Letters to the Editor: April 14
Hysterical response to marijuana
It seems public officials in Ramona continue with the hysterical prohibitionist propaganda that the government has been spouting for decades. Mr. Eberstein, of the Marijuana Prevention Initiative (which indicates that he has already made up his mind regardless of facts) has “unanswered questions about what the business may end up selling and what else is in their marijuana-laced products.” Really? They sell cannabis flowers, extracts of cannabis flowers, and food containing cannabis flower extracts. As to what else is in the “marijuana-laced products,” that would be food. They are “edibles,” after all.
Mr. Piva and others are concerned about driving under the influence, kids thinking it’s OK, and kids getting hold of it. Ramona has a dozen stores that sell liquor as well as over a dozen winery/brewery tasting rooms. People do not walk to these places. Are they worried that people going to the liquor store first drink what they bought before they drive home? People who go to the cannabis store do not partake of their purchase before they drive any more than those who purchase alcohol. What about tasting rooms? People do drink there before heading home. In fact, that’s why they are there. Any worries about this?
Besides the liquor stores and tasting rooms, Ramona has at least four tobacco stores, and two caffeine stores (one of which now sells alcohol to drink before driving home). I don’t hear any outcry that kids will think these drugs are OK because of these stores or that they will get hold of these drugs, though they certainly do. I don’t hear anyone saying there are too many of these stores in Ramona.
Alcohol and tobacco alone account for a long list of diseases. The death toll from them is well known (and even from caffeine and pharmaceuticals), whereas the death toll from cannabis is zero and it heals a number of diseases rather than being the cause of them. Which ones should we be keeping from our kids?
The report of DUI caused by cannabis is inaccurate. Testing positive for weed has no bearing on whether or not someone is under the influence. Roadside tests for cannabis will show positive for weeks after use, long after the few hours of “high” are over. NIDA , which has a history of funding numerous studies and then ignoring them because they showed cannabis in a positive light, (Medical College of Virginia, Costa Rican, Greek and Jamaican studies, etc.) should know this fact. Perhaps it’s because NIDA’s Congressionally mandated mission is to search for harmful effects only, rather like our officials are doing now.
Sharon Jurist
Ramona
Maintaining control at homeowners’ expense
Sharron Daniel’s letter in the April 7 edition omits several relevant facts. She is a member of the San Vicente Golf Club, along with the people she supports in her letter. Another director, who is not mentioned, is part of a family of frequent golfers.
This group makes up the majority of the association board and I believe manipulates the association finances to subsidize golf operations. They do this by conspiring in a contract that deprives all homeowners of the fair market value of the agricultural water produced by the San Vicente Waste Water Facility, by providing a lodge unit free of charge for the exclusive use of the women’s golf club, and in many smaller ways.
Most of the financial tricks used by this group are hidden because they are not accounted for on the association financial statements. I think of this group as the “golf gang.” This “gang” would like to get two of their members elected to the board to add to their majority, and make it impossible for them to lose their majority on the board before the golf course water contract that costs association homeowners millions of dollars can be renewed.
The “golf gang” does not want to yield control of the association and its finances to a competing group that I think of as the “other gang.” Mrs. Daniels did a pretty good job of describing how this “other gang” is scamming the homeowners, but failed to mention two relevant facts. The board wrongly characterized the parks and recreation plan as an update rather than as a new improvement in order to use existing reserve funds to finance the plan, and avoid letting all the homeowners exercise their right to vote on improvements. The “other gang” has also arranged for the association board to approve subsidized child care — again without the required homeowner voter approval. The “other gang” needs the tacit support of the “golf gang” to continue their manipulations of homeowner finances, and the director from the “golf gang” not named in last week’s letter provided the swing vote.
If this reminds you of party politics, or gang warfare, you are not alone. A popular quote is that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Is the homeowner’s association at the Estates any different? Do association homeowners really have a choice in this election that will do what is best for all homeowners instead of the candidate’s own “gang?” Isn’t this really an election to maintain “gang” control of the association at the expense of most homeowners?
Lauren Moll
Ramona
Big Bands salute a winner
The Ramona Concert Association ended its 2015-16 season with another “show stopper.” Even on the rainy night of April 9, the well-attended “Salute to the Big Bands” concert was awesome.
The Coast Cities Jazz Band truly enjoyed playing for us here in Ramona. They were very appreciative of our genuine reception and applause. The band represented an outstanding group of very talented and dedicated musicians.
Their program got all the senior citizens toe-tapping and thoroughly enjoying a trip down memory lane. The selection of Big Band hits from the greats — Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, to name just a few — was outstanding.
Adding to the evening’s enjoyment was the use of vocalists, several from the band itself with the addition of songstress Ruby Presnell. Just another very fine musical treat for our Ramona citizens.
Bert Byrne
Concert board member