7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2016
Cannon Beach
vote could prohibit
cannabis shops
City adopts pot
rules pending
initiative vote
By LYRA FONTAINE
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
Retail cannabis shops could
be located in one of three com-
mercial areas, according to a
Cannon Beach City Council
vote this week. But whether
any retail recreational shops
will come to Cannon Beach at
all will be at the discretion of
the voters.
A group of residents suc-
cessfully submitted a peti-
tion with 155 certiied signa-
tures to put an initiative on the
Nov. 8 ballot asking voters if
recreational marijuana shops
should be banned in Cannon
Beach. The question on the
initiative led by citizens is,
“Shall recreational marijuana
producers, processors, whole-
salers and retailers be prohib-
ited in Cannon Beach?”
A separate vote initiated
by the city will ask residents
if a 3 percent tax should be
applied to recreational mari-
juana sales.
Jeremy Randolph, Mar-
lene Laws, Nancy Giasson,
Gary Laws and Molly Edi-
son formed the committee that
brought the opt-out initiative
to the city.
The petition was presented
to City Council on Tuesday as
part of the election process,
with the city
acting as a
“conduit,”
Herdener
said.
City
recorder and
city elections
Jeremy
oficial Col-
Randolph
leen Riggs
will process
required paperwork for county
election oficials to put the ini-
tiative on the ballot.
Randolph said the council
showed “inaction on a major
issue” when they did not vote
to legalize or ban marijuana
shops in April.
“There’s nothing to stop
you from reconsidering your
inaction,” Randolph said
during the public hearing on
the marijuana ordinance. “If
you choose not to do that, I’d
ask that you consider the fact
that there is no good place in
Cannon Beach for recreational
marijuana sales.”
He said he “moved to Can-
non Beach for a very speciic
purpose. I wanted to live in a
village. This is not a tourist
town; this is a resort town.”
Randolph said council-
ors’ inaction “is a grave dis-
appointment to an awful lot of
people,” Randolph said.
Measure 91, which legal-
ized recreational marijuana
in Oregon for people 21 and
older, was approved by 63
percent of Cannon Beach vot-
ers in 2014.
“I felt it was inappropri-
ate for ive council members
to decide that those two-thirds
of the population did not know
what they were talking about,”
Beneield said. “Therefore, we
said, ‘Let the citizens take it to
the ballot with an initiative,’
and that’s been done.”
“Everybody here agreed
that we want voters to make
that decision,” Higgins said.
“We all agreed that 63 percent
voted in favor of it, but not all
63 percent voted in favor of
it in their community and we
wanted the community to tell
us.”
The council could amend
the adopted regulations to
apply to medical marijuana
only — even if residents vote
to ban recreational marijuana
in Cannon Beach.
“The law states that citi-
zens can only opt out of four
recreational retail activi-
ties,” City Attorney Tammy
Herdener said.
Randolph said marijuana
sales are illegal under federal
law, and “by not voting to ban
both medical and recreational
sales of marijuana, the coun-
cil members that made that
choice violated their oath of
ofice, which is to uphold the
law.”
“I voted for the legaliza-
tion but I did as a former pros-
ecutor as it relates to cost-ben-
eit analysis and what is more
important for law enforce-
ment to be involved with,”
Randolph said. “I certainly
didn’t vote for it to be stores
with shuttered-up windows;
this doesn’t it what Cannon
Beach is.”
Oregon starts ball rolling
against underage pot use
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
The Oregon Health Author-
ity has launched a mass-media
blitz aimed at discouraging
underage youth from using
marijuana. The “Stay True to
You” campaign uses a web-
site, social media outreach,
streaming video, posters and
audio spots to relate some of
the negative effects of under-
age use of the drug.
Research shows habitual
marijuana use by adolescents
and young adults is associ-
ated with impaired memory
and
academic
achieve-
ment, according to the health
authority.
The Legislature gave the
Health Authority nearly $4
million to develop and pilot
the campaign for 12 months
in the Portland metro area and
in rural Jackson and Josephine
counties in Southern Oregon.
Lawmakers could then decide
whether to expand the cam-
paign statewide.
“We did extensive focus-
group testing with Oregon
youth and young adults to
help develop the creative mes-
saging for the campaign,” said
Kati Moseley, policy special-
ist with authority’s Public
Health Division. “Among the
things we learned was Oregon
youth and young adults spend
a lot of time on social and dig-
ital media and like to receive
information that way. The
campaign is heavily geared
toward that.”
Most of the advertising will
appear in digital and stream-
ing video on YouTube and
other platforms. Advertising
also will be placed in movie
theaters, social media blasts
with the hashtag #StayTrue-
Oregon, a website, Facebook,
Oregon Health Authority
One of the ads from the Oregon Health Authority’s cam-
paign to prevent underage marijuana use.
radio broadcasts and outreach
to youth organizations.
“The Centers for Dis-
ease Control recognizes mass
media campaigns as a recog-
nized intervention to change
attitudes and behavior, so we
do know this kind of campaign
can have an effect,” Moseley
said. “It works best when sup-
ported by other policies.”
One such policy is state
law prohibiting the use of
marijuana in public areas, she
said.
The campaign is the irst
focused effort toward prevent-
ing youth from using mari-
juana, one year after legaliza-
tion of recreational use of the
drug.
About 9 percent of
eighth-graders and 19 percent
of 11th-graders reported using
marijuana in 2015, accord-
ing to a survey by the health
authority.
The Oregon Liquor Control
Commission plans to conduct
regular inspections of retailers
and enforcement actions such
as using minor decoys to make
sure youth can’t access mari-
juana in stores. But that effort
won’t start until the agency
takes over regulation of rec-
reational marijuana at the end
of the year, said Mark Pet-
tinger, a liquor control spokes-
man. About 13 inspectors are
assigned to that task so far,
Pettinger said.
The health authority, which
regulates recreational mari-
juana on a temporary basis,
now only responds to com-
plaints related to dispensa-
ries selling recreational mari-
juana to underage customers,
said Andre Ourso, manager of
the state’s medical marijuana
program.
Violators face civil penal-
ties, which can include revo-
cation of their dispensary reg-
istration, he said.
Submitted Photos
Map of Cannon Beach outlining areas where cannabis may be sold pending results of
a November opt-out initiative. The red zones are C-1 commercial.
Cannon Beach lays out weed map
The Daily Astorian
The Cannon Beach City
Council voted 4-1 to adopt
an ordinance with time, place
and manner restrictions for
medical and recreational mar-
ijuana businesses.
The zones are downtown
from Ecola Creek on the
north to Washington Street
on the south, midtown from
Harrison Street on the north
to Elliot Way on the south,
and Tolovana Park from Delta
Street on the north to the
northern boundary of Sand
Castle Condominiums on the
south.
Councilor George Vetter
voted against adopting the
ordinance, which is located
in the business taxes, licenses
and regulation area of the
municipal code.
He disagreed with creat-
ing ordinances for marijuana
businesses already enforced
by the state.
“The state has created
plenty of controls over the
sale of marijuana,” Vet-
ter said. “I am opposed to
the city singling out a class
of business and regulating it
separately.”
councilors had concerns
about allowing marijuana
shops in certain areas.
Councilor Wendy Higgins
said Tolovana Park was resi-
dential with a “village feel.”
The RV Park included in the
midtown zone is “quasi-res-
idential,” Councilor Melissa
Cadwallader said.
“To have marijuana sales
According to the ordinance, a medical or recreational
marijuana facility can be licensed to operate only with-
in the limited commercial zones in downtown, midtown
and Tolovana Park.
in the window downtown
where there are families,
it seems out of character,”
Councilor Mike Beneield
said. “It doesn’t seem like
a proper image for Cannon
Beach.”
Medical marijuana facil-
ities must comply with Ore-
gon Health Authority rules,
the ordinance stated, while
recreational marijuana facili-
ties need to comply with Ore-
gon Liquor Control Commis-
sion rules.
Medical and recreational
marijuana shops should have
all doorways, windows and
other openings “located, cov-
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