Letter to the editor: Thank you City Council for opposing Measure F

Thank you city council for seeing through the haze and officially opposing pot shops in Encinitas (see Sept. 12 Encinitas Advocate story “Encinitas City Council comes out against medical marijuana initiative”). The initiative as written by pot shop operators and their attorneys is seriously flawed, as was highlighted by the city attorney and council, and concerned members of the public.

As some of the speakers mentioned at the city council hearing, and cities across the state have found, pot shops are nothing more than a store for drug dealing. Pot shops are a nuisance and magnet for crime because they are full of pot and cash (banks won’t give pot shops accounts). The City of San Diego found in census tracts with pot shops that violent and property crimes were twice as high as census tracts without pot shops.

Any 18-year-old high school senior can get a pot card for any ailment under the moon by simply skyping online with a “doctor” and then use that card to buy as much pot as they want. The card does not limit the amount or frequency to which you can buy pot. This is not medicine; this not healthy or safe, this is drug dealing and drug abuse. Numerous studies have found that youth pot smokers whose brains’ are still developing, do worse in school, have more trouble graduating, have less motivation, and have higher rates of psychosis.

Pot these days is three to four times more potent than it was in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And now we have highly potent pot wax and oil with 80-90 percent THC sold in pot shops that you can put in your E-cigarettes to vaporize. With the type of fraud and abuse happening in pot shops, we should be concerned about making it easier for youths to get unfettered access. Pot shops in Encinitas will do nothing positive for the city, except enrich the pot shops’ owners.

Mike Jacobsen

Encinitas