Home Antioch Referendum to Repeal Antioch Cannabis Business Districts Fails to Gather Enough Signatures

Referendum to Repeal Antioch Cannabis Business Districts Fails to Gather Enough Signatures

by ECT

A group of citizens who were passionate about blocking an ordinance approved by the Antioch City Council which created two Cannabis Business Districts, failed in their attempt at a referendum.

The group, Not in Antioch, announced Wednesday that it did not reach the 5,200 signatures within 30 days (10% of voters) needed to place the referendum on the November ballot.  They did, however, collected around 3,000 signatures.

Here is the message posted by the group:

Hello Antioch Residents!

Today is the deadline for signatures to be submitted for the Not In Antioch petition. We would like to thank everyone that signed the petition and all those that helped in spreading the word and gathering signatures. This was a true community effort and we enjoyed the opportunity to engage and hear directly from the people of Antioch, not only this issue, but on the current state and future direction of our great city.

We gathered over 3,000 signatures in just under 30 days! Although we did not gather enough signatures to move the referendum forward, we are encouraged by the amount of community support received for this effort and will continue to advocate for responsible policy that is in the best interest of all Antioch residents.

This is not the end! We encourage everyone to remain engaged with what is happening in our local government. There are more decisions to be made regarding cannabis businesses in Antioch, and we hope that you will join us in holding our leaders accountable by showing up to council meetings and speaking up. Lets continue to work together to see Antioch become the city we can all be proud of.

The group started the petition process because they believed the city is not prepared for unrestricted Cannabis businesses within the two zones of the City (near Costco and off Wilbur).

The council also ignored the recommendation by police chief Tammany Brooks which he believed this would bring in more crime while highlighting the police department was understaffed.

The group said they were not against medical marijuana, but rather they urged the council to hold off until the city was prepared and much more structure was established while further clarity would be determined in the future.

The effort was led by: Manny Soliz, Jr., Rodney McClelland and Diana Patton

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18 comments

Rational Resident Aug 2, 2018 - 11:22 am

I’m glad this attempt failed. As a non-smoker, I don’t support any Referendum banning the sales of Cannabis in Antioch. We desperately need more tax revenue to support city services. I doubt these places will have any impact on Crime. Perhaps if more people smoked weed, they wouldn’t have the same desire to commit violent crime and murder in this city. Hell… if we’re going to ban cannabis, lets ban all alcohol too! Both create impairment….

Another side of this story Aug 2, 2018 - 4:58 pm

And as a smoker I too am glad that their referendum didn’t pass. I see crime increasing in the absence of a licensed dispensary. If you don’t have a convenient storefront business then you’ll have people still dealing on their own in this cash based business. There lies the for potential crime, not in a licensed dispensary, but in people running around Antioch with marijuana, cash and who knows what form of protection.

Maybe some of those against a dispensary in Antioch should stop in at Harborside Dispensary in Oakland. Its right off the 880 freeway (16th Ave/Embarcadero exit) and they’ll probably be amazed at what they see. The interior first reminded me of something close to an Apple store and everyone in there, ranging in age from 21 to 81, is calmly waiting to be served. Never have I seen anything that would indicate that there is anything dangerous going on outside or around that neighborhood because of the dispensary.

Not only does Antioch need the tax revenue but they need to let adults avail themselves of this totally legal substance that some people are still tearing their hair out about.

Didn't sign it Aug 2, 2018 - 9:12 pm

That’s exactly why I declined to sign it as well. Antioch needs money from any industry willing to employ locals and create tax revenue.

Lola Saavedra Aug 2, 2018 - 9:43 pm

May people who smoke the vile stuff are not necessary passive. To them, the vile stuff makes them aggressive and we have already seen how an aggressive STONER killed a woman and two children on I-880 a few months ago. Others get so passive that they run their cars into other vehicles as they drift off.

Richard Aug 7, 2018 - 1:16 pm

GREAT idea lets blame the pot and not the mental issues that person had. smoke pot and go crazy? how many incidents have you heard of a man coming home drunk and beating his wife or kids, now how many have you heard of a person coming home stoned and doing the same? Vile stuff? How about lets point our attention to VILE BEHAVIOR and the cause and effect of mental illness and the failed system to treat these issues. The Vile stuff you are referring to isn’t going to make a normal individual snap and murder someone. Having radical close minded belief and an ignorant finger to point is just as bad as ignoring crime. Here is the kicker I don’t smoke, I don’t use but above all else I don’t like to see ignorant blame being put on issues that may benefit our community as it has proven to benefit places like colorado, oakland, sf. Want more officers? We need a way to pay them, want better school programming?(I do) we need a way to pay these teachers what they deserve. Please make educated statements.

Mike Aug 2, 2018 - 4:42 pm

Its been done and helps tremendously. Whose against money for the city? So dumb. Look at Portugal.

Beenherealongtime Aug 2, 2018 - 6:43 pm

If you use the tax revenue reason maybe a casino and a couple brothels would help.

Blue pill\ red pill Aug 2, 2018 - 9:17 pm

You’re actually right, it would help considering there’s brothels all over Antioch already- You think those are “Massage parlors”?

Maybe we can get our casino by the post office upgraded so people actually get some revenue from a place most residents are terrified to visit.

Yard Gnome Aug 2, 2018 - 10:13 pm

Sounds good.

Lola Saavedra Aug 2, 2018 - 9:44 pm

Many people who smoke the vile stuff are not necessary passive. To them, the vile stuff makes them aggressive and we have already seen how an aggressive STONER killed a woman and two children on I-880 a few months ago. Others get so passive that they run their cars into other vehicles as they drift off.

Elizabeth Aug 2, 2018 - 11:36 pm

So? It didn’t work this time. Well, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

Antioch-Pittsburg Highway Aug 3, 2018 - 9:06 am

How can anyone be proud of going from a paper mill paying upper middle class wages and high tax revenue for the city, to a Volkswagon shipping port bringing in temporary tax revenue, to a cannabis store? Do you think any international business would want to use our deep water port now that a cannabis store is on the same street? Please get a better education starting with our Council.

You Deserve Each Other Aug 4, 2018 - 6:21 pm

For all of you recreational potheads who believe allowing these marijuana dispensaries in Antioch is a good idea, do us all a favor when you wrap your car around a telephone pole or crash head on into a tree, please avoid hurting an innocent person because of your personal stupidity!

Marty Fernandez Aug 4, 2018 - 8:45 pm

Pitts/Antioch hiway. There is no reason for any business to want to come to this city. I drove around for 2 hours tonight and thiscity is covered in trash. Dumpsters in public overflowing. Piles of trash behind every strip mall. Our parks are full of trash and not watered. What is here to attract business?

SlowMoney Green Aug 5, 2018 - 6:14 am

How could the citizens be proud, of new industries? Let us count the ways:

Paper mills are among the most polluting industries around, and leaving one in this sensitive area would have been part of a foolish business plan. Sure, the world needs paper. We don’t need a 50 old version, sitting on the shoreline of the primary source of water, for all CA.

The whole waterfront, from Antioch to Bay Point, is being revitalized for new industries, including solar manufacturing, food processing, cannabis processing, and of course 2 decades of construction, followed by rapid gentrification of northern Antioch, not by design, but because the people with those new, high paying jobs will want to live nearer their jobs. Stockton residents already commute to Antioch and Brentwood for nursing jobs, and this trend is going to amplify. Cannabis stores are just another part of the transformation of the tax base, and an important part of future resilience, as a city.

Next: A Cannabis store by a Shipping Port is bad? You mean like the one beside the Port of LA, the Port of Oakland, The Port of Stockton, The Port of SF….. I know this was just a random statement, so I’ll just stop shredding this point now.

No Liz, it didn’t work this time. Don’t be silly. It was doomed from the start. Instead, cannabis is only going to expand, and its going to be rapid. New local millionaires are being born. The anti-cannabis religious PAC has already been beaten, and run over….3 times now. These groups had no visible impact whatsoever. Which reminds me: Ya’ll were IRS referred, on the last petition. Probably should have kept it away from the church. Don’t worry, they’ll sort it out with you.

Also, We stopped skinning cats when we stopped hunting and burning witches, the point being that small groups, no longer perceived as morally relevant, swimming against a tide of new industries, ones that we can operate locally, are not perceived as serving their community or bringing out the best in us. I’m sorry, but recent events of the nation have stolen that capacity from such groups, probably for the duration of our lives. They’re perceived as outsiders or cult members, now, while the cannabis stores are places of high wages, full benefits, local tax revenue stabilization, and value added opportunities, for multiple feeder business.

Finally, ‘Oh No, a stoner 75 miles away caused harm several months ago.” ….? Pffft.. Just stop. You’re input supports the exact opposite position. Good lord, you had to go 75 miles away just to find a good one.

I get that some of you are afraid of the unknown variables, but ‘unknown’ doesn’t mean something awful from your imagination has to fill that knowledge gap.

Cannabis shops are going have a positive pile-on impact, with our new wine, and local food industries. Brentwood, Antioch, Oakley, and Pittsburg have a powerful synergy forming, and soon, they’ll be the place where dozens of new food and cannabis millionaires were born, in spite of the sad, sour efforts, of a few backward and confused people, to stop the development of new local industries.

I wish our new cannabis business owners good luck and good fortune. We’ll do our best to help the remaining few residents, those still trapped in Plato’s Cave of Shadows and Ignorance, to see the light beyond their mind prison.

-SlowMoney Green

Crazy Is As Crazy Does Aug 5, 2018 - 3:47 pm

You definitely have a psychological disorder

Nick Aug 7, 2018 - 2:23 pm

Alcohol, drugs and mental illness is a recipe for disaster. Not everyone is playing with a full deck.

J. SALAZAR Aug 5, 2018 - 12:47 pm

So City Council Members and Chief Lets enforce the grows in our neighborhoods, that don’t have permits and are ran by crime groups and organized crime. Your Antioch Marijuana business model and taxes will not come to fruition, if you don’t enforce the laws on the books, as weak as our state laws are already. Marijuana grows in our neighborhood should never be tolerated!

Why would anyone pay for permits and operating cost to run a grow in your city. When you can operate an illegal grow. Nobody will take you seriously if you don’t clean up our town first. Gas City/Shell is a dangerous, eye sore, and is a running joke. Why? because they sell blunt wrappers all day and night.

Any business model for the Marijuana industry, will require you to enforce the weak marijuana laws of California, which has almost no consequences for illegal grows. Hello wake up fools.

Antioch Council members, you need to listen to your Law enforcement experts, thats why you have a Chief of Police!

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