San Diego: Medical Pot Dispensaries Favored In Poll

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As the city of San Diego struggles with how to handle medical marijuana dispensaries, a new poll shows that nearly two-thirds of the city's adults favor allowing the shops as long as they are regulated.

Of those, 37 percent favor heavy regulations and 27 percent desire only a few regulations.

Nine percent want the city to ban dispensaries altogether.

The poll of 505 randomly selected adults was conducted Oct. 14-17 by San Diego-based Competitive Edge Research & Communication, a firm that has worked for news organizations and political candidates such as Mayor Jerry Sanders.

The poll was done on behalf keepcomingback.com , a Web site for substance abuse and addiction problems run by former mayoral candidate Steve Francis and his wife, Gayle.

“We did this poll to be helpful . . . and so the policymakers and the elected officials know where the citizens stand,” Francis said. “I think there's a lot of confusion on this issue and we crafted a poll that we thought was very fair and done by a reputable pollster.”

California voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996, but the drug remains illegal under federal law. That conflict between state and federal law has led to much angst.

San Diego, like many cities, lacks land-use guidelines governing where marijuana collectives or cooperatives may be located.

In September, more than two dozen people operating marijuana dispensaries were arrested in countywide raids that also shut down 14 storefronts, including 11 in San Diego.

To resolve conflicts, the San Diego City Council created an 11-member advisory task force to help establish guidelines for the use of medical marijuana in the city.

The panel will advise the council on creating guidelines for three main groups: medical marijuana patients and primary caregivers, medical marijuana cooperatives and collectives, and the police.

The poll also found that 45 percent of city adults have used marijuana at least once.


NewsHawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: signonsandiego.com
Author: Craig Gustafson
Copyright: 2009 The San Diego Union-Tribune, LLC
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