Election Issues: Pot Dispensaries; Yea or Nay?

At the City Council candidates' forum that Russ reminisced about here, there were 20 questions asked of all three candidates.  One benefit of having a small slate is that every candidate responded to every question.  I'm working through the themes of the night with an eye toward the questions that illuminated differences between the candidates.  That is not as easy as it might sound.  One question that elicited a different response from the incumbents and the challenger was #9 about having marijuana dispensaries in town (specifically at the Bayfront) although I think the questioner really meant the industrial section of Rollins Rd rather than the Bayfront.  The potential city revenue was also mentioned in the question.

Both incumbents, Emily Beach and Donna Colson, put pot dispensaries pretty far down their list of priorities and thought we should "go slow".  Mayor Colson noted the use of pot among high school students already and that Rollins/Bayshore is soon to be a new, residential neighborhood.  The challenger, Mike Dunham, took a different approach.  He noted that he didn't think of it as a revenue issue, but rather that since 63% of B'gamers had voted to legalize it then it should be allowed to be dispensed.  He also noted the preponderance of 40-60 year olds using it for chronic pain.  Since the forum, Mike Dunham and I have had a one-to-one interview and the issue came up again--this time in the context of the eternal question "What do we do about Broadway?"  Mike's thinking is that a dispensary on B'way would drive traffic and benefit all of the merchants and restaurants on the street.

As luck would have it, the day before my interview with Mike Dunham I was a guest of the CEO and the Chief Strategy Officer of Caliva for a tour of the San Jose facility where they grow, package and sell/distribute all sorts of THC and CBD products.  I worked with both individuals in the tech industry for years and now they are onto something entirely different that I found eye-opening.  I'll just mention a couple of points pertinent to the Burlingame question of allowing or disallowing a dispensary.  First, it very well could be a revenue issue.  Caliva is one of the very top sales tax payers in San Jose--and SJ is big town.  At the candidate forum, question 19 asked about "affordability" and the continually escalating sales taxes (like Measure I that we addressed here).  There are more taxes coming from the state, the county and the schools on every ballot.  So the money does matter.

The foot traffic into Caliva was continuous while I was there at midday.  The CEO indicated they get between up to 1000 walk-ins per day even though they make more than 1,000 deliveries per day.  That last point is also pertinent to the B'game decision.  B'gamers already have delivery options from Caliva or Eaze among others, but a retail space allows for an informed sales staff to help particularly with the CBD wellness, pain relief, anxiety relief side of the story.  CVS was offering some CBD oils in store, but that relationship was quelled by the feds and CVS customers did not have the benefit of an informed sales staff there anyway.  The issue of a dispensary in town, yea or nay?, probably isn't enough to swing one's city council vote either way, but it does show some of the thinking of the three candidates.  Here is the Caliva location in an industrial section next to a recycling facility in San Jose.

 

Comments

[Barking Dog]

Great topic Joe.

While Mike and I share some very different views of the future of Burlingame and it's residents, I very much agree with his view on this issue.

From a medical side, watching the benefits of cannabis with my father in law during his last 18 months in severe pain, was eyeopening. The effects the pain killers and opiates were so damaging to him. Once he stated using cannabis over the opiates, he became so much more of the man I knew. The opiates were killing him, the cannabis extended his life, if ever so brief. This started a wormhole for me to really try to educate myself on the subject.

Being a child of the 60's, yes I partook in a lot of pot use...and maybe a couple of Leary tabs touched my tongue or a few fungus caps...but once baby #1 was on the way and reality set in, my smoking of pot was maybe 10 times over the next 44 yrs.

While educating myself, I found myself really enjoying partaking recreationaly at night more and more. Enjoyed going to different dispensaries and talking to the owners and 'bud tenders'. Learning the product, the effects, the different strains. These dispensaries always have a security guard or 2 at the front door, check your ID at the door, everything is locked, reinforced doors to back room inventory is under code or card key for entry. When was the last dispensary robbery in the Bay Area? When was the last Apple Store robbery in the Bay Area?? Pot is a social aspect of my life now, much in the same way alcohol is to many.

Mike as some great points: 63% of Burlingamers voted to legalize it. It is a legal business in the state, and heavily regulated and taxed at the state and county level. The state and counties have their hands in the cookie jar very much so. The pot companies and private money have invested billions in the state of California and its products. The tax revenue for the state is going to be billions. The state isn't going to let that money go away any time soon and without a fight. Corporations and small businesses fleeing the state already. The Feds are done raiding dispensaries in states that it is legal. The state is more focused on the illegal grows by the cartels, on Federal and State land.

I don't know what the local and state rules are for a retail dispensary spot on Broadway due to its proximity to schools, but I think Mike hits the nail on the head with his thinking. Tell me another storefront on Burlingame Ave or Broadway that gets 800-1000 walk ins a day? How may vacancies on Burlingame Ave and Broadway total currently? Lets say 500 more people a day on Broadway, who doesn't think Village Host or any other restaurant on Broadway is going to benefit from 500 stoners a day on Broadway? I would think 500 people on Broadway would energize Broadway and maybe more storefronts wont have vacancy signs in their windows? Mike can say this isn't about revenue for the city, that's all great and dandy, but tax revenue and empty Broadway storefronts, should be a big reason for a dispensary on Broadway.

I think Beach and Colson's argument about the high school age kids and pot use is very weak. "Going Slow" is not an answer that satisfies me. Please elaborate on the Emily and Donna, you are missing the mark here. They need to educate themselves on the subject and listen to 2/3 of what their constituents voted for and are seeking. Pot use with teenagers is nothing new. Kids are going to be kids no matter how much we say we want and try to protect them. The high school age kids are going to get pot anyway, no matter if there is a dispensary in town or not. Went through it myself as a parent in the late 80's early 90's with my kids. The teenagers going through their parents medicine cabinets is more of a concern, and should be theirs too. Opiates are killing our kids and our loved ones, not pot. I've never heard of anyone overdosing on pot. Like drinking and driving, driving while intoxicated with cannabis is illegal as well.

I have already met the owner and lots of the 'bud tenders' at the dispensary half a mile away from my place in Reno. Right next to a liqueur store, barber shop, Little Caesar's and book store and nursery. Never thought that in my 70's I would be a advocate for pot on a recreational side. In my opinion, alcohol does far more damage to human lives than cannabis. And alcohol has been taxed and regulated for 100 years, except for a few, and look how that turned out.
The medicinal use of pot is undeniable in my view.

[Bruce Dickinson]

Joe, this may sound totally unexpected, but guess which Burlingame resident has probably had the most exposure to chronic drug users? That's right, legendary record producer, Bruce Dickinson--yes THE Bruce Dicksinson! Guys, when I say Bruce has seen it all, I mean it in every sense of the word when talking about a 4+ decade career in producing records for dozens of artists!

And what I saw wasn't pretty! Marijuana was used by many of the platinum and gold record acts that I produced, and things were generally ok for about 60%-70% of the users, so long as the users didn't have addictive personalities. But those who had addiction problems, look out! I have seen so many riches to rags cases develop because of marijuana and other drug use. And yes, marijuana, added to alcohol, prescription drugs, led to the trial of other drugs some of which were even more addictive and getting these various "cocktails" of substances were pretty much a train wreck waiting to happen! The sad part is that the very people who insisted that "everything was under control" were the ones with the greatest addiction problems and went from Hero to Zero faster than I hit 60 mph from a standing start in my Ferrari F12 Berlinetta.

Considering my own personal experience, along with many of mental health and medical professionals' opinions as well as rigorous studies about marijuana triggering psychosis, severe impairment when driving vehicles, adding to potential addiction issues with stuff that is already legal, causing respiratory and lung issues even worse vs traditional tobacco, the mixture of it with other stimulants and depressants and all I gotta tell ya is "Just say No" to more drugs in Burlingame. Sure, alcohol and opioids aren't great, but why add something else to make things even worse than they are!??!?

Maybe marijuana has a place for some pain killing in the absence of opioids, but it should be far more regulated like a true pharmaceutical with equivalent dosage and prescription from an MD, and it's use cases supported by true double-blind placebo controlled studies on efficacy for certain problems. Whenever people discuss the benefits vs risks of marijuana, I don't see much in the way of cold, hard data and when I do see cold, hard data, it all seems to NOT favor marijuana. Prove to me otherwise!

Also, don't let the lure of "tax dollars" get everyone all giddy'd up. Where do you think that money is gonna go? That's right HSR?!??

A dispensery or even having full access to marijuana is a terrible idea and has zero place in Burlingame, let alone anywhere without extremely stringent regulation and with prescription only from a physician similar to other highly addictive drugs!

[Barking Dog]

No matter producing gold or wrenching diesel engines Bruce, drug use doesn't care what class of society you are. With my co workers, in the 70's it was heroin, 80's cocaine. 90's crank and amphetamines, ⁰⁰'s all of they above. You've seen it all, so have I. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Your own personal experience with marijuana and the effects it had on you, I think are in the minority here, but that's ok. The same can be said for the effects of alcohol on people. Your comparison to alcohol and opiates sort of being in the same class, makes me think you've hit to many bumps on El Camino in your F12 and shaken the upstairs a little.

There are many "professional" opinions to the risk vs benefit of marijuana use. You've and I have chosen different narratives to this science. Yes I will agree that opiates definitely serve a purpose for pain management. Pharmaceutical drugs is an industry that is already heavily regulated. Big Pharma and lots of not so honest or ethical Doctors, pushed these opiates on lots of people and a true epidemic has occured. And a lot of people made a lot of money. Black market oxy,vicodin, percocet aren't available any more and if they are, they are expensive. Heroin and synthetic fentanyl are everywhere and killing nationwide. And are cheap to purchase in today's market as it is flooded.

I have not heard of marijuana tax dollars going toward HSR. Please educate me.

At a dispensary I visit on a somewhat regular schedule, there are travelers there from all over the world, with suitcases in tow straight from SFO, making the dispensary the 1st stop after landing. This dispensary isnt in the best of neighborhoods, they dont know that, nor do they care. Broadway is a perfect avenue for these travelers to shop for cannabis. As legal in the county of San Mateo, State of California. 4000 new Facebook employees aged 25-55(guess) moving in a mile away. According to the numbers approx 65% voted for legalization of marijuana. That tells me over 2000 potential customers on Broadway, a mile away, on a daily basis.

Dispensaries are here already
I have full access to marijuana now. All by the touch of my fingers on the phone and going to my front door when he/she arrives.
Marijuana sales is heavily regulated already. Many changes have been made to control doses and milligrams of THC per serving since recreational legalization.
Marijuana is not in the same classification of the many highly addictive drugs mentioned above, IMO. But yes, you are correct, according to the Federal Government, they are the same classification. Dating yourself there Bruce, your sounding like Tricky Dick.

[Peter Garrison]

What a picture: FaceBook employees and stoners wandering up and down Broadway, driving home, picking up kids from school. Charming. Oh, but think of the money we’ll make!

[Barking Dog]

The lulu pant, North Face vest, Facebook using moms, dads and nanny's of Burlingame are already roaming Broadway and picking up kids with THC or CBD in their blood stream. Thinking any different about the neighbors and what is already here in Burlingame surrounding you Pete, is naive in 2019

[Bruce Dickinson]

Wow, looks like we need an intervention!!!

Bruce is right again!

[Barking Dog]

I too voted NO on other cannabis legislation in past year Bruce
Time, life situations, and more knowledge of the cannabis products and benefits vs risks moved the meter for me.

Glad your always right in your own mind Brucey Baby. Fun to read

[J. Mir]

I used to live in San Jose. Do you really want to be San Jose? It’s a snake pit.

BHS Kids are already vaping like crazy and not just nicotine products. The back alley behind Tennis Club at the BHS parking lot is a well-known “Vapers alley” - littered with Juul pods continually. And you’d like to enhance this feature of teen living herewith adding Cbd in the mix? (Note that anyone any age can order this stuff online, but that makes it easier for parents to intercept) Note that I am not talking about beer bottles or hard liquor bottles - that’s NOT what they’re into today!

And don’t get me started on the “ big Pharma” / opioids smokescreen, as if dispensaries will make all those problems go away.

Let millbrae put up a dispensary in their new parking lot development, at the Bart terminus - they need the revenue far more anyways.

[Barking Dog]

Obviously, dispensaries will not make the opiate prpoblem go away. Not what is being debated. What's in your family's medicine cabinet that your children have access too? Opiates/barbiturates? My guess is yes in some form.

Nicotine products are just as easy to get, if not easier than Cannabis products. And according to the media, the nicotine products are the ones being targeted by the Tobacco industry on minors. You dont think that big tobacco isnt already in the cannabis business?? Dont be that naive.

"Vapors Alley", nice. It was "Stoners Alley" in the 80's/early 90's when my kids were @ BHS. Different decades/century, same issues with "The Alley".

[Joe]

@J. Mir - you lost me. A dispensary north of Trousdale is OK, but one a couple blocks south of Trousdale is a big problem. Explain.

[Barking Dog]

J.Mir- Dont you have to be 21 now to buy tobacco products in California?? So if "vapers alley" is littered with Juul cartridges, how are these underage kids obtaining them??

Legal age to purchase cannabis at a dispensary is 21. Dispensaries check your ID, by a security guard, everytime you walk in the front door. Can the same be said for the gas station on the corner or the vape shops that are all over, that are selling these kids the Juul cartridges?? Nope!

I'm sorry, but the access to minors argument falls flat with me. The kids are already getting cannabis, Juul, cigarettes, alchohol, pharmaceutical prescriptions (all legal substances), and many other ILLEGAL substances! A dispensary in town isnt going to make it easier for them to get....THEY ARE ALREADY GETTING IT! Plus they wouldn't even get in the front door without proper legal identification.

[Joe]

I did a bit more research on the tax burden/ revenue for these types of products:

California Excise Tax = 16%

Cannabis Business Tax = 9.7% (San Jose specific?)

California State Sales Tax = 11.3%

Total: 37%

[Bruce Dickinson]

Bottom line is it's not being taxed enough. Reminds me of a great Malcom Gladwell article that I had my secretary pull. Again, there is really a lack of credible evidence that cannabis is beneficial and many reasons to be wary.

Also look at the Dutch, who have started to regard the outside smoking of marijuana in public areas as nuisance with a lot of public backlash and are regulating it more.

And this is what we want in Burlingame!!?? If you care about your property value, not sure how getting a dispensary is going to enhance it!

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/14/is-marijuana-as-safe-as-we-think

[Barking Dog]

It is illegal to smoke outside cannabis outside in public spaces in California currently.

Sounds like the Cannabis Business Tax is driven by each cities choosing of rate, with that money going directly to the city for their use. Unlike the state tax and cultivation tax that goes to the states general fund.

California and Washington state and DC have high cannabis taxation. They also have the biggest black market of cannabis sales in states where Recreational cannabis is legal. States that have low taxation havelot less illegal cannabis sales.

By 2024, 7.1 Billion projected in sales in California.....with still 53% of purchases being blackmarket purchases. While states with low taxation, will only have about a 30% illicit sales.

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/23/753791322/california-says-its-cannabis-revenue-has-fallen-short-of-estimates-despite-gains

[Joe]

Smoking weed in public is one infraction I would like to see policed to a very high-level of enforcement - zero tolerance. Not sure what the penalty is.

[Barking Dog]

Looks like the penalty is $100.

Do I see some people vaping/smoking in a public area, yes, but I would have to say that most cannabis users respect public spaces.

https://www.canorml.org/california-laws/california-cannabis-laws/

[Joe]

You knew this would come back around sooner or later. We can only stick our collective finger in the dike for so long until the financial pressure causes a change:

Burlingame officials advanced plans to establish regulations on cannabis delivery businesses, with some hope to capitalize on the budding recreational drug marketplace.

The Burlingame Planning Commission voted 4-1-2, with two absent, during a meeting Monday, Jan. 26, to recommend councilmembers approve policies setting boundaries for marijuana distribution companies.

The evolving ordinance ultimately will stand to govern commercial cannabis companies such as Eaze, which is interested in setting up shop in Burlingame due to its central location on the Peninsula and proximity to a thriving customer base.

https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/burlingame-has-interest-in-commercial-cannabis/article_1678f9fc-6050-11eb-9cef-6309e6cfe986.html#utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1611759608&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline

[Barking Dog]

This is good for all involved.
Take the approx 26% in Excise and Business tax and put it towards affordable housing for Burlingame teachers, senior services and housing,teen programs, child care programs, etc.

[hollyroller@gmail.com]

I am watching a Great Show on the station "VICE."
Do you guys think BD might be in Q?

[Barking Dog]

What's the Kool-Aid of chose for you tonight holly?

[MBGA - not anymore]

This is some serious late stage civilization concepts --- use the tax revenue from pot sales to pay for teacher housing.

gradually, then suddenly

[Joe]

It looks like the city council decided to "split the baby" or perhaps split the paycheck on pot dispensaries:

In other business, councilmembers also unanimously approved allowing recreational cannabis delivery companies to operate in Burlingame.

The decision comes in the wake of distribution company Eaze expressing interest in moving to Burlingame, which has previously banned commercial cannabis companies.

But with allowing the company to open a distribution center, a tax could be established to generate more income from receipts on deliveries made across the Peninsula. Representatives have estimated Burlingame could earn about $1 million annually through a 5% tax on Eaze deliveries to 250,000 residents across the Peninsula.

As it stands, the company claimed it made about 11,000 deliveries in Burlingame last year. Of those sales, the city only benefited from some sales tax revenue.

The ordinance mandates companies must incorporate in industrial parts of the city, away from homes, schools, churches, community centers and other sensitive locations. Additionally, there is no signs allowed on the storefront, no retail business can be conducted on site and delivery cars must be unmarked.

https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/burlingame-post-office-redevelopment-approved/article_c82bb87a-676b-11eb-9cd7-a727dcfbc7ce.html#utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1612537207&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline

So no head shops on the Ave. but unmarked cars can deliver the goods. But what exactly is an "industrial part of the city" these days? With 298 units of housing going on Ingold, is that still "industrial"?

https://www.burlingamevoice.com/2020/05/30-ingold-rd-to-get-298-units.html

[Paloma Ave]

There is no such thing as affordable housing!

It is subsidized housing.

Let us at least call it what it is.

[Joe]

Agreed, Paloma. I usually put it in ""'s or say so-called affordable housing. I would guess Barking Dog agrees and just slipped once :-)

[Barking Dog]

Yes, agree, subsidized!