Prevention Education at Marijuana Public Policy Commission - KYCC

June 10, 2015

On June 3, KYCC’s Prevention Education participated in the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy Public Forum on Regulation and Taxation at Fresno State University.

Along with BRC Steering Committee members Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsom and Executive Director of ACLU Northern California Abdi Soltani, Prevention Education Manager Mihae Jung spoke on a panel discussing potential regulation issues in the event of marijuana legalization, especially in the Koreatown, Pico-Union, and Westlake neighborhoods.

Jung provided a community perspective, and alluded to this three-neighborhood area as the “WIld West” for businesses to sell alcohol and marijuana. This area, with its lack of community advocacy, consists of 14 percent of the city of Los Angeles’s liquor stores, and has also seen a rise in illegal medical marijuana dispensaries, whose owners reportedly proffer double to triple market value rents.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy was formed in light of the likelihood that a marijuana legalization initiative will be placed on the 2016 California ballot, and that serious and thoughtful analysis must be conducted in order to identify significant policy challenges and offer possible solutions. The Commission is comprised of leading policymakers, public health experts and academics from across the state and the nation that have done significant work and research related to marijuana.