Public Comment

The Berkeley City Council once had sterling awareness about secondhand smoke's health effects. But on Tuesday night, February 19, 2019, they punched a hole so big in Berkeley's smokefree policy that any progress we've made in working toward a smokefree generation is effectively over. 

Two holes, in fact; Berkeley was declared a "sanctuary city" for cannabis, and Cesar Chavez Park was declared "an approved location for cannabis events” despite current ordinance making all city parks smokefree. Worse; it passed on the consent calendar. At least one Berkeley city councilmember knows marijuana smoke is carcinogenic, and still didn't pull the item. That's what Big Cannabis, like Big Tobacco, can do just by waving money, or the illusion of money, around. 

There was no discussion of marijuana smoke being listed on the State of California's Public Health website right alongside tobacco smoke as a carcinogen as per Proposition 65's mandated disclosure of carcinogens. No mention that blood vessel function in lab rats drops by 70 percent after half an hour of exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke -- similar to results found with secondhand tobacco smoke," according to researchers from the University of California. 

It gets worse. This is being done on behalf of the wealthiest, whitest, old-school stoner cannabis trade show in existence; the High Times' Cannabis Cup, which is like the Kentucky Derby of weed. Berkeley's underage high school kids may smoke weed at twice the rate of other California kids, but that was apparently not worth discussion. Because it's one thing to wave your hands around and pretend to have confusion about lot line loopholes for developers. It's quite another thing to get tagged as anti-weed as the big green wave of weed money starts rubbing its hands together over your smokefree park. 

What's sad is High Times wasn't even trying to change our city policy. Their event happens once a year all over the country, and there are plenty of parks full of every kind of smoke imaginable to choose from. The Berkeley City Council could have welcomed the Cannabis Cup to come to Berkeley, situate itself in a park - and have a smokefree event. Nobody knows better than High Times the wide spectrum of calibrated edibles, oils, creams, patches, lozenges, infusions, and other more exotic sources of ingestion which are widely available. Berkeley could have taken a stand for its smokefree parks and for safe, accessible, decriminalized cannabis, putting an end to the deadly implication that you can't have one without the other. 

Keep in mind that High Times wasn't asking for a policy change. They have nothing against smokefree parks for the reasons I just mentioned. But they are, of course, fifty solid years of fuck-the-rules resistance to over-the-top hostility to cannabis, and their outlaw profile makes them let's just say unlikely to draw a crowd eager to comply with "smoking tent" rules earnestly being referred to by the planning office to address concerns about unwanted exposure. When they say "smoking tent" it's okay to giggle, shake your head, and then enjoy a hearty laugh at the expense of your earnest planning staff, who has been instructed to keep a straight face. 

Once you allow this wealthy group of High Times stoners to violate Berkeley's smokefree parks law, whom can you turn down? And it gets even worse; Rashi Kesarwani, the new District 1 representative, wanted limitless events instead of only three per year. The rest of the council responded that they might just do that, and would revisit the issue after its first year. Councilmember Kesarwani represents Cesar Chavez Park's district, and she's all in for limitless cannabis events- at only that location. The other, traditionally whiter parts of Berkeley thanks to redlining, won't be affected. 

You'd have to look hard in Berkeley to find anyone who opposes safe access to cannabis and who isn't thrilled that it has been decriminalized in our state, including me. I salute High Times for the role its journalists have played in confronting marijuana's stigma, and fighting for a safe place for honest discussion. But there should be no conflict whatsoever between safe access to cannabis and smokefree public parks, which by law must be accessible to everyone. Our parks are difficult enough for people who wish to avoid smoke exposure; I have friends who can only enjoy the parks or local beaches when it's raining hard enough to ensure the air is smokefree. It's a bit of a joke with my cancer survivors crowd that when others assume a rainy day is a recipe for staying home, we go out hiking. 

The Berkeley City Council could have welcomed the first smoke-free Cannabis Cup, gotten ten times the publicity of a regular Cannabis Cup event, stood up for our smokefree parks, and educated interested consumers about marijuana's pulmonary and cardiac issues and the alternative ingestion methods available. Instead, they took protective public health policy decades in the making and tossed it-- inexplicably considering that, again, High Times wasn't even looking to change Berkeley's ordinance. The Mayor's office did that without preface, without discussion, without considering alternatives, and apparently without embarrassment. 

Should one park be singled out "as an approved location for cannabis events" in contradiction of our smokefree parks policy? The park furthest from the hills, the park in the working class area that was historically black? Should Berkeley's City Council's commitment to public health collapse when money walks in the mayor's office? It is most definitely up to you. Because if they sell out Cesar Chavez Park that easily, your park is might be next. 

Mayor Jesse Arreguin - (510) 981-7100 

Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani - (510) 981-7110 

Councilmember Cheryl Davila - (510) 981-7120 

Councilmember Benjamin Bartlett - (510) 981-7130 

Councilmember Kate Harrison - (510) 981-7140 

Councilmember Sophie Hahn - (510) 981-7150 

Councilmember Susan Wengraf - (510) 981-7160 

Councilmember Rigel Robinson - (510) 981-7170 

Councilmember Lori Droste - (510) 981-7180 

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