Regarding "Pot shop crackdown accelerating" (July 27): Writer David Garrick missed it. Community leaders have lobbied the city to shut down illegal pot shops not because they are "much less regulated" than "legal" dispensaries but because they are just plain drug dealers selling for profit. The Otay city-permitted pot shop owner estimates revenues of $2 million this year in his admitted "business" operation. Is this philanthropy or just big pot pharma? There is no difference in the operations, the clients, where the illegal stores get the pot or the extremely high potency (often up to 40 times a true cannabis-based, FDA-approved drug such as Marinol) or the profit motive. All pot shops are operating the same. A permit gives the impression the city is regulating. It is not, but should be. Scott Chipman Pacific Beach [end]
As you alluded to ("Is Vista tougher on med pot than San Diego?" Nov. 24), it appears the flaw in the city attorney's numbers of closed pot shops is that he is using many of the closings that came in great part with the help of U.S. attorney letters to landlords. However, we want San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith and his team to know that we don't think of them as the enemy. They are doing their best in a difficult situation. We are all struggling to deal with the real enemies, who are the drug dealers. [continues 90 words]
Regarding "San Diego shuts down four illegal pot shops" (Oct. 23): The city keeps closing pot shops, but the numbers don't seem to go down. In September 2013 "more than a dozen" were reportedly operating. In May 2014 the number was "at least 54." Now, in October, with four new closures we are down to "around 50." At least two new pot shops have opened in my neighborhood in Pacific Beach since June. At the same time Vista has effectively closed every pot shop and kept others from opening by filing criminal complaints. Selling marijuana is still illegal by state law. Not one Vista case has gone to trial because the operators close voluntarily and quickly. Do we always have to do things the hard way? Scott Chipman Pacific Beach [end]
