Letters to the Editor: H.B. council employed scare tactics in denying legal marijuana sales

Huntington Beach is now a sanctuary city. Not a sanctuary for illegal immigration, but a sanctuary from legal marijuana.

Citing reports of increased DUI citations in cities where recreational marijuana is now being sold, our City Council voted to prohibit such stores from opening here. That is a perfectly valid reason to oppose those pot shops. No one wants more impaired drivers on the road.

However, the council’s assertion that marijuana stores might also lead to an increase in a half dozen, non-cannabis-related crimes, is not supported by the data from the other cities. Those unsubstantiated accusations sound more like scare tactics than actual evidence. Our city’s policies should be based on fact, not fiction.

Chris Borg

Huntington Beach

Recall cost argument is a red herring

I received a mailer from the Newport Beach mayor and mayor pro tem urging people not to sign the recall Scott Peotter petition or to have their signature withdrawn if they have already signed. The only reason they cited for their message was the cost to the city. They never say that he should not be recalled, only that it costs too much.

Hypocritically, these are the same people that have spent a large and currently unknown amount of money trying to figure out if the city of Newport Beach spent too much to build the new City Hall. This is like spending money after buying a car to see if you could have purchased it for less.

Also, both the mayor and mayor pro tem voted to not accept the city of Newport Beach’s share of the state gas tax ($480,000), which had previously been paid by the residents of Newport Beach and which will now be distributed to other cities in the state. Maybe the recall effort should be expanded to include the mayor and mayor pro tem, neither of whom seem to really care about the city’s finances.

John Stillman

Corona del Mar

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