The San Diego County Board of Supervisors today unanimously condemned a statewide ballot measure to legalize small amounts of marijuana, calling Proposition 19 poorly written and dangerous.
“It raises many health and safety issues,” Supervisor Ron Roberts said.
County supervisors recently passed an ordinance regulation how and where medical marijuana exchanges can operate, and the city is considering a similar set of rules.
A county resolution against Proposition 19 states that implementing the act would worsen the budget strain of state and local governments because of the need to create regulations and oversight.
The quasi-legal weed, however, could bring in a mother lode of new tax dollars.
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said passage would lead to an increase of people driving under the influence of the drug, something prosecutors are seeing more of already.
“It’s not smart to legalize a mind-altering substance,” Dumanis said.
Even the title of the initiative, the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannibis Act of 2010,” is misleading because it does none of those things, she said.
“By passing on responsibility to local governments to regulate marijuana use, there is the strong possibility that we will see a patchwork of conflicting local laws and regulations developed with no unified state standards,” the supervisors’ resolution states.
A handful of people involved in anti-drug abuse organizations spoke in support of the board’s action, while the only opponent was not allowed to speak because she was late.
Source: Southwest Riverside News Network
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