Oakland City Council Public Hearing
| By Americans For Safe Access | Published July 12, 2010 |
The City of Oakland will be holding a public hearing this Tuesday July 13th at 6 pm to consider an ordinance that would require the supply of every Oakland dispensary to be produced in one of four giant, commercial-industrial medical cannabis grow factories. This will destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of incredibly experienced farmers who currently supply Oakland's dispensaries with high-quality, unique varieties of medical cannabis.
| Date: |
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 |
| Time: | 6:00 PM |
| Address: | Oakland City Hall get directions Hearing Room One - 1st Floor 14th Street & Broadway Oakland, CA 94612 |
- This ordinance will kill hundreds of jobs
- It will focus the positive economic impacts of the medical marijuana industry in the hands of a select few, as opposed to collectives as intended by California law.
- The ordinance does not even allow patient-farmers to compete against the mass-production factories.
- A fair ordinance would allow the needs and preferences of the patients to drive the demand for cannabis, not the city coffers, and dispensaries and patients should be allowed to choose medicine produced through both processes.
- This ordinance will make it more difficult for patients to find relief
- Cannabis comes in countless varieties, with distinguishably therapeutic effects.
- The current variety patients have in Oakland, which is the best in the state and still has trouble accommodating the variety of patient medical needs, will be dramatically reduced under the proposed ordinance.
- The strain, the way it was grown, the amount of time it was grown, and other factors can change the therapeutic benefits of a particular cannabis plant.
- Large-scale facilities will by necessity produce a limited number of strains, under similar conditions, nutrients, etc.
- Mass-scale production, at the exclusion of the multitude of small-scale farmers who have been the backbone of the medical cannabis industry, will mean reduced supply which will only hurt patients' ability to achieve the maximum therapeutic benefit from their cannabis use.
Please forward these talking points and the attached phone script to any activist, patient, or concerned citizen in the Bay Area. We must act fast if we want the city to hear from us!
Thank you.
Matt Potter
Phone script & Contact info for key council members
Council Member Jean Quan
JQuan@oaklandnet.com
510-238-7004
Council Member Larry Reid
LReid@oaklandnet.com
510-238-7007
Council Member Pat Kernighan
PKernighan@oaklandnet.com
510-238-7002
Council Member Nancy Nadel
NNadel@oaklandnet.com
510-238-7003
"Hello, my name is [NAME]. I'm calling to express my opposition to the proposed medical cannabis cultivation ordinance. The ordinance will create a monopoly on the farming of medical cannabis, put hundreds of farmers out of work, and ruin the variety and selection of medicine available at dispensaries. I would like the council member to reject any medical cannabis cultivation ordinance that does not allow dispensaries to purchase medicine from small-time farmers."
Matt Potter
Government Relations Associate
matt.potter@CannBe.com
tel. 510.629.6942
cel. 510.388.8551
fax. 510.536.6262
CannBe
2107-A Livingston St.
Oakland CA 94606
