OLPWebmaster
Member
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that the City and County of San Francisco
has just joined the growing list of cities that are making marijuana
offenses law enforcement's lowest priority today, in order to enable
police to concentrate on violent and serious crime. This was achieved
by a coalition of activists and organizations in conjunction with
supportive and sympathetic supervisors. This brings the total to six
cities up and down California that have either passed ordinances or
ballot initiatives to stop the arrest of adults for marijuana
offenses (Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, Santa
Barbara, and West Hollywood).
This ordinance effort was spearheaded by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi,
who offered to sponsor an ordinance to save us the expense of an
initiative. It was then handed over to Supervisor Tom Ammiano to take
the lead, and co-sponsored by Supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Chris
Daly, along with Mirkarimi. By an 8-3 vote, the full board of
supervisors passed the measure, based on the Santa Cruz' Measure K
but tailored to fit San Francisco's political environment. A second
confirmatory vote should make it final next week.
This ordinance was supported by all the supervisors, except Ma,
Elsbrend, and Alioto-Pier. There was some opposition by the Fair Oaks
Community Coalition, a neighborhood group that became known during
the medical cannabis dispensary ordinance effort (in opposition). At
yesterday's committee hearing, while they opposed this ordinance,
several members of this group came out in support of taxing and
regulating cannabis at the state and federal level. The head of the
narcotics division was satisfied with their input into the initiative
language, and said that the ordinance would not tie their hands.
So, we did it, again! Thanks are in order to the supervisors who came
on board, especially Sup. Tom Ammiano and his aide, Zach Tuller.
Congratulations to the team that made this possible! California is
leading the charge to opt out of Bush's war on marijuana!
Hooray for San Francisco Values!
I am pleased to announce that the City and County of San Francisco
has just joined the growing list of cities that are making marijuana
offenses law enforcement's lowest priority today, in order to enable
police to concentrate on violent and serious crime. This was achieved
by a coalition of activists and organizations in conjunction with
supportive and sympathetic supervisors. This brings the total to six
cities up and down California that have either passed ordinances or
ballot initiatives to stop the arrest of adults for marijuana
offenses (Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, Santa
Barbara, and West Hollywood).
This ordinance effort was spearheaded by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi,
who offered to sponsor an ordinance to save us the expense of an
initiative. It was then handed over to Supervisor Tom Ammiano to take
the lead, and co-sponsored by Supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Chris
Daly, along with Mirkarimi. By an 8-3 vote, the full board of
supervisors passed the measure, based on the Santa Cruz' Measure K
but tailored to fit San Francisco's political environment. A second
confirmatory vote should make it final next week.
This ordinance was supported by all the supervisors, except Ma,
Elsbrend, and Alioto-Pier. There was some opposition by the Fair Oaks
Community Coalition, a neighborhood group that became known during
the medical cannabis dispensary ordinance effort (in opposition). At
yesterday's committee hearing, while they opposed this ordinance,
several members of this group came out in support of taxing and
regulating cannabis at the state and federal level. The head of the
narcotics division was satisfied with their input into the initiative
language, and said that the ordinance would not tie their hands.
So, we did it, again! Thanks are in order to the supervisors who came
on board, especially Sup. Tom Ammiano and his aide, Zach Tuller.
Congratulations to the team that made this possible! California is
leading the charge to opt out of Bush's war on marijuana!
Hooray for San Francisco Values!
