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Over the past few weeks, when the clock would strike 4:20 p.m., Santa Clarita City Councilman Frank Ferry said he would get pretty busy.
The time is a sort of tradition for marijuana smokers, often acknowledged as the time of day to get high.
So when that time would come, Ferry said he'd find himself in contact with pro-marijuana activists looking to engage him in an argument over his opposition to medical marijuana dispensaries.
"I'll either get an e-mail at 4:20 (p.m.) or a phone call at 4:20 (p.m.)," Ferry said in a recent interview. "It's actually died down the last week."
The calls have been coming from all across the country, Ferry said at a recent City Council meeting.
"Down at my job, every day I get e-mails and phone calls from across the United States, people wanting to debate me on this issue," he said on Feb. 13. "It's taken up a lot of darn time."
Ferry said he's gotten a telephone call from a man in Miami, two people from Louisiana and had a half-hour discussion with a guy from New York City.
"I've had more calls from outside the state than from the Santa Clarita Valley," Ferry said, calling them "an organized effort."
He said he tells the telephone activists that he supports medical marijuana for patients who are terminally ill, but then, "They go into all the arguments as to why marijuana should be legalized completely," with the activists citing the use of the herb that they tell Ferry goes back thousands of years.
In January, The Signal reported about a claim made by a narcotics sergeant with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station that an entrepreneur had contacted him about the possibility of opening a medical marijuana dispensary in Castaic.
Ferry has said he would have stood outside the facility with other anti-medical marijuana activists to "make it clear that it's according to the law ... because I know for a fact (medical marijuana is) being abused."
County officials have since said that no permits have been approved for a Castaic dispensary.
At the recent City Council meeting, Ferry also raised what he said was the possibility of a strip club opening in the Granary Square shopping center on McBean Parkway.
"I'll keep saying it," Ferry said at the meeting. "Strip clubs, massage parlors, tattoo parlors, pawn shops are all legal. Do you want them in your neighborhood in Granary Square? ... The answer's no," citing his similar feelings toward dispensaries.
When asked if he thought that a strip club or other such business he listed would ever come to Granary Square, he said there were "at least three, maybe four specific areas they could potentially go into" in the city, citing the possibility of an out-of-state property owner permitting it.
When asked if certain parts of the city, such as Canyon Country, are less desirable places to live because they are home to tattoo parlors and pawn shops, Ferry said: "If given a choice, (Canyon Country) residents would prefer them not to be there than to be there."
Source: The Signal
Author: Kristopher Daams
Copyright: 2007 The Signal
Website: The Signal: News for Santa Clarita Valley, California
The time is a sort of tradition for marijuana smokers, often acknowledged as the time of day to get high.
So when that time would come, Ferry said he'd find himself in contact with pro-marijuana activists looking to engage him in an argument over his opposition to medical marijuana dispensaries.
"I'll either get an e-mail at 4:20 (p.m.) or a phone call at 4:20 (p.m.)," Ferry said in a recent interview. "It's actually died down the last week."
The calls have been coming from all across the country, Ferry said at a recent City Council meeting.
"Down at my job, every day I get e-mails and phone calls from across the United States, people wanting to debate me on this issue," he said on Feb. 13. "It's taken up a lot of darn time."
Ferry said he's gotten a telephone call from a man in Miami, two people from Louisiana and had a half-hour discussion with a guy from New York City.
"I've had more calls from outside the state than from the Santa Clarita Valley," Ferry said, calling them "an organized effort."
He said he tells the telephone activists that he supports medical marijuana for patients who are terminally ill, but then, "They go into all the arguments as to why marijuana should be legalized completely," with the activists citing the use of the herb that they tell Ferry goes back thousands of years.
In January, The Signal reported about a claim made by a narcotics sergeant with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station that an entrepreneur had contacted him about the possibility of opening a medical marijuana dispensary in Castaic.
Ferry has said he would have stood outside the facility with other anti-medical marijuana activists to "make it clear that it's according to the law ... because I know for a fact (medical marijuana is) being abused."
County officials have since said that no permits have been approved for a Castaic dispensary.
At the recent City Council meeting, Ferry also raised what he said was the possibility of a strip club opening in the Granary Square shopping center on McBean Parkway.
"I'll keep saying it," Ferry said at the meeting. "Strip clubs, massage parlors, tattoo parlors, pawn shops are all legal. Do you want them in your neighborhood in Granary Square? ... The answer's no," citing his similar feelings toward dispensaries.
When asked if he thought that a strip club or other such business he listed would ever come to Granary Square, he said there were "at least three, maybe four specific areas they could potentially go into" in the city, citing the possibility of an out-of-state property owner permitting it.
When asked if certain parts of the city, such as Canyon Country, are less desirable places to live because they are home to tattoo parlors and pawn shops, Ferry said: "If given a choice, (Canyon Country) residents would prefer them not to be there than to be there."
Source: The Signal
Author: Kristopher Daams
Copyright: 2007 The Signal
Website: The Signal: News for Santa Clarita Valley, California
