Marijuana is legal in California. So why is Clovis trying to ban home deliveries?
The War on Pot ended four years ago when California voters overwhelmingly passed the Adult Use of Marijuana Act.
So why do Clovis city leaders continue to wage an unnecessary battle against their own residents?
Not very conservative of them. Once again, individual liberties and limited regulation of business have given way to selective morality.
Clovis is among 23 California cities (and the second-largest to Riverside) attempting to legally ban marijuana home deliveries within their borders by seeking to overturn a statewide provision that permits such deliveries “to any physical address in the state.”
The lawsuit was filed last year in Fresno Superior Court. In a tentative ruling earlier this month, Judge Rosemary McGuire questioned whether cities have the legal standing to challenge state Bureau of Cannabis Control regulations if they do not have conflicting local ordinances already in place.
Lacking that, “there is no dispute,” McGuire wrote. The next scheduled hearing is in November.
It’s one thing for cities like Clovis to decide against brick-and-mortar marijuana shops. Quite another to prohibit legal transactions between residents and licensed businesses on their own doorsteps.
I’m also left wondering how city officials expect to snuff out these dastardly deliveries. Instruct police to pull over and search every car and van driven by someone who looks suspicious?
Clovis mayor’s selective enforcement
Five months ago, during the onset of COVID-19, I asked Clovis Mayor Drew Bessinger why the city decided not to close its parks or playground equipment. One of the reasons, he said, was the practicality of enforcing such a measure.
“In my opinion it creates a contempt for the law when you have a law that you can’t enforce,” said Bessinger, who doubles as police chief for Fresno Yosemite International Airport.
Huh. Guess that doesn’t apply to the morality police.
In an April 2019 press release announcing Clovis had joined the lawsuit, Police Chief Matt Basgall is quoted as saying, “I am in complete agreement. Each community should be able to decide on their own how they chose to deal with the legalization of marijuana.”
Far as I can tell, Clovis has chosen a two-pronged approach.
● Step One: Pretend like tens of thousands of the city’s 118,000 residents aren’t regular consumers of marijuana and cannabis products.
● Step Two: Crack down on their personal freedoms and endanger public health by forcing them to leave their homes during a pandemic in order to obtain a legal drug they use for medicinal or recreational purposes.
And to what end? So a few politicians and cops can wave some hypocritical virtue flag? In 2020, we should be well past all this.
Fresno pot shops coming
I’ve got news for those people: Clovis residents, along with those in north Fresno, are a local delivery service’s best customers.
Why? Because they have the money to afford these products.
If the Clovis City Council wants to ban marijuana deliveries, at least hold public hearings on the matter. Let council members explain from the dais why Clovis residents shouldn’t enjoy the same rights as other Californians. Say it to our faces, and give us a chance to respond. Don’t hide behind some lawsuit with a bunch of fellow grandstanders.
After years of dragging its feet, Fresno is months away from having legal marijuana shops, provided the city council adopts a fee structure and approves the environmental impact report. (Those items are slated for the Sept. 17 agenda, according Council President Miguel Arias.)
In Clovis, meanwhile, the misguided War on Pot continues. All the way to the doorsteps of the people who live there.
