Dear Mr. Dudley,
Your being "sure there are better locations" unfortunately does nothing for the Green Cross or its patients, who are without a home now that the dispensary's appeal has been rejected. If the San Francisco Police Department is going to be putting its time, energy, and taxpayer-supplied resources into opposing cannabis clinics from opening or staying open -- a viewpoint that neighbors are capable of expressing for themselves and really not something that taxpayers should be forced to pay for via police officers lobbying city agencies while on the clock -- maybe it should also be helping to identify some of the suitable locations for these clinics that you say exist, if it intends to represent all San Franciscans fairly and not just the minority who oppose marijuana. Is it the SFPD's policy to insert itself into city planning decisions based on their potential effect on traffic? Is it the department's job?
It would also be nice if the department followed the law as passed by San Francisco voters in 1978, 1991, and recently reaffirmed by a vote of the Board of Supervisors, making marijuana enforcement the lowest law enforcement priority. According to Public Defender Jeff Adachi, his office represents about 20,000 cases a year, and between 5 percent and 10 percent of them involve marijuana, "particularly low-level marijuana sales" (SF Examiner, 11/14/06). Five to ten percent of all the publicly represented cases in San Francisco doesn't sound like a low priority to me -- does it to you? Or does the SFPD dispute the Public Defender's numbers? If so, you should release your own easily understandable numbers so that residents can judge who is reporting the facts more accurately.
How can we expect other people to follow the law if the police -- the agency intended to uphold the law -- do not set a good example? Isn't this in fact breeding disrespect for the law and making it more difficult for police officers to do their jobs and secure the cooperation they need from members of the public?
Sincerely,
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