TO: Mayor and Council Members
Marlene Best, City Manager
Shawn Hagerty, City Attorney
FROM: Annette Ortiz, CMC, City Clerk
DATE: August 24, 2022
SUBJ: Updated Council Meeting Materials – August 24, 2022 NON-AGENDA PUBLIC COMMENT:
The attached correspondence for Non-Agenda Public Comment was received and is provided for your consideration.
From: Peggy Walker
To: Clerk Info
Subject: For Council meeting
Date: Monday, August 15, 2022 5:16:38 PM
City Clerk, please distribute to the Mayor and Council and read aloud at the upcoming council meeting. Thank you.
RE: Cannabis Regulations Inadequate Given Rising Health Risks of High-Potency Products
By University of Southern California Schaeffer Center, July 18, 2022 Dear Mayor and Council,
A new USC Schaeffer Center white paper shows state-level cannabis regulations have weak public health parameters, leaving consumers vulnerable.
The study suggests policymakers should consider regulations that place caps on the amount of THC allowed in products sold in the marketplace and placing purchase limits on popular high-potency cannabis products, like edibles and vape cartridges, as done abroad.
“Allowing the industry to self-regulate in the U.S. has generated products more potent and diverse than in other countries and has led to a variety of youth-oriented products, including cannabis-infused ice cream, gummies and pot tarts,” says Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, a senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center. “Current state regulations are inadequate for protecting vulnerable populations who are more susceptible to addiction and other harm.”
High-potency products have been linked to short-term memory and coordination issues, impaired cognitive functions, cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, psychosis, and increased risks of anxiety, depression and dependence when used for prolonged periods. Acute health effects associated with high-potency products include unexpected poisonings and acute psychosis.
Policies should discourage excessive cannabis use, according to Pacula and her colleagues. Product innovation within the legal cannabis industry has outpaced state regulations and our knowledge of health impacts of adult-use cannabis.
Please see the full article: https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/article/cannabis-regulations- inadequate-given-rising-health-risks-of-high-potency-products/ USC School of Pharmacy
Regards,
Peggy Walker
Board Member
Coastal Communities Drug Free Coallition
From: Kathleen Lippitt
To: John Minto; Ronn Hall; Laura Koval; Rob McNelis
Cc: Clerk Info
Subject: Santee City Council - Aug 24, 2022 - comment submitted Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2022 4:24:42 PM
Good evening Mayor and City Council members,
My name is KL. Although I'm a public health practitioner by education, my concerns go beyond public drug policies to how our drug policy decisions today will impact the youth of tomorrow; our children, grandchildren and beyond. The harms to future generations by allowing the cultivation, manufacturing and/or sale of a harmful and potentially addictive drug like high THC marijauana is a price we should never be willing to pay in exchange for marijuana revenues. Marijuana policies throughout California increasingly resemble a drug industry playbook for how to grow profits from growing the prevalence of high risk use and addiction. These policies are ostensibly by local electeds. When in truth they closely resemble marijuana industry policies by proxy.
Santee’s homepage speaks volumes about the influence the marijuana industry has had on Santee. The transition from standing firm to protecting adolescents, young adults, families, sensitive uses, community friendly businesses, and youth-serving organizations is appearing to weaken with the on-going lobbying and influence by marijuana interests.
Cannabis Business Information is prominently displayed on the city's website front page. That is not a good look for a community friendly city. It was disheartening has a greater obligation to provide counter messaging of public health, emergency room voices, addiction medicine experts, and youth serving organizations that is free of economic conflicts of interest about the associated public health and safety harms that have continued to accumulate since the industry's political influence with public electeds and state and local regulatory agencies has grown. This information to inform the public is more important now than ever.
Santee's adolescents and young adults will see the city’s decision to draft a marijuana ordinance as the first step toward allowing commercial marijuana businesses into their community-friendly city. The industry will continue to message that the high THC products they sell are neither dangerous nor harmful. The normalization, promotion and use of marijuana will undermine the capacity for living healthy lifestyles that allow them to live their best lives.
We are in the middle of a mental health crisis and a drug overdose epidemic.Addiction is an adolescent on-set disease most commonly stemming from the early initiation of products that harm adolescent brain development; alcohol and especially THC products like vapes and edibles.These are the products that often begin an addiction journey, the