HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-29-2018 - Item 1 - Belsher1
Tonikian, Victoria
From:Cohen, Rachel
Sent:Thursday, March 29, 2018 8:59 AM
To:Advisory Bodies
Subject:FW: Marijuana Dispensary Costs
Attachments:Marijuana costs.docx; POSAFY Cannibis Ordinance recommendations.pdf
Please pass on the e-mail below and the attachments to the Planning Commission.
Thank you,
Rachel Cohen
Associate Planner
Community Development
919 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-3218
E rcohen@slocity.org
T 805.781.7574
slocity.org
From: John W. Belsher <
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2018 7:31 AM
To: Cohen, Rachel <rcohen@slocity.org>
Cc: 'JB' <
Subject: Marijuana Dispensary Costs
Rachel: Please forward this email to the Planning Commissioners prior to their meeting tonight. I am also attaching a
list of POSAFY’s requested actions with respect to the cannabis ordinance, as presented to the City Council on February
20.
John Belsher
From: John W. Belsher [
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2018 1:52 PM
To: 'emailcouncil@slocity.org' <emailcouncil@slocity.org>; 'agomez@slocity.org' <agomez@slocity.org>;
'cchristianson@slocity.org' <cchristianson@slocity.org>; 'Johnson, Derek' <djohnson@slocity.org>
Cc: 'Cantrell, Deanna' <DCantrell@slocity.org>; 'POSAFY' <
Subject: FW: Marijuana Dispensary Costs
Council item 13 on Feb 20 Agenda: Cannabis Regulations Study Session
Feb 19, 2018
From: John Belsher, on behalf of
POSAFY, a non‐profit dedicated to drug prevention and education for youth.
3480 South Higuera Street, Suite 130
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Recieved: 03-29-18
Item #1
2
To the City Council and City staff:
RE: What will dispensaries mean for SLO?
The dispensaries of Boulder, Denver and Pueblo Colorado have had dramatic effects on those communities, including
fiscal, tourism, safety and livability adverse impacts. Since brick and mortar dispensaries were introduced, Denver and
Pueblo and other cities have seen a huge influx of transients and others seeking to be part of the pot world, with
devastating impacts on those communities. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/legal‐marijuana‐drawing‐homeless‐to‐
colorado/ Denver’s own Downtown Convention and Vistiors Bureau reports that due to the homelessness explosion
from legalization of pot, “the downtown environment is the #1 complaint from meeting planners.” This official site
reports that “Denver is losing visitors and valuable convention business as a result of these overall safety (or perception
of safety issues).” https://www.scribd.com/document/318751618/Impacts‐of‐the‐Downtown‐Environment‐on‐the‐
Tourism‐Industry‐and‐Vistor‐Perceptions
No tax or regulatory efforts will overcome this. I will highlight many of these points, which are all documented on our
local non‐profit website POSAFY and Jody Belsher’s website The Other Side of Cannabis, which also includes links to her
award‐winning movie of the same name.
In short, this is a very difficult decision to walk back from. Once the world’s transient and chronic marijuana users find
out about prevalence and open arms in the temperate and lovely SLO, it will want to live here permanently, even more
so than Denver and Boulder and Pueblo. This decision therefore needs the utmost review and respect.
1. Fiscal impacts: The Myth of the Infamous Tax Revenue: There have been many promises of tax revenue. These
short term benefits ignore important costs to our local government. And the businesses that are replaced or squeezed
out need to be accounted for in this equation. I know personally from my legal practice that we are already seeing this
impact in Grover Beach, where long‐time businesses have been evicted in favor or pot entrepeneurs, many if not most
from out of the area or even out of our State.
A. The experience with alcohol and tobacco proves this “pot of gold” as short‐sighted.
Any tax revenue gained from legal marijuana would be quickly offset by the social costs. Let’s take a look at two legal
substances, alcohol and tobacco:
Federal excise taxes collected on alcohol in 2007 totaled around $9 billion; states collected around $5.5 billion.
Combined, these amounts are less than 10 percent of the estimated $185 billion in alcohol—related costs to health care,
criminal justice, and the workplace in lost productivity.
Tobacco does not yield net revenue when taxed. Each year, Americans spend more than $200 billion on the social costs
of smoking, but only about $25 billion is collected in taxes.
See http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=399 Also Harwood, H. (2000), Updating Estimates
of the Economic Costs of Alcohol Abuse in the United States: Estimates, Update Methods and Data. Report prepared for
the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse.iv State estimates found
at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/weekinreview/31saul.html?em Federal estimates found
at https://www.policyarchive.org/bitstream/handle/10207/3314/RS20343_20020110.pdf ; Also
see http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0072.pdf Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, see “Smoking‐
caused costs,” on p.2.
B. Trickle down to the people does not pan out. Colorado schools report no benefit as was promised. See Pueblo
reports. There is $40 million annually set aside from pot taxes for all Colorado school construction, plus some smaller
funding for bullying, drop‐out and literacy. The statewide facility assessment is nearly $18
billion. http://www.cde.state.co.us/communications/20160902marijuanarevenue We all know how the California
lottery money was supposed to fund our schools and how that has worked out.
C. Social Services burden increases dramatically.
3
In Pueblo, Colorado, the social services impacts of its attracted homeless population is overwhelming that City, tripling
its transient numbers by 3 times. Pueblo is a city of just over 100,000, our SLO City daytime population. The marijuana
industry has attracted a homeless population like never seen before. According to one local paper, reprinted in the
Denver Post:
“Embracing the industry creates winners and losers”, Pro Pueblo CO’s Rink said. “While it may pump some
money into the local government coffers, it has overburdened the local social services and health care sectors by
attracting a massive influx of transients seeking legal weed, the group’s leaders contend.”
“Since 2013, the number of clients seeking services at Posada — a nonprofit seeking to house and help people
who are homeless — has tripled to 7,800 people”, said Anne Stattelman, its executive director. “One third of
them reported coming to Colorado for marijuana or to sign up for expanded Medicaid benefits”, she
said. "They’re coming, they’re poor and they’re adding to our community of poverty,” Stattelman said.
Will SLO create for itself a "community of poverty"? And are the costs factored into the equation?
D. Emergency room demands for overdosed and psychotic users will be a burden. This impact is assured by
London study of skunk marijuana. This latest study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, involved 280 patients
aged 18 to 65 attending a South London hospital with a first episode of psychosis, compared with 174 healthy people.
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said: “Those of us on the front line, including
psychiatrists, police and families, know that skunk cannabis can be particularly dangerous for the significant minority of
people vulnerable to mental illness.”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article‐1232170/Skunk‐cannabis‐smokers‐seven‐times‐likely‐suffer‐
psychosis.html#ixzz57ZeXLuQO
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article‐1232170/Skunk‐cannabis‐smokers‐seven‐times‐likely‐suffer‐
psychosis.html#ixzz57ZeFWxPJ
The Rocky Mountain HIDTA Report cites the following statistics:
• The yearly rate of emergency department visits related to marijuana increased 35 percent after the
legalization of recreational marijuana (2011‐2012 vs. 2013‐2015).
• Number of hospitalizations related to marijuana in Colorado:
o 2011–6,305
o 2012–6,715
o 2013 – 8,272
o 2014–11,439
o Jan‐Sept2015–10,901
• The yearly number of marijuana‐related hospitalizations increased 72 percent after the legalization of recreational
marijuana (2009‐2012 vs. 2013‐2015).
Cost of Emergency Room: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates the average cost of an
emergency room visit in 2014 was $1,533.00.
Is the City going to fork over tax revenues to local hospitals to pay for this? Will the hospitals demand it?
How about the police and emergency responders carrying people to ER wards? Who pays for that?
E. Violence and police burdens: The Gazette of Colorado Springs reports as of February 19, 2018 that contrary to
promises from the Colorado governor that the black market would disappear, it has quadrupled or
worse. http://gazette.com/black‐market‐marijuana‐busts‐nearly‐quadruple‐under‐recreational‐
legalization/article/1621232 Deadly crime attributable to marijuana has increased dramatically, as reported from
official agencies not so motivated to hide the truth. The governor is hanging onto a vision of happiness not reflected in
4
the law enforcement world or the shrinking visitor and convention trade in Denver. Or public parks in Pueblo and
Boulder occupied permanently with pot‐seeking transients, which I have witnessed personally.
Pot shops cause an increase in crime, let there be no doubt. Pot lobbyists often claim “studies” show decrease in crime
at pot store locations when pot stores are opened and increase in crime when they are closed (based on a widespread
closure in Los Angeles which left dozens of vacant shops, understandably vulnerable to crime). This argument is
counter‐intuitive when one considers the cash, drugs and guns associated with pot businesses. Moreover, it is not
true. A three‐year study in Denver found increased crime in neighborhoods near pot shops. That is because criminals
won’t attack the shops head on, given the guns and security measures. They will rob the neighborhoods to feed their
habit. Or the customers who leave the shops. See https://news.osu.edu/news/2017/04/27/marijuana‐crime/ The
results of this study published in the Journal of Primary Prevention show that “legal marijuana sales come with a cost”,
said Bridget Freisthler, lead author of the study and professor of social work at The Ohio State University.
This is the second study Freisthler and colleagues have published on crime and marijuana outlets. The earlier study,
published last year, was done in Long Beach, Calif. In both studies, property crimes didn’t increase right next to the
outlet, but in the adjacent neighborhood.
F. Impacts on youth usage from dispensaries. One assertion we hear is that studies are neutral as to impacts of
dispensaries on youth marijuana use, including the posting of an outdated “Rand Corp” republication of a “Lancet”
Psychiatry 2015 article. This was not as asserted a Rand Corp study.
In Nov 2017 Rand Journal of Economics published a peer reviewed study by Yuyan Shi, a UCSD Public Health
Dept Asst professor in public health and medicine, which equates a 5 mile radius of dispensaries with increase use by
eighth graders and 5‐25 mile radius with increased use by 10th graders. See Preventative Medicine Journal. (This journal
has been published since 1972 by Elsevier. It has an Impact factor of 3.434 and employs 7,500 people in 46 countries and
partners with 20,000 editors, with 72,000 editorial board members with 830,000 advisors and reviewers. [RAND Journal
of Economics has an impact factor of 1.465 which is top 100 for economic
journals.] https://www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP67384.html
The Yuyan Shi study reports:
"To date, only one study has examined how proximity to marijuana dispensaries affect adolescent marijuana
use. This cross‐sectional study used Monitoring the Future data and found that the availability of medical
marijuana dispensaries within a 5‐mile buffer zone was associated with a higher likelihood of recent marijuana
use by eighth graders, and being within either a 5‐mile or 25‐ mile buffer zone was associated with an increased
likelihood of recent marijuana use for 10th graders [31]. Monitoring the Future data [1] indicate that 35% of
eighth graders and the majority of 10th (64%) and 12th (81%) graders report that marijuana is “fairly easy” or
“very easy” to get. More work is needed in this area to understand the pathways through which proximity to
dispensaries may be related to subsequent marijuana use among adolescents." [emphasis added]
Shi Y. The availability of medical marijuana dispensary and adolescent marijuana use. Prev Med. 2016;81:1–7. Yuyan
Shi is Asst professor of Dept of Family Medicine and Public Health, UCSD.
Why should we be concerned that virtually all of SLO youth will be affected by just one pot shop? The adverse impacts
of pot use by youth is well‐documented. Most recently the American Academy of Pediatrics weighed in:
Pediatricians Warn against Use of Pot: A report released in 2017 from the American Academy of Pediatrics describes
why many doctors are now “beefing up warnings about marijuana’s potential harms for teens amid increasingly lax laws
and attitudes on pot use.” This report states that the group “opposes medical and recreational marijuana use for kids.” A
youth’s brain continues to develop through their early 20s, so “the potential short‐term and long‐term effects of a mind‐
altering drug” are of great concern. Some of these effects may even be permanent. This is particularly true for frequent
users who begin at an early age.
5
“Teens who use marijuana at least 10 times a month develop changes in brain regions affecting memory and the
ability to plan” as well as lowered IQ scores in some cases. Also some studies have shown that “starting
marijuana use at a young age is more likely to lead to addiction than starting in adulthood.” These doctors stress
that messaging is particularly important because according to government data “kids 12‐17 increasingly think
marijuana use is not harmful.” [emphasis added]
http://www.rmhidta.org/html/FINAL%202017%20Legalization%20of%20Marijuana%20in%20Colorado%20The%20Impa
ct.pdf
2. The Myth of Safer Pot from Regulation and Testing.
"There’s a stereotype, a hippy kind of mentality, that leads people to assume that growers are using natural cultivation
methods and growing organically,” says Andy LaFrate, founder of Charas Scientific, one of eight Colorado labs certified
to test cannabis. “That’s not necessarily the case at all.” LaFrate presented his results this week at a meeting of the
American Chemical Society (ACS) in Denver. The title of the Smithsonian article: Modern Marijuana Is Often Laced With
Heavy Metals and Fungus
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science‐nature/modern‐marijuana‐more‐potent‐often‐laced‐heavy‐
metals‐and‐fungus‐180954696/#dccEKmUOV61yTsTW.99
We know that the mafia and drug pushers will thrive in a black market full of pesticides and other
contaminants. Is this a reason to bring dispensaries into our community?
First, testing can be required of mobile dispensaries, just as easily as brick and mortar dispensaries. We note
the testing is sporadic, left up to the dispensaries (fox guarding the hen house?) and standards are low or non‐existent in
California. Testing will be required of pot after the present grace period of six months. That does not mean there will be
enforcement of the thousands of servings sold each day.
The reason to use pesticides and fungicides is compelling to growers. One plant can be worth $20,000. How
can a grower afford an infestation of aphids?
Second, recent studies like the one cited above published in the Smithsonian show that the claims of "organic"
pot prove false in a large percentage of the product tested. Here are a few examples of California and Washington state
pot contamination:
A. Medical marijuana kills patient. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science‐nature/modern‐marijuana‐more‐
potent‐often‐laced‐heavy‐metals‐and‐fungus‐180954696/ A rare fungal infection from tainted medical marijuana kills a
patient in chemo.
B. Berkeley Testing Lab reports widespread pot contamination with deadly substances. This report by a reputable
testing lab active since the 1990s found unacceptable levels in most of the pot it tested, both from regulated
dispensaries and the black market. Among the scariest of substances found is Myclobutanil. It’s a fungicide, often sold
under the name Eagle 20. It is approved for use on things like grapes and hops because if humans happen to eat some
of it, it is considered harmless. http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/02/06/bay‐area‐marijuana‐tests‐positive‐for‐
toxic‐fungicide/
“If you smoke it, if you heat it,” Land explains, “it produces a chemical called hydrogen cyanide. It’s very toxic to
humans.” Dr. Donald Land, a researcher at Steep Hill Lab in Berkeley.
C. Toxics Profits filmmaker reports contaminated cannabis. Huffington Post’s Environment and Public Health
Reporter, Lynne Peeples reports some independent efforts at testing such as Clean Green Certified have sprouted, but
even crops from growers who think they are complying with organic standards sometimes test positive for
pesticides. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/marijuana‐pesticides‐contamination_n_3328122.html Here
are excerpts from the article:
6
Evan Mascagni stumbled across the issue of contaminated cannabis while filming his upcoming documentary,
“Toxic Profits,” which highlights the global sale of pesticides banned in the U.S. “You can only imagine the
pesticides that are being used on marijuana grown elsewhere by profit‐driven farmers” who may not care about
the health of consumers or the environment, Mascagni told HuffPost in an email.
Some of this contamination comes from heavy metals pulled out of soils. "Cannabis is well known to pull up a lot
of crap out of the ground,” he said.
“There’s a pretty considerable amount of contaminated cannabis,” said Jeff Raber of The Werc Shop, a
Pasadena, Calif.‐based lab that tests products primarily for California dispensaries.
“There are no application standards,” he added. “Since we’re not telling growers that they’re allowed to use
anything, they often use whatever they can get their hands on. And that’s a lot of bad things.”
Many of the chemicals applied to pot plants are intended only for lawns and other non‐edibles. Medical
cannabis samples collected in Los Angeles have been found to contain pesticide residues at levels 1600 times
the legal digestible amount. There are no application standards for growers, this report notes.
D. Peer reviewed study finds contamination in 80% of pot. According to a recent study in the Journal of Toxicological
Sciences, cannabis concentrates may contain pesticides and toxic solvents which remain as residue from the
manufacturing process. https://news.lift.co/cannabis‐concentrate‐contaminants/ Over 80% of the concentrates were
found to contain residual solvents, including isopentane, butane, heptane, propane, and other solvents. Additionally,
nearly 40% of the concentrate samples contained pesticides. The most common was paclobutrazol, a plant growth
regulator, and bifenthrin and myclobutanil were also detected.The presence of pesticides in nearly 40% of the
concentrates tested is also concerning.
"Special attention must be paid to the use of pesticides in growing cannabis, especially since medical patients
may be more susceptible to their toxic effects. In addition, pesticides in smoked material are more toxic to begin
with because they bypass metabolism in the digestive tract."
E. 93% of pot supposedly pesticide free found to be tainted with dangerous levels of pesticides. An NBC study in
February 2017 tested 44 samples sold in legal shops, all of which claimed their pot was pesticide
free. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/I‐Team‐Marijuana‐Pot‐Pesticide‐California‐414536763.html In fact
80% showed dangerous levels of pesticides.
"Steep Hill Labs found 41 out of 44 samples, 93 percent, tested positive for pesticides, at levels high enough that
those products would've been banned for sale in some other states that currently regulate the use of pesticides
in marijuana products."
"It's really like injecting that pesticide right into your bloodstream," said former USC Chemistry professor Dr. Jeff
Raber, who now runs another prestigious cannabis testing lab.
F. Silent Poison. Calaveras County has published a web site Silent Poison detailing its experience with over 1200 outdoor
grows and the environmental damage caused by pesticides and other chemicals associated with pot grows. The County
recently banned all outdoor grows. https://silentpoison.com/
G. Medical Marijuana lethal for at risk users. The Sacramento Bee reports on a UC Davis study finding lethal bacteria
and mold on samples from 20 Northern California pot growers and dispensaries. These are deadly if vaped or smoked
for at risk populations. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/I‐Team‐Marijuana‐Pot‐Pesticide‐California‐
414536763.html
John W. Belsher, Esq
3480 South Higuera Street, Suite 130
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Telephone: (805) 316-0508
7
john@belsherlaw.com
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Feb 20, 2018
From: John Belsher
POSAFY, a non-profit dedicated to drug prevention and education for youth.
To the City Council and City staff:
RE: What will Pot Dispensaries Mean for SLO?
The dispensaries of Boulder, Denver and Pueblo Colorado have had dramatic effects on those
communities, including fiscal, tourism, safety and livability adverse impacts. Since brick and mortar
dispensaries were introduced, Denver and Pueblo and other cities have seen a huge influx of transients
and others seeking to be part of the pot world, with devastating impacts on those communities.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/legal-marijuana-drawing-homeless-to-colorado/ Denver’s own
Downtown Convention and Vistiors Bureau reports that due to the homelessness explosion from
legalization of pot, “the downtown environment is the #1 complaint from meeting planners.” This
official site reports that “Denver is losing visitors and valuable convention business as a result of these
overall safety (or perception of safety issues).” [emphasis added]
https://www.scribd.com/document/318751618/Impacts-of-the-Downtown-Environment-on-the-
Tourism-Industry-and-Vistor-Perceptions
No tax or regulatory efforts will overcome this. I will highlight many of these points, which are all
documented on our local non-profit website POSAFY and Jody Belsher’s website The Other Side of
Cannabis, which also includes links to her award-winning movie of the same name.
In short, this is a very difficult decision to walk back from. Once the world’s transient and chronic
marijuana users find out about prevalence and open arms in the temperate and lovely SLO, it will want
to live here permanently, even more so than Denver and Boulder and Pueblo. Our kids will inherit the
spillover effect of pot stores, expanding their ever-increasing belief that pot is safe—which it is not for
our youth. This decision therefore needs the utmost review and respect.
1. Fiscal impacts: The Myth of the Infamous Tax Revenue: There have been many promises of tax
revenue. These short term benefits ignore important costs to our local government. And the
businesses that are replaced or squeezed out need to be accounted for in this equation. I know
personally from my legal practice that we are already seeing this impact in Grover Beach, where
long-time businesses have been evicted in favor or pot entrepeneurs, many if not most from out
of the area or even out of our State.
A. The experience with alcohol and tobacco proves this “pot of gold” as short-sighted.
Any tax revenue gained from legal marijuana would be quickly offset by the social costs. Let’s take a
look at two legal substances, alcohol and tobacco:
Federal excise taxes collected on alcohol in 2007 totaled around $9 billion; states collected around $5.5
billion. Combined, these amounts are less than 10 percent of the estimated $185 billion in alcohol—
related costs to health care, criminal justice, and the workplace in lost productivity.
Tobacco does not yield net revenue when taxed. Each year, Americans spend more than $200 billion on
the social costs of smoking, but only about $25 billion is collected in taxes. See
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=399 Also Harwood, H. (2000),
Updating Estimates of the Economic Costs of Alcohol Abuse in the United States: Estimates, Update
Methods and Data. Report prepared for the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse.iv State
estimates found at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/weekinreview/31saul.html?em Federal
estimates found at
https://www.policyarchive.org/bitstream/handle/10207/3314/RS20343_20020110.pdf ; Also see
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0072.pdf Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids,
see “Smoking-caused costs,” on p.2.
B. Trickle down to the people does not pan out. Colorado schools report no benefit as was
promised. See Pueblo reports. There is $40 million annually set aside from pot taxes for all
Colorado school construction, plus some smaller funding for bullying, drop-out and literacy. The
statewide facility assessment is nearly $18 billion.
http://www.cde.state.co.us/communications/20160902marijuanarevenue We all know how the
California lottery money was supposed to fund our schools and how that has worked out.
C. Social Services burden increases dramatically.
In Pueblo, Colorado, the social services impacts of its attracted homeless population is overwhelming
that City, tripling its transient numbers by 3 times. Pueblo is a city of just over 100,000, our SLO City
daytime population. The marijuana industry has attracted a homeless population like never seen
before. According to one local paper, reprinted in the Denver Post:
“Embracing the industry creates winners and losers”, Pro Pueblo CO’s Rink said. “While it may
pump some money into the local government coffers, it has overburdened the local social
services and health care sectors by attracting a massive influx of transients seeking legal weed,
the group’s leaders contend.”
“Since 2013, the number of clients seeking services at Posada — a nonprofit seeking to house
and help people who are homeless — has tripled to 7,800 people”, said Anne Stattelman, its
executive director. “One third of them reported coming to Colorado for marijuana or to sign up
for expanded Medicaid benefits”, she said. "They’re coming, they’re poor and they’re adding to
our community of poverty,” Stattelman said.
Will SLO create for itself a "community of poverty"? And are the costs factored into the equation?
D. Emergency room demands for overdosed and psychotic users will be a burden. This impact is
assured by London study of skunk marijuana. This latest study, published in the British Journal
of Psychiatry, involved 280 patients aged 18 to 65 attending a South London hospital with a first
episode of psychosis, compared with 174 healthy people.
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said: “Those of us
on the front line, including psychiatrists, police and families, know that skunk cannabis
can be particularly dangerous for the significant minority of people vulnerable to mental
illness.”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1232170/Skunk-cannabis-
smokers-seven-times-likely-suffer-psychosis.html#ixzz57ZeXLuQO
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1232170/Skunk-cannabis-smokers-seven-times-
likely-suffer-psychosis.html#ixzz57ZeFWxPJ
The Rocky Mountain HIDTA Report cites the following statistics:
• The yearly rate of emergency department visits related to marijuana increased 35 percent
after the legalization of recreational marijuana (2011-2012 vs. 2013-2015).
• Number of hospitalizations related to marijuana in Colorado:
o 2011–6,305
o 2012–6,715
o 2013 – 8,272
o 2014–11,439
o Jan-Sept2015–10,901
• The yearly number of marijuana-related hospitalizations increased 72 percent after the legalization of
recreational marijuana (2009-2012 vs. 2013-2015).
Cost of Emergency Room: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates the average
cost of an emergency room visit in 2014 was $1,533.00.
Is the City going to fork over tax revenues to local hospitals to pay for this? Will the hospitals demand
it?
How about the police and emergency responders carrying people to ER wards? Who pays for that?
E. Violence and police burdens: The Gazette of Colorado Springs reports as of February 19, 2018 that
contrary to promises from the Colorado governor that the black market would disappear, it has
quadrupled or worse. http://gazette.com/black-market-marijuana-busts-nearly-quadruple-under-
recreational-legalization/article/1621232 Deadly crime attributable to marijuana has increased
dramatically, as reported from official agencies not so motivated to hide the truth. The governor is
hanging onto a vision of happiness not reflected in the law enforcement world or the shrinking visitor
and convention trade in Denver. Or public parks in Pueblo and Boulder occupied permanently with pot-
seeking transients, which I have witnessed personally.
Pot shops cause an increase in crime, let there be no doubt. Pot lobbyists often claim “studies” show
decrease in crime at pot store locations when pot stores are opened and increase in crime when they
are closed (based on a widespread closure in Los Angeles which left dozens of vacant shops,
understandably vulnerable to crime). This argument is counter-intuitive when one considers the cash,
drugs and guns associated with pot businesses. Moreover, it is not true. A three-year study in Denver
found increased crime in neighborhoods near pot shops. That is because criminals won’t attack the
shops head on, given the guns and security measures. They will rob the neighborhoods to feed their
habit. Or the customers who leave the shops. See https://news.osu.edu/news/2017/04/27/marijuana-
crime/ The results of this study published in the Journal of Primary Prevention show that “legal
marijuana sales come with a cost”, said Bridget Freisthler, lead author of the study and professor of
social work at The Ohio State University.
This is the second study Freisthler and colleagues have published on crime and marijuana outlets. The
earlier study, published last year, was done in Long Beach, Calif. In both studies, property crimes didn’t
increase right next to the outlet, but in the adjacent neighborhood.
F. Impacts on youth usage from dispensaries. One assertion we hear is that studies are neutral as to
impacts of dispensaries on youth marijuana use, including the posting of an outdated “Rand Corp”
republication of a “Lancet” Psychiatry 2015 article. This was not as asserted a Rand Corp study.
In Nov 2017 Rand Journal of Economics published a peer reviewed study by Yuyan Shi, a UCSD
Public Health Dept Asst professor in public health and medicine, which equates a 5 mile radius of
dispensaries with increase use by eighth graders and 5-25 mile radius with increased use by 10th
graders. See Preventative Medicine Journal. (This journal has been published since 1972 by Elsevier. It
has an Impact factor of 3.434 and employs 7,500 people in 46 countries and partners with 20,000
editors, with 72,000 editorial board members with 830,000 advisors and reviewers. [RAND Journal of
Economics has an impact factor of 1.465 which is top 100 for economic journals.]
https://www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP67384.html The Yuyan Shi study reports:
"To date, only one study has examined how proximity to marijuana dispensaries affect
adolescent marijuana use. This cross-sectional study used Monitoring the Future data and found
that the availability of medical marijuana dispensaries within a 5-mile buffer zone was
associated with a higher likelihood of recent marijuana use by eighth graders, and being within
either a 5-mile or 25- mile buffer zone was associated with an increased likelihood of recent
marijuana use for 10th graders [31]. Monitoring the Future data [1] indicate that 35% of eighth
graders and the majority of 10th (64%) and 12th (81%) graders report that marijuana is “fairly
easy” or “very easy” to get. More work is needed in this area to understand the pathways
through which proximity to dispensaries may be related to subsequent marijuana use among
adolescents." [emphasis added]
Shi Y. The availability of medical marijuana dispensary and adolescent marijuana use. Prev Med.
2016;81:1–7. Yuyan Shi is Asst professor of Dept of Family Medicine and Public Health, UCSD.
Why should we be concerned that virtually all of SLO youth will be affected by just one pot shop? The
adverse impacts of pot use by youth is well-documented. Most recently the American Academy of
Pediatrics weighed in:
Pediatricians Warn against Use of Pot: A report released in 2017 from the American Academy of
Pediatrics describes why many doctors are now “beefing up warnings about marijuana’s
potential harms for teens amid increasingly lax laws and attitudes on pot use.” This report states
that the group “opposes medical and recreational marijuana use for kids.” A youth’s brain
continues to develop through their early 20s, so “the potential short-term and long-term effects
of a mind-altering drug” are of great concern. Some of these effects may even be permanent.
This is particularly true for frequent users who begin at an early age. “Teens who use marijuana
at least 10 times a month develop changes in brain regions affecting memory and the ability to
plan” as well as lowered IQ scores in some cases. Also some studies have shown that “starting
marijuana use at a young age is more likely to lead to addiction than starting in adulthood.”
These doctors stress that messaging is particularly important because according to government
data “kids 12-17 increasingly think marijuana use is not harmful.” [emphasis added]
http://www.rmhidta.org/html/FINAL%202017%20Legalization%20of%20Marijuana%20in%20Col
orado%20The%20Impact.pdf
2. The Myth of Safer Pot from Regulation and Testing.
"There’s a stereotype, a hippy kind of mentality, that leads people to assume that growers are using
natural cultivation methods and growing organically,” says Andy LaFrate, founder of Charas Scientific,
one of eight Colorado labs certified to test cannabis. “That’s not necessarily the case at all.” LaFrate
presented his results this week at a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Denver. The title
of the Smithsonian article: Modern Marijuana Is Often Laced With Heavy Metals and Fungus
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/modern-marijuana-more-potent-often-
laced-heavy-metals-and-fungus-180954696/#dccEKmUOV61yTsTW.99
We know that the mafia and drug pushers will thrive in a black market full of pesticides and
other contaminants. Is this a reason to bring dispensaries into our community?
First, testing can be required of mobile dispensaries, just as easily as brick and mortar
dispensaries. We note the testing is sporadic, left up to the dispensaries (fox guarding the hen house?)
and standards are low or non-existent in California. Testing will be required of pot after the present
grace period of six months. That does not mean there will be enforcement of the thousands of servings
sold each day.
The reason to use pesticides and fungicides is compelling to growers. One plant can be worth
$20,000. How can a grower afford an infestation of aphids?
Second, recent studies like the one cited above published in the Smithsonian show that the
claims of "organic" pot prove false in a large percentage of the product tested. Here are a few examples
of California and Washington state pot contamination:
A. Medical marijuana kills patient. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/modern-
marijuana-more-potent-often-laced-heavy-metals-and-fungus-180954696/ A rare fungal
infection from tainted medical marijuana kills a patient in chemo.
B. Berkeley Testing Lab reports widespread pot contamination with deadly substances. This
report by a reputable testing lab active since the 1990s found unacceptable levels in most of the
pot it tested, both from regulated dispensaries and the black market. Among the scariest of
substances found is Myclobutanil. It’s a fungicide, often sold under the name Eagle 20. It is
approved for use on things like grapes and hops because if humans happen to eat some of it, it
is considered harmless. http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/02/06/bay-area-marijuana-tests-
positive-for-toxic-fungicide/
“If you smoke it, if you heat it,” Land explains, “it produces a chemical called hydrogen
cyanide. It’s very toxic to humans.” Dr. Donald Land, a researcher at Steep Hill Lab in
Berkeley.
C. .Toxics Profits filmmaker reports contaminated cannabis. Huffington Post’s Environment and
Public Health Reporter, Lynne Peeples reports some independent efforts at testing such as Clean
Green Certified have sprouted, but even crops from growers who think they are complying with
organic standards sometimes test positive for pesticides.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/marijuana-pesticides-
contamination_n_3328122.html Here are excerpts from the article:
Evan Mascagni stumbled across the issue of contaminated cannabis while filming his
upcoming documentary, “Toxic Profits,” which highlights the global sale of pesticides
banned in the U.S. “You can only imagine the pesticides that are being used on
marijuana grown elsewhere by profit-driven farmers” who may not care about the
health of consumers or the environment, Mascagni told HuffPost in an email.
Some of this contamination comes from heavy metals pulled out of soils. "Cannabis is
well known to pull up a lot of crap out of the ground,” he said.
“There’s a pretty considerable amount of contaminated cannabis,” said Jeff Raber of
The Werc Shop, a Pasadena, Calif.-based lab that tests products primarily for California
dispensaries.
“There are no application standards,” he added. “Since we’re not telling growers that
they’re allowed to use anything, they often use whatever they can get their hands on.
And that’s a lot of bad things.”
Many of the chemicals applied to pot plants are intended only for lawns and other non-
edibles. Medical cannabis samples collected in Los Angeles have been found to contain
pesticide residues at levels 1600 times the legal digestible amount. There are no
application standards for growers, this report notes.
D. Peer reviewed study finds contamination in 80% of pot. According to a recent study in the
Journal of Toxicological Sciences, cannabis concentrates may contain pesticides and toxic
solvents which remain as residue from the manufacturing process.
Over 80% of the concentrates were found to contain residual solvents, including
isopentane, butane, heptane, propane, and other solvents. Additionally, nearly 40% of
the concentrate samples contained pesticides. The most common was paclobutrazol, a
plant growth regulator, and bifenthrin and myclobutanil were also detected.The
presence of pesticides in nearly 40% of the concentrates tested is also concerning.
"Special attention must be paid to the use of pesticides in growing cannabis, especially
since medical patients may be more susceptible to their toxic effects. In addition,
pesticides in smoked material are more toxic to begin with because they bypass
metabolism in the digestive tract. https://news.lift.co/cannabis-concentrate-
contaminants/
E. NBC study in February 2017 tested 44 samples sold in legal shops, all of which claimed their pot was
pesticide free. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/I-Team-Marijuana-Pot-Pesticide-California-
414536763.html In fact 80% showed dangerous levels of pesticides.
"Steep Hill Labs found 41 out of 44 samples, 93 percent, tested positive for pesticides, at levels
high enough that those products would've been banned for sale in some other states that
currently regulate the use of pesticides in marijuana products."
"It's really like injecting that pesticide right into your bloodstream," said former USC Chemistry
professor Dr. Jeff Raber, who now runs another prestigious cannabis testing lab.
F. Calaveras County has published a web site Silent Poison detailing its experience with over 1200
outdoor grows and the environmental damage caused by pesticides and other chemicals associated with
pot grows. The County recently banned all outdoor grows. https://silentpoison.com/
G. Medical Marijuana lethal for at risk users. The Sacramento Bee reports on a UC Davis study finding
lethal bacteria and mold on samples from 20 Northern California pot growers and dispensaries. These
are deadly if vaped or smoked for at risk populations. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/I-
Team-Marijuana-Pot-Pesticide-California-414536763.html