Pubdate: Tue, 14 Nov 2017
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2017 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Rachel Swan

FORMER SUPERVISORS THREATEN BALLOT MEASURE OVER PROPOSED CANNABIS
RULES

A proposed deal to cut through San Francisco's cannabis debate and
allow existing medical dispensaries to sell recreational pot on Jan. 1
could put a choke hold on the industry, two former supervisors said
Tuesday.

Scott Wiener and David Campos, who formed an unlikely partnership to
intervene in the city's cannabis legislation, blasted the proposal by
Supervisor Aaron Peskin hours before it went to the full board.

Peskin's idea of granting recreational permits to the city's 46
existing pot businesses, when coupled with zoning rules that other
supervisors have introduced to keep the pot trade out of their
neighborhoods, would create a monopoly for those already in business,
Wiener and Campos said.

The two former supervisors said they will contest these proposals with
a ballot measure if the board votes to approve them.

"Creating such a monopoly will reduce competition and innovation and
close off opportunities for new businesses operators to enter the
market, including the communities of color who have been historically
targeted and disenfranchised by the failed and racist war on drugs,"
the former supervisors wrote in a statement released Tuesday morning.

The perceived failure of the federal war on drugs has been a linchpin
of San Francisco's cannabis debates, with all 11 supervisors calling
for an equity program that would benefit people with past drug
felonies. Supervisor Malia Cohen laid out criteria for such a program
at board committee meetings in November.

Peskin bristled at the criticism.

"If Scott Wiener and David Campos want to run for the Board of
Supervisors, they are welcome to do so," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt