HomeMy WebLinkAbout2/20/2018 Item 13, Smith
Christian, Kevin
From:carolyn smith <
To:E-mail Council Website; CityClerk
Subject:City Council Meeting - February 20, 2018 - Item 13. Overview of Proposed Draft
Cannabis Regulations
Mayor Harmon and Council Members:
I am requesting that you seriously consider not allowing retail stores to sell cannabis edibles in the
city and/or definitely not near a residential area. A mere 200 feet basically places stores within a
neighborhood. If uneaten or partially eaten edible candy or baked sweets are discarded in a nearby
neighborhood after purchase, children can find and eat them which will cause extreme health
problems.
An article in "Today" by Jeff Rossen (Rossen Reports) in September, 2017, explains the extreme
danger to children ingesting edibles:
"This is extremely dangerous," Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at New York
City's Lenox Hill Hospital, told TODAY national investigative correspondent Jeff Rossen last
year. "When young children get a hold of these products, they can have severe reactions,
including nausea, vomiting, disorientation, anxiety-like reactions and even psychotic
reactions that can make them do things they wouldn't normally do.
The Rossen Reports team legally purchased edibles in Denver, then challenged kids and
parents alike to tell the difference between them and regular candy. The results were
revealing. You have little kids that accidentally get into this stuff; they don't know any better,"
said Sgt. Jim Gerhardt of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association. Those accidental
issues are on the rise, and it's a big problem....Police warn that kids could end up bringing
edibles to school and sharing them with their friends, unaware of what they really are. Kids
are going to be enticed by this," Gearhardt said. "They're going to want to get into this stuff."
You should also consider a serious concern of residents about cannabis edibles being consumed at
parties in neighborhoods heavily populated by students. Many residents, including myself, have
experienced red plastic cups, half filled with alcohol, left on sidewalks, left in gutters and streets on
Saturday and/or Sunday mornings after a student party in the neighborhood. Naturally curious small
children have been known to find and drink them. Fortunately, most of the time the bitter taste of
liquor usually precludes a child from ingesting much of the cup's contents. However, if you allow
stores in the city to sell edibles in the form of candies, lollypops, brownies, cookies, etc., just imagine
what small children will do when they find a discarded uneaten or partially eaten lollypop or chocolate
edible left in the neighborhood from a party the night before. After ingestion, they could become
terribly ill and experience the serious symptoms mentioned above.
According to an article in Forbes Magazine in July, 2016, there was a significant increase of children
visits to emergency rooms in Colorado from ingesting marijuana. Below is a quote from this article:
"The study compared pediatric hospitalizations for marijuana exposure before and after
recreational pot was legalized in Colorado, between January 2009 and December 2015. In that
time span—from two years prior to legalization to two years after legalization—Colorado
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experienced a 34% increase in kids hospitalized from marijuana ingestion while the rest of the
U.S. saw a 19% increase. Nearly half of all cases involved recreational as opposed to medical
marijuana. The median age of the kids was about 2 years old. Edible products were
responsible for a little more than half of all exposures."
The rules this council create regarding the sale of cannabis and edibles in the city are vitally important
to everyone and protecting our children should be your utmost concern. In order to help prevent
accidental ingestion by children, please seriously consider not allowing retail cannabis stores to sell
edibles in the city at all. This would significantly reduce the chance of accidental ingestion by a
child. However, if you do decide to allow them, they should be as far away from a residential area as
possible--at least 600 feet or more.
Additionally, no matter what you decide, there should be a considerable education campaign, warning
parents about the dangers of their children eating any candies or other edible products they find in
their home, on sidewalks, streets, and/or in parks. It's already extremely tragic that our young adults
are being sent to the ER for alcohol poisoning, and it will be absolutely horrific if our young children
are sent there for cannabis poisoning.
Thank you for your service and your careful consideration of this very important matter.
Carolyn Smith
SLO City Resident
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