Introducing the Real March and Ash

IMPERIAL BEACH, CA - Last year in the midst of the social justice reawakening I was requested and honored to provide a presentation to the Imperial Beach Democratic Club about racism in Imperial Beach.

I titled the presentation "Institutionalized, Systematic, Systemic, Local Racism in Imperial Beach" and selected Technology as a topic that everyone would be able to identify within their own home. All reports from the participants were that the presentation was well-received and very enlightening.

Slides from Imperial Beach Democratic Club Presentation

At the conclusion I promised to point out specific examples that directly affect IB residents, this article contains one of those examples.

"... how much influence should cannabis retailers have on the County’s mission to create equity in the cannabis industry?" - Terrie Best, SDASA

Cannabis will soon be legally available for purchase by adults in our city. Nearly complete is the construction of the first of two possible dispensaries located just behind CVS, and it's a long-awaited sight for sore eyes. IB residents voted decisively to legalize medical use over 25 years ago and recreational use 5 years ago. However, the road to a local ordinance was 'rough' and ultimately arrived at inequity.

As an outspoken proponent of safe access to cannabis, I've followed the process since the very beginning when I became the city's first applicant for a dispensary business license in 2010.

Besides IB's process, as the current Vice-Chairperson of the San Diego Chapter of Americans for Safe Access, I've followed the process in all 19 ordinances around the county as well, with several now attempting to include the social equity component envisioned by Prop 64.

Social equity was not considered in creating IB's cannabis ordinance. In fact, included in the city's current dispensary ordinance is a 1,000-foot buffer for which the reason was never articulated despite numerous questions from the public. With a state limit of 600, the arbitrary buffer distance serves only as a reason to deny otherwise eligible properties, in this case, one specific property belonging to the original applicant.

Frustrated with the development of the city's overly strict ordinance, a cannabis trade group gathered enough signatures to qualify a ballot initiative that would have allowed for a more competitive marketplace. Despite gathering and submitting the required number of signatures, city officials rejected the initiative citing invalid wording in the initiative's language.

The group sued the city, lost in superior court, but appealed and won in appellate court forcing the city to place the initiative on the next ballot. Until... wait for it...

March and Ash.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ballot initiative was withdrawn without discussion or an explanation to the thousands of Imperial Beach residents who signed the petition. According to campaign organizers, it was pressure from a group that was interested in opening in IB.

March and Ash.

You might ask, why do I bring this up now? What's the point?

After reading this OBRag article; "Some San Diego Cannabis Retailers Sound Like They’ve Joined the Prohibitionist Movement", I realized IB should know more about who's opening the first cannabis retail location in IB and attempting to control countywide access.

From the article;

“In San Diego County, preventionist contractors were instrumental in pushing onerous land use restrictions on commercial cannabis.
…
But the coordination between cannabis retailers and the drug prevention community to keep it that way is new. The inferiority complex from being told you don’t have a right to exist must have felt awful, but how much influence should cannabis retailers have on the County’s mission to create equity in the cannabis industry? Especially since it means competition for those already in operation.

These heavily restricted cannabis land use policies and racist drug policies are harmful to patients and exclude all but savvy consultants and land use experts. The status quo is not acceptable if we are to have equity.
...
On the wrong side of the drug war, San Diego County’s alcohol and drug services fund the Marijuana Prevention Initiative (MPI). MPI is supposed to be strictly focused on youth. The sting tactics used have been shown to disproportionately harm BIPOC communities and feed the school-to-prison pipeline. The drug war is made of bad drug policy, and a dangerous net forms entrapping legions of BIPOC. In the environmental model of drug prevention, contractors heavily engage law enforcement with the goal of arrest, criminal court and punishment for youth.”

Exactly the same preventionist mentioned in the article are listed by name on the Imperial Beach council meetings minutes speaking out against the city allowing any access.

The article continues...

“As municipalities struggle to regulate, cannabis retailers can be heard at meetings and forums shoring up anti-cannabis rhetoric, presumably to keep the status quo. Cannabis retailers are using fearful messaging such as ‘medical access policies are the wild west of weed.’ Words they fought against when they themselves received their own permits.

Cannabis advocates are accustomed to pharmaceutical and alcohol industries viewing cannabis as competition but we never expected the industry to oppose itself.

What began as coordination with law enforcement messaging against the unpermitted shops has now evolved into a prohibitionist stance on the industry by some industry insiders. One obstacle to safe and convenient access to medical cannabis is now a unity of retailers and preventionists who want to keep the market as it is.”

Although the article does not mention any names, it is absolutely talking about none other than IB's one and only cannabis retailer, and proven canna-obstructionist, March and Ash.

I guess we’ll just have to see how the second location is allocated, and by who.

• Marcus Boyd - a local resident, business owner, and community activist - has been contributing to the Imperial Beach Patch for more than 10 years.