State Sen. Scott Wiener criticized a San Francisco Board of Supervisors proposal to temporarily halt permits of new cannabis dispensaries, saying it would “send a terrible message statewide.”
Wiener, a former supervisor who is among the city’s most prominent moderate politicians, generally avoids taking stances on city issues. But this one is particularly pressing, he said.
STATE BY STATE: California Cannabis News
On Tuesday, he sent a letter to the board with sharp criticism of the idea that Supervisor Malia Cohen presented right before summer recess: to impose a 45-day cannabis dispensary moratorium in the fall.
“San Francisco has long been a leader on medical cannabis, and enactment of a San Francisco moratorium on cannabis dispensaries would be an abdication of this leadership,” Wiener wrote in the letter. He said the proposed shutdown would undermine a state effort to legalize and regulate the industry and that it seemed out of character for a city that had led the movement to protect medical cannabis patients — including those with HIV.
