A San Diego-based group is trying to place initiatives on the ballot in cities across the county that would legalize marijuana by the time a new statewide proposition takes effect next year.

The Association of Cannabis Professionals last week filed notices of intent to circulate petitions with the city clerks in Carlsbad, Encinitas, Oceanside, Vista, Chula Vista and Santee, said the association’s Executive Director Dallin Young.

“We want regulations on the books,” Young said. “We just want access (to marijuana) for as many patients as we can get throughout the county. We also want to make sure that there is enough of a supply in the legal chain that we can shut down the illegal market.”

Proposition 64, passed by voters in November, allows the sale and cultivation of recreational marijuana and says the state can begin issuing licenses to marijuana businesses Jan. 1, unless local jurisdictions prevent them.


Most San Diego County cities have approved ordinances that negate the state law and will continue to prohibit marijuana sales and distribution. Only San Diego so far has a plan for legalization. La Mesa has indicated it may allow cultivation.

Oceanside and Vista both have ad hoc committees working with residents and business people to investigate the details of what it would take to legalize cannabis in those cities.

Young said the initiative would not detract from those activities. However, people involved in the local efforts disagreed.

Oceanside marijuana activists David and Amber Newman began circulating a petition over a year ago to legalize medical marijuana in their city. However, they suspended their signature drive to work with the city’s ad hoc committee.


“We thought it was better to work with the city than against it,” Amber Newman said Tuesday.

The Association’s initiative filed last week “seems like rushed and sloppy work,” Newman said, and she and her husband are concerned about its effects on the city.

The initiative the Newmans worked on was written after working with other members of the community, she said, and it would not have required a special election.

Another concern is the cost of a special election, estimated at $500,000 by city officials. That would take money away from things such as community after-school programs and swimming pool operations in Oceanside, she said.


Councilman Chuck Lowery, who serves with Councilman Jerry Kern on the Oceanside ad hoc committee, criticized the timing of the new petition.

“We have been working on regulations for about four months,” Lowery said. “To have someone come in suddenly and say they want us to do something differently, is putting the cart before the horse.”

The committee is midway through a series of community meetings, each attended by 60 people or more, to iron out different aspects of proposed regulations. The committee plans to go to the full City Council in October with proposed regulations for cultivation, financing, safety, retail sales and distribution.

“We will break it down into five elements,” Lowery said. “We should be able to get some of the elements approved, if not all. Clearly some of the elements are more acceptable to some council members than others.”


Cannabis cultivation has strong support among members of the city’s farming community, which has been struggling to deal with encroaching development and the ever-increasing costs of water and labor.

Many farmers see marijuana as the cash crop they need, and council members have expressed some support for cultivation at recent meetings. The idea of dispensaries has been less popular.

Vista faces a citizens initiative filed earlier by a group called Vistans for Better Community Access that would allow as many as 10 medical marijuana dispensaries. In response, the city is crafting an ordinance that would allow only two dispensaries. Meanwhile, Vista officials say they have shut down at least 15 illegal dispensaries this year.

Young said the association’s initiative is an effort to apply more standardized regulations across the county.


“The same kind (of regulations) are getting passed all over the state,” he said.

Cities chosen for the association’s petition drive all had strong support for Proposition 64 in November and are expected to have strong support for the initiative, Young said. The proposed initiative would legalize medical and recreational marijuana for adults.

In each city the petition would need to collect the signatures of 10 percent of the city’s registered voters to place the initiative on the ballot of the next regular election, or 15 percent of registered voters to require a special election.


philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl