Letter to the Editor: Resident Opposes Opening of any “Pot Stores’ in Burbank

1. I agree 100% (percent) with Sharon Johnson, as I have been living in Burbank for 30 years. Please let’s save the charm of the city that has brought so much joy to the residents. We already have some shops set up in our city and I don’t hear folks crying out for more. Burbank doesn’t need anymore.

   • Because if there’s one thing keeping drugs out of our community, it’s banning dispensaries. Never has a Burbank resident ever easily circumvented the issue by using a delivery service or driving half a mile to a different city to acquire a substance that’s less dangerous than cigarettes or alcohol.

2. Sharon (and Burbank) needs to pick a side. It is both hypocritical and discriminatory to allow bars, clubs, hookah and cigar lounges, CBD stores, etc., but not pot shops.

3. How about we close the multiple gun shops instead?

   • PLEASE!!!
     Keeping Burbank as a gun store resistant community is now, more than ever, imperative in allowing our children to have a safe and healthy environment as well as setting a good example throughout our city.
     Move the gun stores to North Hollywood!
     The lines out the door and petitions freak me out!

4. Many different types of people utilize marijuana in controlled manners. It’s simply selfish to demand an entire city to not only profit, but to bring business to a once thriving city that’s been gutted by the pandemic restrictions. This person even admits there’s shops already open in the area and frankly nothing is worse for it. Having to leave the city to purchase this medication is rediculous.

5. You’re definitely old. You’re definitely “happy”, probably own an overpriced home. The world around you is changing. People and societies are evolving. Nothing stays the same. Burbank is backwards and not forward thinking when it comes to “reefer shops.” So either you’re too ignorant or misguided, or you’re maliciously trying to maintain some sort of economic power and control. I’m guessing it’s the latter. I’m guessing you’re rich. Good luck with your portfolio.
   I have no allegiance to this city, which is good, because despite whatever deal you have with studios, you are going to fall behind your neighbors. I look forward to the day I leave.

6. Rather have pot shops than over a dozen gun stores, thanks…

7. There are no pot shops in Burbank, period. CBD shops are frequently confused for them because those of us who are not addicted to cannabis and not in the drug culture do not normally disassociate CBD with pot. CBD (in theory?) has no TCH. Unless you know something we don’t.

   • Sorry, Christopher, wrong again. Some forms of CBD, like “full spectrum” CBD, have trace amounts, or more, of THC, which acts with the CBD to make a better medication for those who need it. I strongly urge medical patients to investigate how CBD is derived and avoid hemp-derived CBD. Replace it with “full spectrum” CBD, without the CO2 extraction method. Look for very, very pure CBD.

     Remember, people, for many of us, this is medicine. Why shouldn’t the city of Burbank make money from taxes for selling these products?

8. Give me a break!

   There is absolutely nothing wrong with a dispensary in Burbank. It would be a welcome addition, and the people who work at dispensaries are in general a lovely bunch. What I can’t stand are all these gun shops with long lines of outsiders all over the sidewalk, strangers parking in our neighborhoods — and a lot of no-mask wearing as these people load up on more guns. It is absolutely backward that our town embraces gun shops and the hostility that brings but not a pot dispensary that brings only good feeling and peace.

   Time to wake up!

9. How about the city conduct a simple poll:
   “Which is more harmful – marijuana dispensaries or gun shops?”
   Data and democracy over anecdote and invective

   • You can throw a stone anywhere in Burbank and hit the side of a store that peddles in alcohol marketed heavily and right out in the open. It’s a substance that is several orders of magnitude more harmful than cannabis, which is backed up by study after study. It is absolutely hypocritical to be OK with such unfettered access to dirt-cheap liquor across the city, but then frown upon pot. Pick a side.

     As for crime, does anyone remember when LA shut down the hundreds of dispensaries a while back? Well, studies were done on the effect that action had on crime rates. Crime went UP in those areas, not down. The inverse to what Sharon thinks will happen. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5703207/

     There should be dispensaries, but we certainly do not need 400 of them peppered across the city. They should be allowed in commercial zones only, not mixed residential, and they can be set off from junior and senior high schools at a minimum distance as best determined by people smarter than I am.

     Most important of all, they need to be able to accept credit cards and other forms of payment beyond cash. It’s the prospect of getting one’s hands on a ton of cash that draws criminals and that’s true of ANY business, not just pot peddlers. That said, it should be noted that no one’s knocking over gas stations to pay for their “pot” habit.

10. That was posted as a reply instead to Burbank local since 1988, not sure why. I must have misclicked!

11. The resistance to cannabis dispensaries in Burbank is so silly. I would hazard a guess that these people writing letters to the editor do not understand cannabis at all, and are stuck with the the outdated mindset that it’s deadly and dangerous. It’s not.

    Alcohol has been proven to be much more addictive, destructive, and dangerous to our collective health, and yet I see plenty of bars and liquor stores. We have more gun stores on one street than in whole other cities, and guns are, you know, actual weapons. And I still see cigarette butts everywhere, despite the reduced consumption on a national level (at least before the pandemic). All of those are still happily available in Burbank.

    It’s ridiculous to target a type of store because you don’t like or understand it. Where is the evidence allowing cannabis dispensaries will expose children to addictive behaviors? How many shops are actually known to filter other drugs?

    Besides, cannabis is quickly becoming decriminalized. Public opinion has been relaxing as more people understand the reality of its consumption. It’s not deadly or dangerous. There are plenty of tax-paying, home-owning, respectable neighbors who indulge, and the only downside to the community is they are spending the tax dollars elsewhere.

    Burbank only stands to lose a valuable source of revenue and business by not permitting them.

12. The right to bear arms is a constitutional one and foundational for Americans. The right to have pot shops here is not protected by the constitution.

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