Amy Jenkins, who runs her own lobbying firm, Precision Advocacy, and is also the Legislative Advocate for the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA), just wrote a California Senate Bill that could BAN all deliveries in any city that has an operating dispensary, according to leaked documents. Ms Jenkins also represents Erich Pearson and sparc here in our city of Sonoma.
Should this bill be enacted, access to medicinal cannabis for patients, veterans, seniors, etc, would be severely curtailed. Those who can't find a specific product that works for them at the only dispensary currently permitted to operate in Sonoma, Mr Pearson's sparc, would not be able to legally get a delivery from another dispensary or service outside the city limits. So, this would force patients, or helpful family or friends, to drive to Cotati or Santa Rosa to obtain products they require.
If this bill passes, Erich Pearson and Amy Jenkins will almost certainly lobby to close Sonoma from outside deliveries, thereby helping to preserve Mr Pearson's stranglehold over safe, local access to cannabis.
You can read more details on this development here.
Our email to the Board of directors of the CCIA further clarifies the situation:
March 14, 2022
To: CCIA Board of Directors,
As the founder of the 200 member Sonoma Valley Cannabis Group, I'd like to voice our organization's dismay regarding the "spot" Medicinal Patients' Right of Access bill.
SVCG advocates for safe, legal access to medicinal cannabis for the residents of Sonoma and Sonoma Valley. Unfortunately, this suggested bill could actually limit our medical patients' ability to acquire cannabis to help mitigate their health concerns. This would be especially unfair to our seniors and veterans. When it comes to medical use, our patient community needs access to the widest choice of cannabis products possible to manage their health issues. You all know that inventories at dispensaries can range widely from shop to shop. They don't all carry the same products or brands, and their availability can even differ from one visit to the next. Delivery from outside the local jurisdiction must be an option to ensure patients can obtain the products they know work for them. Why would anyone take that right away from those most in need?
Let's take a real world example, and yes, we're making this personal. Your legislative advocate and author of the spot bill, Amy Jenkins, also represents Erich Pearson, CEO and Chairman of Sparc. Mr Pearson owns a number of dispensaries in the Bay Area and will soon open a retail outlet in the city of Sonoma. Though Sonoma's ordinance permits one additional dispensary, Mr Pearson and Ms Jenkins have worked very hard, and not particularly fairly, to convince the Sonoma City Council to table the RFP for a second shop. Mr Pearson is dead set against any competition that would keep prices low and raise the quality and choice of goods and services.
If this bill is enacted without striking specific delivery language, we can figure Mr Pearson and Ms Jenkins will lobby the city to institute a ban on outside deliveries, citing more revenue for the city.
Limiting choice is not what compassionate care is about. In fact, it is coercive.
Sincerely,
Gil Latimer
SVCG Policy Group