Posted on by Californiacontrarian

San Durango

The decision before the San Diego City Council was whether or not to legalize local cultivation, manufacturing, and testing of marijuana. The Police Chief had warned of significant threats to public safety if the City Council passed the bill.
If I were a councilman I would have looked at the experience in Durango, Colorado.
Durango is a small city in southwest Colorado. In 2010 its population was 16,877 and by 2016 the population had grown to 18,503. Why did the population of mountain resort town grow by almost 10% over those 6 years?
As most of you are aware Colorado passed their recreational marijuana law in 2012, and the thinking of many Durango residents is that it is the marijuana that has attracted much of this population increase. Their once upscale community near the New Mexico border is now being overrun by panhandlers and transients who are not just pot users, but also homeless drug addicts as they are now finding needles on the streets.
Cobb Preston, a store manager in downtown Durango says, “Just this year there has been a major influx of 20-30 year olds who are just hanging out on the streets. While many are pretty mellow, there are many more who are violent. Most of these kids are from out of state, and I would say that it has a lot to due with legalized pot.”
Shoplifting has become a major problem in Durango and there has been an increase in crime with the property crime rate now 12% higher than the national average. A clerk at a local hotel stated that she is frequently harassed when she goes to the supermarket and summed it up when she says, “I have lived here all my life and I don’t feel safe anymore!”

San Diego already has a significant homeless problem, and there is little doubt in my mind that an easy marijuana policy will just attract more homeless just has it has done in Durango.
Before the vote Councilwoman Lorie Zapf stated, “We were elected, if nothing else, to oversee public safety, and [if we pass this bill] we are absolutely going down the wrong road.”
However, despite these warnings the Democratic City Council on Sept. 11, 2017 passed the marijuana bill 6-3. This is actually not a surprise as “Democrats always know what is best for everybody”, and they probably figure that potheads always vote Democratic!

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