the mayor and the city departments for the state legislation legal listing ensuing cannabis. >> before supervisor wiener gets to the floor rewant to welcome you. >> thank you very much mr. chairman for calendaring this item today colleagues before us is legislation to create the cannabis state legalization task force here in san francisco i want to thank my co-sponsors commissioner james and supervisor eric mar for joining us in this effort and also thank jeff in my office for his work in moving forward that with legislation we've seen cannabis legalization issues skooemd

succeed in states very likely 2016 will bring legalization of cannabis they're working on ballot manufacture and some of you submitted the ballot language if this passes and likely will san francisco will be at the epic center of this change we need to take a smallest and thoughtful policy approach to this new law if we don't format policies swelling we'll have a fire drill after legalization occurs some good planning it need we can look at what has happened when it happened in golden gate park to see what happened when we're not prepared we're more prepared but not under this is 365 not one

day a year the candidate task force will bring together residents and businesses advocates and government leaders to identify the key policy issues to plan for a 22 member task force and seats are as followed one through 7 will be non-voting members representing various government entities excluding the didn't you want and police department and fire department the department of building inspection, planning department and entertainment commission, and the state board of equalization don't say a lot of work and then the following will be voting members public school san francisco unified school district an individual with at least two years working in the cannabis entry the owned and operated and an individual that use cannabis for medicinal purposes and the owner of a

small business representative of larger businesses someone working in tourism or hospitality sector two individuals from neighborhood associations, and individual working in health advocacy focusing on drug policy, someone that works in entertainment or night life and a representative from a labor union that represents workers. >> and youth represent age 21120 thirty it will commence at the end of the summer and one year to report back to the board of supervisors only social and land use and important issues to arise task force will not take an official position on legalization but instead of focused on the policies and administrative solutions should

legalization occur this is a good government measure what everyone's view on legalization that shares that san francisco is bringing together alleyway all stakeholders to have the likely legalization after public comment i have a few minor cleans up i'll be offering one to clarify that is new assets will be appointed by the board of supervisors and adjusting the numbering of seats that was off a little bit we'll be ficus that colleagues if not comments or questions we have a two initial speakers first, i want to call of up our former members fiona to discuss some of the issues

and terrance allen around night life and helping to develop the entertainment commission. >> i want to add my gut and perhaps people can speak to it as i move forward i support in legislation and think we're looking at a strong plan for how to move forward with the state of california moves towards recreation recreational - but we have a history how we are citing mcdonald's or pot clubs in a city that needs to be looked as we're looking at how to do the land use distributions sdigsdz from the future the way the citing of mcds done 10 years ago has worked it really put the

place where medical marijuana is sold in certain neighborhoods creates a lot of stress a mix of people that are accepting pot or not i don't think it is there for worked the same way across the city we need a universal approach to look at how all the neighborhoods sharing the benefits and burdens moving forward in terms of recreational use of marijuana i know the task force can look at what was done in the past and upper studies one i asked for a couple years ago that was on the books it worthy at looking at in terms of ideas for how we can move forward to decide on places to purchase medical marijuana or recreational marijuana okay. if i could add mr.

chairman you've identified an incredibly important issue the system we have has challenges the fact that part of your district like the sky is the limit in terms of the number of mcds in the castro area it is impossible to find a legal place for an mcd so it is is problematic system and certainly one the key issues the task force can look at especially it is going to bet much more complicated only mcds but every other manner cannabis relate issue it's important to get ahead of the curve with that our former colleagues. >> just a qualification the sky was the limit and puts in place the controls that the mcds

requesting to be permitted within 5 hundred feet of an existing mcd is conditional use to make sure that the communities have a stronger voice in the forest on deciding on mcds. >> thank you very much members it is great to be here today serving on the san francisco full board of supervisors from 2002 to 2006 prop p passed we have the first mcd in 92 which i was sitting open the board it was part of san francisco life worked to legislation to support the industry to make sure that you know patient that needs it had access when i got elected to the board of equalization i was asked to sit open a task force together we represent 43 of the

county and from what is happening it was the first time i got invited by terrance allen to get more involved to see what is happening to go to humboldt to do a tour it was shocking we live here in san francisco and live in a bubble and get outside and start to talk to stakeholders and growers and sellers and distributors and transport oversees there's life people in the industry even though prop 215 passed years ago we have not passed one bill regretting this industry i want to give kudos to the industry for setting up the framework that local government has

stepped up to the plate in with the state not passing legislation where we're talking about legalization at least two ballot initiatives it's been powell well, the initiative drafters are serious about making sure we learn from what what happened in colorado and washington to make sure whatever is on the ballot in california is doable that you know going to generate the revenues it promises and in the meantime set a framework you're talking about here today, we're all working together to make sure we all are working the lyft hand is working with the right hand and versus as supervisor wiener chaotic fire drill my role to understand

what is happening i call is is cannabis tony think i've passed class 8 out of 12 before i could talk about intellectually what is happening my mind is 0 blown in terms of how far we've come if 20 years what it offered in is an mcd and all the products that are out there so we've invested in stakeholders meetings over the past 4 months trying to educate my staff and team with the industry stakeholders i think right now combined with your legislation we appreciate having it advisory seat obtain our task force i think we can bring in a lot of what we're learning and

make sure that whatever passes is workable for the board of equalization we'll be the agency collecting the tax and administering audit auditing so it has to be adorable for our organizations and allows leeway without changing it to the brutality anyone anything that is based by the ballot has to go back to the ballot it's the reason my staff i have two full-time staff members tim is a person tracking all the cannabis bills moving forward through the perspective process we get a call from the governors office he want to talk about the ab 256 i'm very, very happy the governor's office is looking at this and i have anothers virld

looking at the triangle two staff members here that are dedicated much of their work life to this and we just look forward to contributing what we know and bring together folks to make sure that your task force is as successful as we can moving forward thank you very much for your leadership. >> thank you. >> and the next is terrance. >> thank you, supervisors i'm terrance allen i really appreciate you bringing us together i don't know how to follow what fiona presented shows laid out why a task force is necessary and why we've worked so hard with the supervisor wiener supervisor mar and supervisor jane kim to insure that it is a represented task force san francisco needs to prepare for this legalization that is going to happen if with

you like denver do not think about cannabis usage when visitors come off the ape and go buy cannabis and told there's no places to smoke that as a tourist oriented city that realize our economy is build on the place that tourists go if we haven't given them angle appropriate place we'll have failed our industry i'm pleased to say sf with the tsa and the hotel council will be getting together with the small business small business commission and

the council of district merchant to put together a condone working group at the end of the month to make sure that hospitality is a part of this conversation so we have tax and regulation and neighborhood interested and zone and hospitality and all of this points to how san francisco is viewed in tackle this huge reviewers idea of bringing cannabis out into the world in the important to the success of san francisco and to the success of the product and our consumers if we over tax and overregulate we will incentive intents the black market we don't want to see we want to incentivize all those people that are willing to come out of the cannabis closest and become part and parcel of the

rest of the economy and chase those out on their own to have complete inclusion you heard from a fiona is a complicated business it has an entire industry behind it working on comforting the genetic strain assuring what we buy called product x today is the same thing you buy twomonths from now you found a product go for arthritis or a medical condition and not able through a regulatory scream that that product is the same we as a city and state have failed our

customers and our most vulnerable consumers san francisco was the beginning of prop 215 before that the aids crisis that created an environment people were ready to do anything to get one good day out of their life that willingness to try things out of the normal experimental medication and medical cannabis because everyone knows that stimulates our appetite it is the number one gript for the first wave of aids wanting to eat we learned in a country over health issues how to reach through a prohibition i thought wall and get to a product that

over the last several decades now through 0 regulatory scheme and at that time creation of the task force to see how it scheme is put together we'll show the way no, not that colorado is not doing it right or washington or it is california has tens of thousands of growers hundred of thousands of patient and millions of users we're the biggest committee for cannabis if we set up our regulatory process credible can not only be a huge incentive view of justice from properly regulated environment to provide good paying jobs for people that may not want to work in the tech industry to we have a

neighborhood component we can exclude so the neighborhoods feel represented without saying no so they understand and are educated about what this pursuit does he know in supervisor tang's direction we've spoken about that that is going to be a lot of education necessary and the task force gives us an opportunity in a public way to call public meetings and ask people to come together and share their thoughts and concerns and for us a task force to bring them and assign the truth to reevaluate the decisions and hopefully change their attitudes to be more inclusive of cannabis if i close my icy want to see cannabis both

outline aspects i want to see 5 choices of cannabis shampoo and one that stops high hair from falling out salves that help my arthritis and choices regulated so i know what a product will do and i buy that product that will have the same effect that's a biproduct of regulation we can serve as the model for that. >> we have our tourist committee to regulate that to be concerned and strong neighborhood component and strong history you'll hear from the speakers we don't have many i was asked no a showing the strength but we have a series of speakers that speak so you'll have an insight we'll bring to

this question and eventual in the form of a recommendation you'll be confident that this is not just words it will be built upon the hearing the experts and their community and built upon the larger community of san francisco and the distresses that drive us saying we want this to happen from the hotel council say no we want the council to say yes, we want a away for the golden state restaurant association to say you know a jacuzzi and coke with cannabis coke you want a chocolate volcano cake with cannabis legally if he don't we'll have the experience of

making up the rules as we go we've got time the task force is the way i'm going to close any book and say thank you very much and leave room for the other speakers. >> you mentioned one around colorado places. >> if you pass a law that allows for adult use purchase of about say cannabis you will not imagine those people buying the product will want to use it in colorado they didn't allow four use in anything around a private home so if you're a tourist we have millions of them and coming to san francisco we don't have a coffee shop or a way to ingest safely away from children if we

don't figure out that in advance people go to their hotels and break the law or leave frustrated i want the tourist to leave saying wow. san francisco figured out how to do this so, yes we have lessons to learn this is one little piece where to you use it after you buy it. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisors. >> mr. chairman if we could open up for public comment. >> we'll open up for public comment and let you be in charge. >> public comment

(calling names). >> very much matthew thank you supervisors i'm the co-founders with terrance cannabis voice we've been going up and down the state and encouraging a board stakeholders process supervisor avalos the other problem in colorado the offer tax so that's something we've been in discussion with with your staff and broke out in national tax experts to talk about how to tax it to the point we get the revenue but not drive it back into the black market i want to focus my remaining sessions here on the why a stakeholders process can work we've made in this process work in humboldt

community 2 of the 4 members of the board of supervisors 35 mercy hospital members were there with professional facilitate oversees trying to bring in the best neutrality people the human race is not great when you talk about controversial issues so having a task force is i would say a hallway mark of the organization i wanted to say that i want to give you confidence if you set up this task force you'll say interesting and i think existing 4 - apart from the budget set aside has experts from around the country when we brought in national tax tour we wanted to make that work and doing every

thing we can to bring resources to the table to come up with a good policy thank you very much. >> just a question on overtaxation how does it look in terms of taxing marijuana in colorado to other things that our tacked in colorado. >> the medical tax a set at a reasonable level that makes people continue to keep their thrilling medical market but when you look at the taxed by the state the state retail tax and and excise tax and boulder has a tax all of a sudden you're looking at taxes upward of thirty percent no other product is treat that way it reduced and increased the medical marijuana it didn't get the state for the recreational side they've overtaxed it no other product is

overly tacked and the black market it thrilling thirty in colorado. >> prohibition creates the black market for the lack of safety not because people are high but having having to sell or having a market there's expedition that leads to other drugs. >> yes. and great studies by the marijuana enforcement division in colorado the agency tasked with over regd regulating it and including jeffrey marin did a study we can make the studies available to the task force my 15-year-old daughter we're going to have lunch part of what we're trying to do if we regulate it we can keeling keep

it away from kids that's shown by statistics in other states colorado is an important place to look at it and see thank you very much have a good afternoon. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors pleasure to be here before you this afternoon. >> my name is wayne i'm a 70-year-old hiv positive individual that got started in the medical cannabis industry in 1988 when i was diagnosed supervisor mar has left i want to knowledge to her and you the great work with the board of supervisors did for the medical cannabis industry let me quickly

say that what our city has done in the past back to 1972 prop said we have personal use and 1978 sees the rest passed by the city 1991 prop b and make the medical available and your colleague before you supervisor harvey milk was structural as well as and then in 1996 78 percent of the city approved that the city was going to pay any defense of any individual that might face federal problems it was established we established the health code in 9 years we had a task force 9 years i'm sorry we i'm sorry 9 years we had resolutions passed

by the board of supervisors that are now part of record and supervisor fefe on was structural and grandfathering and the like we need to do do the right thing. >> we've got an opportunity our challenge is there and san francisco didn't meet the champion we're missing a real opportunity wouldn't it be nice a year from now k pride month our businesses come in and enjoy cannabis thank you very much. >> mr. pierce son. >> supervisors and staff thank you very much for being at the forefront of the medical cannabis your patient rights regulars is developed appreciate i'm the founder of spark at hundred and