The fight over recreational marijuana regulations is taking form between the pot industry and leaders in Imperial Beach and other local cities.
The current IB proposal, if passed, would put one or two dispensaries on Palm Avenue.
The City Council will weigh in on the proposed ordinance regulating the sale of recreational marijuana on Wednesday.
The city does so after the Association of Cannabis Professionals (ACP), attempted to take its own proposal to the ballot box.
The majority of Imperial Beach voters want access to marijuana, but Mayor Serge Dedina says, not at any cost.
"It felt like a Clint Eastwood movie, where these bad guys come in and sort of tell you what you need to do otherwise they are going to do it for you," Mayor Dedina said.
Since Prop 64 passed, legalizing recreational marijuana use, the ACP has been lobbying local community leaders to get the ball rolling.
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"We're advocates first and foremost. A lot of us have been involved in politics the last few years and we've kind of found ourselves a niche," ACP Executive Director Dallin Young said.
Dallin says the advocacy group used Prop 64 data to determine in which communities the voters overwhelmingly approved recreational marijuana use.
They include Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, Lemon Grove, Encinitas, Carlsbad and Oceanside.
Young says part of the strategy to discourage an outright ban is to take its own proposal to the people for a vote.
"We've given them the benefit of the doubt allowed them to do it on their own and none of them have done it," Young said.
Dedina said it felt more like a threat to the community that the group's proposal included grows in residential neighborhoods, smoking lounges, and multiple dispensaries.
"These weed cowboys come from the outside and put a gun to our head and tell us you will change 35 years to 40 years of community-driven zoning to put weed factories in the middle of residential neighborhoods," Mayor Dedina said.
As strong as holding a gun to your head sounds, it is a strategy in which the advocacy group leader seems to agree.
“We’ve had medical marijuana in this state for 20 years at this point we have three cities in the entire county that have any regulations or ordinances in place. I'd say if that's how they want to look at it, sure, it's about time," Young said.
The ACP measure filed with the IB City Clerk was denied. Dedina said the city council will consider its own ordinance at Wednesday's council meeting.
