time it will be sorted out and it could well be that Benicia is not going to be a very profitable area to be. That is my comment. It is not a debate just a fact based comment.
“There was no evidence…”
Completely meritless postulations during the public education effort about the need to protect schools, religious assemblies, parks, day care, youth centers, or ice-cream trucks from cannabis retail.
Here is one study concluding absolute nonsense about the need to protect schools with buffers.
https://tinyurl.com/yb2hae3z