I don't understand all the worry about marijuana shops. I don't see any real difference from liquor stores, and we've got loads of those. We don't have drunks stumbling around those too much.

Siegel and Showalter are seeking re-election. Voting starts in a few days. Do any of the other four candidates for City Council oppose marijuana shops here? If so and this is an important issue for you, CAMPAIGN FOR SOMEONE ELSE AND AGAINST THE CITY'S MARIJUANA TAX MEASURE ALSO ON THE BALLOT Those shops will be operated in violation of federal law.

@Take Action

Did you read this sentence? "nearly two-thirds of Mountain View residents supported Proposition 64".

In the future, I'm voting against Matichak and Abe-Koga for not supporting this. I would have shown up at the meeting last night to speak in support of the measure, but I saw the online petition against it was going crazy with tiger moms spewing their fear uncertainty and doubt. I know a bunch of tiger moms, and didn't want to get burned.

The Daily Post even commented on the strange cultural divide that was apparent in the speakers last night.

Keep smoking my friend. It may calm you down. Moms tend to care about their children. Whether smoking marijuana should be a crime is different from whether it should be sold or delivered commercially in Mountain View. Other cities whose voters supported de-criminalization have not authorized local sales. In fact, if MV's marijuana tax (Measure Q on the November ballot) does not pass, the City will probably change its tune and discourage shops and deliveries here. The City Council should have waited for the vote on Measure Q.

Oh really people. Availability was never an issue. Nobody was less prone to trying it because it wasn't available in our area code.
Kids are prohibited by law from entering the door, but if your kid does break the law, thet's on them, nobody is trying to "lure them in".
Be afraid of booze. If your kid breaks the law with pot, he faces mom's wrath. If a kid breaks the law with booze, he can face death.

Let the grownups make their grownup decisions just like they do with booze.

I'm glad normalization is now taking place. It may be why pot smoking is DOWN among our youth over the past 20 years...about as long as medical pot was available prior to legalization. That's when everyone screamed that kids would use it more. Facts proved otherwise...again!

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All the puritanical pearl clutching in the world won't change the fact that if your kid wants pot your kid can get pot...today...without there being a single store in town. Odds are your kid has already tried it or will.

But your kid won't be allowed into a pot shop, just like your kid isn't allowed into Mervyn's bar downtown.

So your kid won't be getting a beer and a shot at Mervyns, nor will they be buying pot at a storefront retailer.

It'll be fine.

God help us from a runaway City Council. First an out-of-control explosion in apartment construction, then support for rent control, now the only pot shops near MV and at major retail centers? Just what are these fools thinking??? At the very least, they should allow the shops only in out-of-the way, industrial areas away from homes and schools.

I voted to allow it. I voted to decriminalize it. I voted to stop people who used it from being harassed.

I didn't vote to endorse it. I didn't vote encourage it. I didn't vote to get more people to do it.

That's why I don't want it sold in our city.

I'm so very disappointed in the 5 members of the City Council who voted to approve these shops. It must come down to money, as most things seem to, because it doesn't sound like there was meaningful research done. No matter how much you want it to be otherwise, pot IS a gateway drug. This is not just my opinion. I was the Adolescent Medicine social worker at LPCH for many, many years. I do not remember one case of a kid abusing illegal or prescription drugs who did not begin with pot. It's not just the marijuana, but the culture, the company that is kept, the secret pain that doesn't get shared, but instead, numbed. Over time that person will likely up the ante in order to cope with life, and remain relevant. And if your head is not in the sand, parents, you are aware that too many kids die when that ante is upped.
By opening up these shops as part of a family community, it sends the message to young people that there is nothing wrong with pot. The teenage brain absorbs that message without being able to completely assess it for themselves. But even adults fall prey to the thinking that it's "just" pot. It alters brain chemistry, there is evidence that long term use can slow blood to the brain which is linked to developing Alzheimer's, and it is linked to infertility issues in men.
I'm guessing the City Council did not consider all of the cons, but focused on the pros, of which there may be some.
Please don't respond to me with comments about how medical marijuana works wonders. Of course it does, and I am in support of it. This is not that. And don't come back with the asinine argument that alcohol is worse. That is a separate issue, and one should not be used to support the other.
I will now vote against re-electing the Council members who voted for opening pot shops in our city.

I think a great deal of voters voted to decriminalize pot, specifically to okay medical marijuana - but that CANNOT be construed to mean those voters voted to open pot shops in their neighborhoods.
There will be a lot of OPINIONS on this - but what are the PROVEN RESULTS from having these distributorships in a city? Here is an extremely factual and enlightening article from the Denver Post, detailing what the results of two years of pot shops have meant for the citizenry.
Web Link

The false narratives of the Refer Madness crowd can once again be proven wrong with even more data and time.
20 years after CA legalized it for medicinal use and none of the fears have panned out because they were simply fear mongering.

Youth Use down After Legalization in Colorado:
Web Link

Facts will always get in the way of falsehoods and the proof shows in time. Only the willfully ignorant will continue to scream about the imagined dangers.
But watch, booze (The real teen killer and gateway drug) will be just fine with them.

@ Good and @ Facts Kill Emotion... why can't you list where you live? Are you one of the out of town pot distributors who spoke in favor of pot shops in Mountain View at last night's Council Meeting?

And @Good, your article claiming that pot use is down in Colorado is nearly a year old. Look at the one I posted (above) that is FACTUAL and less than a week old.

I think a lot of MV residents are going to be validly concerned when they find their neighborhood is vulnerable to eventually having one of these distributorships. I suggest voters consider this when voting in this November's local election.

Congrats to the City Council, which decided to ignore the extreme ignorance of the organized "no" contingent and allow this safe and effective plant to be available in Mountain View over TWENTY YEARS after we overwhelmingly voted to allow its medical use in the city. Cannabis has a perfect safety record and is effective for a wide variety of medical conditions. It's recreational use has NEVER been associated with crime or violence (other than the prohibition-related kind).

"Businesses will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, which would offset the costs incurred by the city for allowing the budding industry."

Unfortunately, MV seems to be participating in the fascist (defined as the merger of government and corporations) takeover of the industry by large players. "Hundreds of thousands?" That's a good way to make sure the small players who created the industry get shut out of its future. Cannabis retailers are NOT associated with any extra problems or fees and they should be treated like every other business. An extra 9% tax for a beneficial plant? Why not tax garlic, onions and prescription medicine too, while we're at it?

ALCOHOL retailers are the best candidates for such exorbitant fees because their product is associated with at least 40% of violent crime plus at least 88,000 deaths per year, with an additional 10,000 alcohol-related traffic deaths. Cannabis has none of these problems, NONE.

Nice to see members siding with the majority of residents of Mtv and with the majority of voters in Calif, implicitly rebuffing the unjustified fear-mongering
that's surrounded pot for decades.

I'll remember Matichak and Abe-Koga.

The problem with Mountain View police is that when local residents harass the vehicle dwellers and you call MVPD. The first thing they say is that "this is an affluent area" - suggesting that the residents are above the law. Then they say if you are attacked by a Mountain View resident and defend yourself then they can have you "citizen's arrested" and that they are obligated under the penal code to do it.

I asked one officer: Maldanado doesn't that apply the other way around?

It seems like the Mountain View police are holding "the affluent" above the law which encourages them to harass the rv, camper, and vehicle dwellers - many of which who work in jobs that support the infrastructure of the city.

The Mountain View police refuse to take action on complaints by the "non affluent" and instead intimate them into potential false charges from "the affluent".

"Businesses will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, which would offset the costs incurred by the city for allowing the budding industry." --- no pun intended....haha

I am one of these -"There are plenty of people in Mountain View in every neighborhood, near every school, people who are productive, moral citizens, residents of our community who use marijuana," he said. "If you don't believe me, you've been living in a dream world. Marijuana is ubiquitous in Mountain View and that's why people voted for Proposition 64."

If you want pain relief, stress relief, help sleeping, etc etc etc you should try CBD - the non-high part of marijuana (which is THC) There are MANY medical benefits within both of these. Watch this 3 minute video about the Top 10 Benefits of CBD
Web Link

- Open your mind - pun intended!

i dont understannd the big deal kids get exposed to it at school at friends houses its not like they can just walk in and get it .people already smoke it all over mountain view.its not like noone here smokes it cause they do i personally dont like it but others smoke it for physyical and emotional problems .my friend says it lowers her cancer pain

It's rapidly happening all over the state. This is the expected progression, slow gradual ramp up as more and more come to understand it's nothing to be afraid of. I've been in towns with pot shops and didn't even know there were there until someone pointed it out. Main street USA, blending in without any real notice. Same or better then a liquor store IMO. I bet we'll all be underwhelmed by how exciting or terrible it really is.

"if your kids want weed they will be able to get weed"
"it's not like your kids can just walk into the weed store and get it because the law prohibits it"
"weed store is what the people voted for and it is what the people want"

replace weed with firearm. I supposed those y'all should be in favor of more gun stores then, after all it was in our laws on Day 1 of the union.

If everyone voted for it I would absolutely support that.
I'd move the next day to get away from all the loonies, but if they decided to do that, more power to them.

2/3rd of the voters voted for it. Apparently some had no clue what they even voted for! hahaha.

What you said has nothing to do with pot, it's just a diversion to talk about guns. That'll come on another post...patience.

The people voted..they knew what they were voting for...why do we still have 2 people on the city council who voted against the stores. This country has a very big problem now..when people vote for one thing, and the elected people vote solely on there own choice ..basicly saying ...that voters are stupid, they don't understand etc etc etc ..Our democratic government is in danger of destruction by people who don't understand that WE VOTED ..we are not dumb..we are not deplorable ..we need better people in office ..lets remember, at the next election not to return these people (2 of them) who don't want to accept that we voted..and no matter what they want..it is us that they represent..

Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?

There's a very good reason that Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, and other small towns have deliberately chosen not to open marijuana dens in city limits. Small town police departments are not equipped to handle the inevitable problems that will occur when you start distributing schedule 1 narcotics. Apparently the Mountain View City Council didn't get the memo.

I don't care who smokes weed, but it stinks, a neighbor partakes and it smells like a skunk died. Does all of it smell that bad or is he buying cheap weed?

@JR - Apparently Mayor Siegel has missed a LOT of memos. Time to vote.

@allie you are incredibly wrong the pot is a ‘gateway drug’ that BS has been spouted for years and is still poop. Just like the overwhelming majority of people who drink, an incredibly small % go on to harder things. It’s a psychological profile of folks who move on. Many try harder stuff and stop only a small % become addicts just like everything else. Keep your BS off The comments.

@JR what problems? You are obviously not very educated on the subject. If we replaced every single Bar with a pot shop I guarantee crime and problems would go WAY DOWN.

So much fake news and false claims of refer madness. What a joke.

I wonder who are those so-called MV residents who support the pot shops. If they are real residents, please invite the shops to your backyard and so you can easily get high. Good for you.
I voted for Prop64 but not to invite pot shops to my neighborhood. Don't play word game with me. Residents in Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Belmont are not fools. I will vote out the five voted for the shops. You are not my council members.

"I wonder who are those so-called MV residents who support the pot shops. If they are real residents, please invite the shops to your backyard and so you can easily get high. Good for you. "

Where did anyone read where they would be located? Have you been drinking?
Please. People are now just throwing tantrums because they personally disagree with 2/3rds of the state.
That ship sailed, welcome to the world.

I don't want any retain in my neighborhood, but thankfully that's what zoning laws are for.

Anyone who thinks any retail shop for anything might go up in a residential zoned area is woefully or willfully ignorant and just trying to make things sound as fearful and scary as they can...because in reality it's very boring and benign.

Tell me where they will be before you tell me why it's the wrong place, and explain the ACTUAL issues...not the refer madness BS that has continually been proven false for decades now.

Shame on the five council members who voted for the pop stores. 20k voters cannot represent 80k residents. To people who claims it is OK to open stores, check out this: "To mark the fifth anniversary of Amendment 64 in November 2017, the Colorado Springs Gazette published an editorial highlighting what it claimed was the “embarrassing cautionary tale” of the policy: an increase in homelessness, a doubling of fatal traffic collisions involving weed-intoxicated drivers, and a rise in drug violations in Colorado’s schools."

If a council member uses their privilege to favor pot shop owners instead of his/her people, it is time to vote them down.

"Although many of the 68 public speakers vehemently opposed the idea of pot retailers, he said the city can't ignore the people who didn't come to the meeting."

A question for Major Siegel, why can the city ignore the people who didn't go to the first meeting and would say no to shops? A survey of around 600 people cannot represent 80000 mountain view residents.

Cuesta Park resident here. I voted for it, I knew what I voted for when I voted for it, and this is the outcome I wanted. I don’t even care for weed personally- but if it’s legal then it should be available and accessible. The fear-mongering and veiled racism about who it will attract is pitiful. Proud that Mountain View isn’t cowing to pearl clutchers like the rest of the peninsula.

I’ve smoked pot with a Nobel laureate, other professors, software developers, teachers, medical doctors, lawyers, accountants (a principal at one of the big 5 firms), engineers and just about any other ‘respected’ professional. Seeing all these reefer madness comments is really sad.

Hopefully a shop will move into the numerous empty storefronts in San Antonio Center. It’s crazy how long some of them have been empty. Retail is so dead. And to people worried about the smell, the actual law that California citizens passed prohibits smoking it in public. I agree that usage shouldn’t impact others peace and enjoyment of public places. I’m looking forward to safe and tested edibles that eliminate smoke it’s harmful and effects and stink.

The smell of weed is awful as another person mentioned. I voted yes as I didn’t want people to be criminalized for partaking but thought it would happen more in private homes with a delivery service. Can these shops sell a version that doesn’t smell so much so it is not as obvious?

Resident of downtown Mountain View here, same Resident as above. I voted for legalizing marijuana, and I have zero qualms about a shop opening near me. I don't particularly want to go, but if my neighbors do, it's fine by me. Perhaps the now former Bierhaus site could be a dispensary. Live and let live, people. There's no reason to ban stuff if it doesn't cause you harm. Drugs are completely illegal in prison, where the government controls 100% of everything going in, and yet, prisons have a drug problem. If we can't keep them out of prisons, might as well get the ham fisted intervention of the government out of it.

There is a small portion of the population that is allergic to the smoke. About 10% I believe. I am one. When I walk by shops in SF on Mission that sell marijuana, there is often the smell in the air and it makes me nauseous, dizzy, and gives me a bad headache. The smell will exist more in parks and downtown as time goes and there isn't much to be done, also allergic reactions will start showing up in emergency rooms more often. Will this allow these shops to exist where cigarette shops currently cannot?

Why do people think it will bring crime and problems. Be seriously prepared to be underwhelmed. It’s not like THE ENTIRE STATE isn’t legal and Mt View has the only MJ shop. It doesn’t paint a target.

You know WHAT DOES paint a target?

Rent control
Allowing RVs everywhere without enforcement
Sanctuary City

THESE THINGS create crime and pollution. So the city has been destroying the quality of life and making Mt View worse for years, at the cost of the tax paying resident. But what won’t do anything are a few Pot Shops. If so concerned about crime and quality of life.

No sanctuary
No RVs
No rent control
Stop developing without regard to traffic, planning or environmental impact

Three young and attractive females approach a pot shop customer.

"Excuse me, but could you please buy my friends and I some dope? We'll pay you."

So much for the having to swipe your driver's license in the dope den.

In my youth we used to send the girls to 7-Eleven to get beer. This tactic worked nearly every time. Most men cannot refuse a young pretty face.

The EXACT same stories of MADE UP scenarios were propped up 20 years ago when the argument as about medical pot. Time proved them wrong.
Then they said it would all happen is it became legal...so far, they continue to be wrong with nothing showing any tilt to the horrors they said would happen. The shops in SJ have had an exceedingly boring existence. People claim there will be problems, yet the shops operating for 20 years have not seen any of it as predicted (because they were just fear mongering).
Look for the choice of words they use to try and be dramatic. If they had strong facts showing they were right they would be using that, but instead they try and use scary predictions which have already been proven false.
They are left with making up stories in their heads then saying "See, that's what will happen"

This is such a non issue in comparison to things that actually affect us like RVs all over our streets.

They also sell tinctures, balms, teabags, oils, butter, and more that are smoke and order free.
To the guy who thinks all men cave in and break laws when winked at by a pretty girl...OMG, speak for yourself! Any REAL man would of course stay away from kids trying such tings. I used to call the cops on them when they would do this outside the liquor store but I haven't seen any shoulder-tappers in recent years. I think enough kids know they have a better chance of getting the cops called than getting the booze they are after.
That said, if your kid wants pot, they will get it, just like they do with booze. Kids need to stay away from it all, but at lest if they do sneak some pot, the risks of death are far lower than if they sneak some liquor, which is a far more dangerous drug.

Everyone has the right to breath smoke-free air! This is the basic human right, isn't it? You get high in your own room, that's totally fine with me. Do not pollute the air. I am going to call the police department every time there is pot smell nearby in the public from now on.

Many MV residents are currently going to other cities to get Rx cannabis, and edibles. Many others get recreational cannabis products. All the tax revenue is going to Santa Cruz, San Jose etc. The dispensaries are well-regulated - people can't see inside, there is a security check at the front door confirming I.D., and users have to sign in or register. If we regulated alcohol the same way there might be less under-age drinking...I don't know, but having cannabis store fronts certainly does not mean people use the product in the stores or in the store parking lots. Children walk past centers with liquor stores every day and yet that does not generate protest. Why? Because the stores are legal and are not known to entice youth to buy products. If the concern is on youth, let's focus on candy-flavoured vapes instead of on a well-regulated, safe, and monitored cannabis industry.

Will you also call the police for cigarette smoke? Can I do it when I pass by a nail salon and smell ACTUAL cancer causing chemicals? How do you think you'll be treated after the 4th or 5th call to complain about something that is legal?

I think the 5 council members who supported this were high themselves. SMH at MV for allowing this to happen.

I think the 66.5% that wanted it legalized are still hearing from the 33.5% that opposed legalization, and that minority group will continue to vocally oppose anything to do with cannabis. I'm glad the majority of voters understood the fear mongering and sky is falling arguments were dis-proven decades ago.
It's been essentially freely out there from brick and mortar dispensaries for literally DECADES. Where are all the predicted horrors? I mean besides the horrors of "I don't agree with it" and "I think it smells bad".

If we put blame on the stores/shops that sell mind altering substances, than Ernie's Liquors contributed to the destruction of my family. And how many drivers are still being arrested for DUIs? Yet, in Mountain View, there's been an increase in stores that sell alcohol.

It's not the store, it's the end user's responsibility to be smart and safe.

Mountain View will benefit from the taxes, as opposed to San Jose or where ever Mountain View residents go to buy their pot.

Since made legal, I haven't experienced a significant increase in pop smoke in public spaces.

I'm not happy about this. I may not be a Mountain View resident but I spend a lot of my time in MV and feel connected to it.

I would like to see data on road traffic accidents, on dui rates, where pot has been linked to the cause. I would like to see how many deaths have been caused on the roads by pot since the new rules came in. I would like to know if these accidents and these deaths have increased.

DUI means more than alcohol. DUI of pot is still illegal. But now there are idiots who think that it is a safe drug and they can drive.

So when the data won't support your argument it must mean that there is something missing, not that you're wrong. Right?
They have been collecting dui and accident data in CO, WA and CA but if you're expecting it to be a revelation showing an increase, you're not going to like the results so far ;)

I see several comments on this site from the out of town commercial pot distributors (the same ones who also showed up at the Council meeting to eagerly push their commercial agenda). I understand commercial pot distributorships are important to them, as it's big money in their pocket. However, they make a lot of baseless claims, so I ask - where are your valid, proven and current sources for these statements? Where is the proven and latest professional research that backs what you say - and that doesn't mean just your opinion, old articles or typical commercial push?

If you don't have time to read the entire 9/28/18 l article I linked in my former comment (from Bob Troyer, US Attorney for District of Colorado) here is a vital part of his statement:

"Where has our breathless sprint into full-scale marijuana commercialization led Colorado?

Well, recent reports from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, from Denver Health, from Energy Associates, from the Colorado Department of Revenue and from the City of Denver should be enough to give everyone in this race pause.

Now Colorado’s youth use marijuana at a rate 85 percent higher than the national average. Now marijuana-related traffic fatalities are up by 151 percent. Now 70 percent of 400 licensed pot shops surveyed recommend that pregnant women use marijuana to treat morning sickness. Now an indoor marijuana grow consumes 17 times more power per square foot than an average residence. Now each of the approximately one million adult marijuana plants grown by licensed growers in Colorado consumes over 2.2 liters of water — per day. Now Colorado has issued over 40 little-publicized recalls of retail marijuana laced with pesticides and mold.

And now Colorado has a booming black market exploiting our permissive regulatory system — including Mexican cartel growers for that black market who use nerve-agent pesticides that are contaminating Colorado’s soil, waters, and wildlife.

Marijuana commercialization has led Colorado to these places."

We can thank the five Mountain View Council (Siegel and Showalter included) who voted to make Mountain View the pot distributorship of the Peninsula. These five twisted a majority citizen vote of people - who we only meant to decriminalize marijuana in the state - into a false desire to open pot shops in Mountain View, with all the serious repercussions the US Attorney for Colorado lists for us.

We can now expect to face the fiasco Colorado is dealing with. Remember that when you vote in the November election.

Really dumb to put this drug in your body in any way, yes it will mostly be able to recover but some damage will remain.
Bristly up and bluster about this but you know it’s true.

Yelp I am a life long lefty voting for to help people and share the wealth but don’t think it’s a good idea to smoke anything.

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the sources for the actual information were: "recent reports from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, from Denver Health, from Energy Associates, from the Colorado Department of Revenue and from the City of Denver". I doubt you can call them unreliable or unprofessional. Try reading an entire post before you start shouting, okay?

If you have an actual argument, or a professional and unbiased source for your argument, post it.

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[Post removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]

Can we PLEASE stop these booze hounds from howling and fighting all night?
Drunken ramblings are evident. Seek help, alcohol is deadly.

Is it legal to smoke pot in an private apartment when the smoke goes into the air system and is filtered into the rest of the building?

Fellow Neighbors,

It seems like there is a decent amount of sentiment for "Yes, it's legal. I voted to make it legal. It shouldn't be a crime. Don't harass people who use it. But I'm not for proliferating a store for it any more than I am for opening another liquour or gun store, which is also perfectly legal."

Is there any interest in forming a group to attend the October 23 meeting? Just curious. I'm thinking I'd join such a gathering if so.

Freedom from all this BS. My patch will be harvested withing the next 2 weeks. I got yer taxes right here.

Can they do it with cigarette smoke? Some yes, some no, depending on the rules of the apartment. The rules should be clearly spelled out and available prior to signing a lease.

Seems nobody has issues with eating it though...that's common ground.

@Member
Thanks for referring to my work and evidence as BS. If you take your hostility down a notch, i would be more inclined to consider your comments.
I would just like to add that everyone needs to carefully consider the statistics and findings of any research or study. Research needs funding, and the funding often comes from a group who has an interest in showing results that support their claims. For one that comes out saying marijuana is harmless, you can find another that warns of the detriments. My opposition to pot shops is based on my personal and professional experience...which does not lie. That is more tangible to me than all the statistics out there. Again, no client I saw over the many years I worked with adolescents, who was regularly smoking, was excelling in school, sports, social life, family life, or self-esteem. In addition, we now have products like JUUL and edibles and sour gummy e-cigs that are being heavily marketed to kids. Again, all of these products, and now opening these shops sends the wrong message in this community of many schools, parks, and, sports clubs, and other youth activities.

What is the message and how is it different to the message sent with opening wine bars and beer halls and grocery stores with Peppermint Chocolate Vodka placed eye level to kids?

We explain to our kids that alcohol should be avoided at all times as they mature and we can also do that with cannabis.
Knowing cannabis is the less deadly of the two, I wonder where the complaints are about even the grocery stores targeting our youth with deadly alcohol.

If it were up to me ALL alcohol would be sold through heavily regulated shops where ONLY adults can enter, to try and ensure the safety of our kids. This is the way cannabis is NOW regulated.

Sorry, one more poit. You said " JUUL and edibles and sour gummy e-cigs that are being heavily marketed to kids."

I agree, JUUL and e-cigs ARE being heavily marketed to kids out of the non-regulated shops, drug stores, liquor stores and even grocery stores that are allowed to sell them. Cannabis edibles are only sold where kids are not allowed. They even have laws dictating the kind of packaging and logos allowed. It would be a complete waste of time to market to kids as they are not allowed inside cannabis shops at all. When your product is invisible to a group, it's hard to market it to them.

Allie, trying to get a straight answer from the COMMERCIAL POT DISTRIBUTORS who have taken over this site, is like trying to get a straight answer from Kavanaugh. It's just not going to happen. They are asked over and over to give a recent factual link to their claims, and they cannot, so they continue to rant.
I am amused that they think it makes them look more valid when they get their fellow distributors to give them "likes" on this site - hoping people will believe they get 20 "likes" in a half hour.
I appreciate the factual info you have posted, and I hope the MV Voice will interview you for an article. Then they can also interview the out of town pot distributors who have spent so much time here, and see if the reporter can get them to give any facts that back up their claims.

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Alcohol is a gateway drug. Alcohol kills millions globally every year. Members of my family have died because of it, and it has a negative impact on countless families. You probably know someone who has a problem.

Pot isn't harmless, but you can't OD on it, very, very few have a problem with it, and it has valid medical uses above and beyond getting high.

If you've been to a dispensary, you know that it's full of regular people just like you - young, middle-aged, old. There is no longer a "stoner" stereotype. Elan Musk smokes it.

Glad they are allowing this, although I will probably continue to use Eaze.

Let the kids smoke!!!

The amount of misinformation folks have about Marijuana is astounding - displayed both in these comments and in the city council meeting. I feel sorry that people are so misled and afraid of something that poses a very small threat.

People - talk to your kids about Marijuana and tell them the truth. If you lie about it, they're less likely to trust you about more serious drugs like Heroin, Cocaine, etc. No, it won't kill you. No, it doesn't make people violent. Yes, you probably shouldn't smoke it until you're older. Yes, it may impact your ability to do well in school or at work - but only if you abuse it. Folks who abuse marijuana don't do it because the drug itself addictive - rather, it's a crutch to cope with a more serious issue in their life.

Marijuana distributors don't care about what a very small vocal minority thinks, and certainly don't have the time to monitor a message board. The city council already decided. I don't think the existing delivery services and San Jose recreational shops want the additional competition from Mountain View - it will hurt their profits.

If you look past the sensationalist headlines and biased surveys and VISIT Colorado, Washington, Oregon, etc. you will see there is nothing to worry about. Relax.

"As much as I enjoy Cupertino, the city itself has no soul. They try to make a downtown and it's basically a mall. Mountain View doesn't have that issue."

Was putting down a neighboring city really necessary? Ugh. It's getting harder and harder to find people with class running our cities.

I don’t care if people smoke and my kid is too young to worry about him, too.
What I am worried about is that in addition to RVs and uneducated and poor families living 10 people to an apartment we will get some questionable visitors. I am not saying all smokers are “bad”. I don’t care if you smoke at your SFH far enough from me. But if you are sitting near you RV and puffing away while my kid is trying to get to his swim lesson, or playing in the park, then I do mind. Or if you are my apartment neighbor and i have to smell you weed, then one mind.
The city has enough money as it is, yet the schools are much worse that in Los Altos. In fact everything is much worse.... so I don’t believe the weed taxes will do the city much good. Too much high needs population and too little political will to find effective way of dealing with these needs.

Why do I have to endure the over perfumed masses of women walking around? I have severe allergies that are triggered by the smell. Im my apartment when the neighbor "bathes" in her cologne it come through the vents. Can we please put a stop to this?

I don't want to have to smell your smelly perfume OR your over onioned cooking. The onion fumes linger in my apmt for 3 days!

@allie

More refer madness joke ‘heavy marketed toward kids’ haha I call TOTAL BS. Where is this marketing happen? On Sunday morning cartoons? What a joke and a false claim. The marketing is done to 18-50 year old who grew up with all these things and stlll enjoy them.

Alcohol is and will always be 10000 times the danger , be direct cause to violence and crime compared to weed. Simple as that. Weed is so tame.

Tobacco is and will always be 10000 time the health issues and danger to lungs and those around. Simple as that. Weed is so tame.

Stop making BS up

I am sorry but the biggest issue is that there is consideration to put a pot dispensary near LASD's potential 10th school site at the San Antonio Shopping Center. Are you kidding me? No I don't think a bunch of 1st graders or 8th graders will hang in the aisles looking to get high. Many cities around us on the peninsula have said no to permitting pot dispensaries to set up shop. So, what's going to happen? All sorts of characters will find their way to MV and patronize the shops in our city and why not hang out at the one close to a school? Everyone is sick. MVCC has invited a can worms to just go crazy all over the city. Just to make some bucks. I certainly hope MVCC tells LASD they cannot put a school next to the pot shop the are potentially approving. Or a park! Imagine a park next to the dispensary too. Indeed. Everyone has lost their mind.

Because the rules stating where a shop will be allowed have not been set. Once again fear mongering and false narratives on this issue instead of the facts.
Of course putting it near a school would be stupid on many levels. Of course there will be restrictions. Restrictions on the number if more than one is allowed, restrictions on where it can and cannot be will be spelled out just like other cities have done for the past two decades. That's why you never hear about any issues with the San Jose shops. The city regulates them well so the fears some initially had never became a reality.

Sorry, but one of my longest lifetime friends was an avid pot smoker in high school 30 years ago. He came from a middle class background and had the world ahead of him. It turns out pot was a gateway drug for him. It was also a ready companion to alcohol. Pot enabled him to be lazy and dismissive of responsibility. He's never been able to finish school, hold a job or a relationship. In short, he is a bum. A friendly bum, but a pot-smoking bum. Thirty years later he remains unemployed and on welfare living with his mother. His life is over. Bottom line is I've known a lot of pot smokers and all of them have developed serious issues that they doubtfully will ever overcome. But y'all keep telling yourselves it's an innocent thing.

Sorry, Ted, but you've offered no reasoned argument why your personal experience of an individual who became a bum and smoked pot should be a basis for serious public policy decisions. Not even any reason to believe he wouldn't have become a bum regardless (the heavy pot use then being a consequence of bumhood rather than a cause).

Anecdotes like that aren't much more reality-grounded than the arguments that these shops are dangerous attractors of children (when it's already well established that children aren't even allowed inside), or the assumptions that pot implies smelly smoke (much of it now is used in smoke-free forms, a growing trend), or the deperate suggestion by pot-prohibitionists here that comments they don't personally like must therefore be coming from (quoting "MV woman" above) "COMMERCIAL POT DISTRIBUTORS who have taken over this site" -- a stark example of ideological blinders: your limiting assumptions make it impossible to imagine that these are simply the voices of many reasonable longtime neighbors.

I know many people who are accomplished, responsible, and constructive, with impressive professional careers, who've long used the stuff. I don't presume to guess whether the pot was a hindrance or a help; and based on the kinds of rhetoric visible in many comments above, any such guess could well be colored by my own offhand feelings about pot anyway, not real insight.

He killed an entire family of four on I-5. Since it happened to someone I know I clearly see how all of you drinkers are one step away from killing someone, but y'all keep kidding yourself that it won't happen to you.

I also know, since I was 12, 2 lawyers and 1 hand surgeon from high school who have and continue to smoke pot as well as but have never touched anything harder.

Of course the entire argument about kids has nothing to do with this adult discussion. I think it's clear and without question that both sides want kids to stay away and are 100% fine with regulations for that goal.

The important thing is that we choose single stories about individuals and how their particular life ended up, good or bad, and ignore all the decades of actual data that legal and medical usage provides us. We need horror stories to scare people because the verified truth is pretty boring.(sarcasm)

Here's a 1988 DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) legal ruling on marijuana:

>In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many
foods we commonly consume....

Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man.<

Web Link

Try applying that standard to any other substance used recreationally by a large percentage of Silicon Valley's most successful engineers and entrepreneurs. Note the proud ignorance and fear in the voices of those who oppose making this ancient and safe botanical medicine widely available. They simply have no idea that, for most users, cannabis is a beneficial herbal medicine that greatly improves our lives.

Those of us residents of Mountain View who voted OVERWHELMINGLY to decriminalize cannabis also want it to be, you know, conveniently AVAILABLE. "Pot shops" (the name is inherently bigoted) are not associated with any of the reefer madness problems being projected onto them by the ignorant. There is literally no VALID reason they shouldn't be welcomed into the community.

- Longtime resident, not an out-of-town COMMERCIAL POT DISTRIBUTOR


PS. Please understand that the more onerous the restrictions the more they BENEFIT the large corporate entities and destroy local mom & pop operators. Onerous regulations like the ones being created by MV force small local players out because you need deep pockets to afford the obscene $100,000 plus they want (and the lawyers to negotiate it) just to open a store providing a safe herbal plant that BENEFITS the residents of Mountain View.

Many productive members of society smoke pot, use CBD, edibles, etc. Y'all need to stop clutching those Mikimoto Pearls and accept it. If it's not for you, fine. Don't go into the dispensaries. PROBLEM SOLVED.

I have stage 4 colon/liver cancer. Getting my medicine was difficult for me. Now I can get it without leaving town. This decision really helps people like me get through our pain and suffering. Thank you MV city council.

As can be noted by going to Dolores Park in SF on any weekend, legalized weed leads to people heavily smoking in public around children. Note the article from Harvard that sites, "While research is still ongoing, there is evidence to suggest that when youth and young adults (whose brains are still developing) are exposed to marijuana, it may have permanent effects on executive function, memory, and even IQ." Web Link>Web Link "Web Link>Web Link"

Mountain view is not good for resident living and school. It seems more commercial and pretend by innovation. Innovation is not necessary to be high. Voters hope more other city and crimes come to MTV, and the governors will be exited to get more profits

As is exemplified by the current REALITY in Mountain View, even though it's been medically avail for 20 years and recreationally legal since Jan, there is none of what you describe in MV. Not in the parks or playgrounds or schools or anywhere. That that is already illegal and the cops WILL come if called.

Who thinks anyone is talking about letting kids have it or public consumption? All sides are against that and the laws are already on the books prohibiting it, so lets stick to the grownups like those that need legal NON THC cannabis products like the residents above.

The air has been filled with pot smoke in Deloris park on the weekends for about 40 years and counting from my experience.
It has not increased since legalization that I have found, but as we BOTH know, anecdotal evidence is extemely unreliable even if the comparison is fair. I don't think comparing THE major hip SF park and the eMV to be an honest comparison. It seems more like that you're trying to scare people by making wild comparisons and predictions of doom for all our children. It seems you're ignoring the past decades of availability and not realizing all the doom predicted never happened. it's like you're trying to remain willfully ignorant in the face of facts.

I have kids. They know the danger and to stay away from pot and do so from everything I can tell. They have seen it and smelled it on more than one occasion. The world never ended. College starts next year. They'll go off educated and informed while the GROWNUPS continue the discussion of GROWNUP use and the regulations that require it.

I'm sad to see so many people scared of this ancient and safe botanical medicine. It can literally be a balm for the body, mind and soul. For most users, cannabis is a beneficial herbal medicine that greatly improves our lives.

Sure, there's some morons who get stoned and do stupid things, or get stoned and then blame the pot for the fact they didn't get...A JOB.

Please stop believing some inherent property of cannabis makes you lazy. Lots of top executives at places like Apple, Google and Facebook, extremely high-functioning men and women in peak Silicon Valley form, are regular cannabis users. Many people find cannabis helps them be more creative, more open-minded, more open to new ideas. More understanding of the different layers of a given situation.

For others, it helps with migraine headaches, or muscle spasms, or PMS, or chronic pain almost anywhere, really. Marijuana has MILLIONS of daily users who testify to it's benefits on mind, body and spirit.

The government has for decades promoted the false idea that marijuana will fry your brain, or be your magic gateway into a life of heroin addiction, or ruin your motivation in life, or some other such thing that's verifiably and objectively FALSE.

If you look into the science you'll find 20,000+ studies from around the world on the benefit and safety of cannabis to treat a wide variety of serious mental and physical illnesses. It really seems like the next wonder drug, except it's a plant and it's freely available.

I get that it's hard to change a belief system when it's been ingrained by decades of official lies and propaganda. But when you have a false belief system you owe it to yourself and your community to evolve.

Evidence of any causal link between cannabis legalization and traffic accidents is weak and contradictory.

Web Link

But legal cannabis DOES reduce opiod use significantly, a major WIN:
Web Link

And legal cannabis seems to reduce suicide rates as well:
Web Link

It has been working in Amsterdam for decades! This could be great for tourism if they would extend to coffee shops as well. I propose we should also have a red light district!

I don't like these establishments. They pose a threat to the people in our communities- most importantly middle and high schoolers.

Who's stupid idea was to promote something like this??? Come forward and identify your stupidity.

"I don't like these establishments. They pose a threat to the people in our communities- most importantly middle and high schoolers."

Really? Which one have you visited and what was the threat you saw them posing?
I think it's more the idea of them that you imagine than the reality.
What threat has come to fruition in the past 20 years since they have been around? Continuing to yell fire gets old when there is no fire. The fact of the matter is that they have been around for decades and the baseless fears of those who said all these bad things would happen has been PROVEN to NOT happen.

Oh, also, the sky is blue, no matter how much someone insists it's red.

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Vote the current city council out I am more upset with they way they turned this city into a dump than anything else

Is it true that Grant Rd shopping center is off limits for Cananbis shops? How about Miramonte (across from St Francis?) or are we treating this issue like RV's, anything goes on ECR and east of it but the sacrosanct areas (aka more affluent) will not have to deal with it.

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It's been decades. Where IS all that doom and gloom? It as not happened so they need to try and scare you:
Will they be opening one in the high school cafeteria? No really, that's what I heard. Can you imagine? OMG, what will become of your child? This is crazy! Is it true???? BE VERY AFRAID!!! Can you imagine the horrors in 5 years? We'll all be RUINED!

PS I've chosen to ignore every bit of data that the past 20 years have brought us and stay cemented in my false fears that the world will cave in on us if n adult buys some cannabis out of shop in the warehouse/industrial area of town.
To summarize, If residents have to drive 10 miles, we;ll all be OK, but if they have to only drive 2 miles, WE'RE ALL DOOMED AND YOUR KIDS WILL END UP ON SKID ROW.

I use CBD edibles. No smoke, no THC. Still, people will remain willfully ignorant if it goes against whatever fears they've made up in their minds.

When they say "This will happen" you can ask "But why hasn't it happened in the past 20 years?"

This is great news. However it is only happening because the government wants to profit off of something that has always been profitable. Not only does the government have its hands on the sales aspect but they also have tax base by having the police issue weed breathalyzer tests to motorists suspected of driving under the influence of weed whether the suspicion is reasonable or not. They care less about the benefits of weed health wise. If it didn't cost any money it would still be illegal just like it still is in states where weed growing is not a profitable industry due to the weather conditions. The government only regulates what it can make money from. The fact that certain states legalize it is not for the peoples good its because it is simply more profitable. Just like prohibition. Alcohol was legalized for the good of the government and the crooked politicians who run it. Food them its money in their pockets and not towards anything good. Tax base wasn't meant to help our society but more of less bring it down. Hmm I wonder Where all the money is going from the legalization tax base is going? My guess would be towards prisons and jails. Not towards schools and definitely not health care.