San Jose cannabis activists hoping to repeal the city’s new dispensary regulations say they have almost 50,000 petition signatures before today’s deadline. The Citizens Coalition for Patient Care, a group running the petition drive, calls the City Council’s ordinance “unworkable.” The group says it needs 29,653 valid signatures to qualify for a referendum to overturn San Jose’s ordinance.
The referendum would let voters decide whether to repeal a city ordinance that would slash the number of permitted dispensaries to 10 and require them to grow and process all buds, edibles, tinctures and capsules on-site. Another option would be for the City Council to draft a new ordinance.
CCPC Chairman James Anthony and other activists are holding a press conference at 10am Friday at City Hall to announce the exact number of signatures, as well as turn them in to the City Clerk’s office. After the City Council approved the ordinance last month, CCPC dispatched hundreds of trained volunteers and paid petitioners across the city.
“We’re seeing a very enthusiastic response from the community in San Jose,” Matt Witemyre, CCPC co-chairman, said during the signature gathering.
Green Innovation Capital of World
A few thoughts on Medical Marijuana and San Jose’s potential economic development opportunities
– At least 20 are out of town businesses trying to sell marijuana in San Jose with people from Berkely / Oakland area, Sacramento, East Bay, San Francisco, Los Angeles / Santa Monica area, Fairfield area, Palo Alto area, New York City area, Chicago area, Atlanta area based ion area codes of phone numbers
– Are these business really coming to San Jose to help out sick and pain ridden or for profits, easy access to California’s growers and drug suppliers now that California has gone ahead of Mexico as major grower and distributor of marijuana for US ?
– Will San Jose become leader in California Legal front end marijuana business supplying millions of customers back home in other states
Are some of these businesses owned by or will soon be owned buy Mexican and Colombian Drug cartels to be as multiple drug suppliers to US’s sick, pain ridden addicted and millions recreational users making it a international business decvelopment opportunity for billion of customers
– The DEA, Drug Cartels, Criminals now in short terms have a target list to close down, rob, firebomb, get a percentage of very profitable business, for hostile takeovers with guns and thugs or give information to DEA to close your competitors
It would take a few years to sort out legally and eventiually recognize the business and tax opportunties but think about the local business opportunities and how San Jose would jump start a Innovative Green Business boom that would make high tech and social networking like like last years old school businesses in innovative 21th Century global competitive business
– Out of state ownership of San Jose marijuana businesses probably legally falls under interstate commerce by federal government so San Jose will have big economic, jobs and tax boost in downtown hotels, restaurants, car rentals, airline, federal indictments, attorneys to defend accused, years of court trails etc as DEA, Justice Department, FBI, IRS and many other federal government agencies come to town for a few years by would fall of as federal government recognizes the billions in taxes that could payoff government debt to Chinese and have a international trade surplus while paying for low cost health care, schooling and other needed programs and unlike alcohol and tobacco who fight and get into trouble marijuana uses are mellow, smile a lot, spend lots money on munchies, expensive stuff they don’t need, concerts and festivals reducing public safety costs and boosting local tax revenue
Chamber of Commerce should develop a new San Jose logo as new green innovation business leader to replace tired old “Capital of Silicon Valley” maybe the new business development logo should be
Green Innovation Capital of World
– giving a new meaning to green business: locally grown, sustainable, organic, envirnmentally friendly highly profitable with bongs replacing beer at company parties
We could be first in US, maybe world leader with local business incubators for 1000’s new marijuana business startups using empty old City Hall, overflow technical classes at community college and new MBA and Doctorate Green Bio / Agri Business programs at San Jose State
Local arts and music scene would boom with overflow mellow crowds replacing angry drunks at concerts and events at local clubs, HP Arena, California Theater, Civil Auditorium and Convention Center
Instead of guns and bullets we would see smiles and flowers in their hair on downtown sidewalks and parks making San Francisco Haight Ashbury look so 60’s with homeless
Pierluigi Oliverio would be Grand Marshall of San Jose’s First Annual Marijuna Harvest Festival, a month long international signature downtown event drawing hundreds of thousands mellow free spending diverse attendees from all over the world to San Jose
I was reading the metro at Sonoma Chicken Coop with the wife when I noticed a comment about a “aggressive signature gatherer harassing lunchtime diners”
Sigh…
I’ve been hearing so much misinformation about the new regulations from the petition gatherers myself. I find myself asking every petitioner that comes up to me, “Have you read the 48 pages?” I don’t sign their petition, I give my simple argument that, “They need to be as regulated as a bar, or a pharmacy in the very least” and most sane people tend to agree.