Supervisors to consider needle exchange program, cannabis businesses
01/25/21
Below are excerpts from the entire article published by the San Diego Union Tribune
The San Diego County supervisors this week will consider allowing cannabis growers and sellers to operate in unincorporated areas and will vote on whether to support a needle exchange program for intravenous drug users.
The Board of Supervisors had considered similar proposals last
year.
In March 2020, Supervisor Nathan Fletcher
proposed the county lift its ban on needle exchange programs and
develop a strategy to reduce harm for syringe users. The board instead
voted 3-2 to form a subcommittee to work on the proposal and return it
in a few months
Last year Fletcher also proposed allowing cannabis businesses to
operate in the unincorporated area. His motion did not receive a
second from another board member last August.
A similar
proposal will go before the board Wednesday.
According
to a board letter Fletcher and Vargas signed, the new permitting
process would prioritize social equity and create business
opportunities for Black and Brown communities that were hardest hit by
the crackdown on drug use
“We know that many
communities have been devastated by the war on drugs, and they have
been disproportionately impacted by an inequitable criminal justice
system, and we seek to move forward into a better future by trying to
undo some of these past wrongs,” Fletcher said.
Armand
King, chief operating officer for the nonprofit Paving Great Futures,
said at the press conference that he is an example of
overcriminalization in the Black community. He served three years in
prison for crimes related to marijuana.
Now most legal
marijuana businesses in San Diego are owned by White people, not
minorities, advocates say.
“It is imperative that we
look at this with a social equity lens and we truly, truly implement a
social equity plan with everything related to cannabis,” King said.