The Fight Continues

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner Upholds the Voice of the Public

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner and members of the City Council have sitting at their desks the newly drafted law regulating medical cannabis establishments in the city of San Diego, a spokesman for the city attorney recently told CULTURE.

The newly drafted ordinance would allow dispensaries to operate legally for five years under a conditional use permit. A 100-foot buffer would be required between dispensaries and residential zones. It also would forbid medical cannabis dispensaries within 1,000 feet of child care centers, churches, municipal libraries, playgrounds, public parks, residential care facilities, schools and other dispensaries. The proposal also calls for indoor and outdoor lighting, increased security measures and places restrictions on signage. It would place a limit on hours, keeping them open within a 7am to 9pm time frame, seven days a week. The new ordinance would also place a ban on vending machine type dispensing.

And Mayor Filner continued to show his support for medical cannabis rights and the will of the people with public statements. Filner became vocal in response to the federal gag order placed on collective operator Ronnie Chang’s defense attorney Michael McCabe, after the San Diego Chapter for Americans for Safe Access (San Diego ASA) posted a video of McCabe criticizing the prosecution in the case, stating that Chang believes he “is being singled out as a scapegoat in order to intimidate others.”

“Fortunately the gag order doesn’t apply to me,” Filner stated at a press conference to reporters outside the federal courthouse on May 20.

Filner reaffirmed his view that at the federal level, in states that have approved the use of marijuana within their borders, prosecution should not even be taking place.
“The public doesn’t even want the federal government to step in, they’ve told us with referendum after referendum,” stated Filner. “I hope the people who form our juries will say ‘enough is enough.’”

In March, San Diego ASA posted a video depicting Chang’s attorney criticizing the prosecution in the case, stating among other things that Chang believes he “is being singled out as a scapegoat in order to intimidate others. Immediately after the video’s release to the public, prosecutor Paul Starita filed a gag order to prevent McCabe from speaking in public about Chang’s situation until the case is brought to trial this summer on June 4. San Diego ASA believes Chang is facing “retaliation for fighting a law suit the City of San Marcos filed against Mr. Chang’s collective.” State charges in his case were dropped and were brought instead in federal court.

The OB Rag had reported that Mayor Filner conversed with Terrie Best, San Diego ASA’s court support coordinator, and issued the following statement in May 16: “In cases like these, where Ronnie Chang will face a jury of his peers, jurors may be faced with decisions about unjust laws. There is a mechanism for the peoples’ will to prevail. It is called jury nullification and holds that jurors have a right and even a duty to vote their conscience if they feel the government is engaged in injustice. In voting to acquit victims of unjust laws, jurors cannot be punished for their verdicts.”

www.safeaccesssd.org

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Peacemaker

Since being elected in November, one of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s top priorities has been allowing the legal reopening of some medical dispensaries. Municipal enforcement actions have all but ceased at year’s end since he became mayor. No new enforcement actions from Neighborhood Code Compliance Department nor the San Diego Police Department had been referred for prosecution, according to the City Attorney’s Office as of mid-May.