Public Comment

Item VII.A.1. Cannabis Commission June 7, 2018, Page 10 of 37, Draft of Cannabis Advertising Proposal: Advertising: "The proposed Berkeley Municipal Code states that no billboards would be allowed within the Berkeley city limits advertising cannabis or cannabis products." 

You'd be forgiven if you drifted off before the tenth page of the rough drafts of Berkeley's cannabis dispensary rules in June of 2018. Those rules were oriented toward precluding what the children in my apartment building see every day out their windows and on their way to school (Photo: Billboard cannabis promotion at the corner of University and San Pablo Avenue). What happened? Big Cannabis is what happened. 

The dispensary regulations are over 90 pages long these days, and apparently don't preclude plunking a dispensary and "vaping lounge" exactly 417 feet from a public library, specifically the West Branch Berkeley Library. Big Cannabis throws a lot of money around. But it can't vote like we can.  

Please help our struggling neighborhood oppose this proposal. We support decriminalization, safe access, and both recreational and medical marijuana. But we were promised discrete locations compatible with residential and commercial neighborhoods. Our neighborhood, the oldest in Berkeley, is both, and deserves more respect. 

Call Councilmembers Rashi Kesarwani (District 1, (510) 981-7110) and Cheryl Davila (District 2 (510) 981-7120). They need to hear from you.