Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 15 november 2017
Delay makes it unlikely San Francisco will sell pot Jan. 1

By JANIE HAR “Taking the time to get the
Associated Press piece right makes a lot
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — of sense, but not having
San Francisco supervisors something available on
delayed voting Tuesday on Jan. 1 makes us look bad,”
proposed pot regulations, he said.
making it more unlikely He and other cannabis ad-
that people in this weed- vocates prefer a 600-foot
friendly city will be able to (183-meter) buffer zone
buy recreational pot when between pot shops and
adult use becomes legal schools, comparable to
Jan. 1 in California. the distance now required
Supervisors have had a for stores that sell liquor or
hard time fashioning local tobacco.
rules for pot shops as older Some Chinese-American
members of the Chinese organizations have pushed
immigrant community back, calling for an out-
have come out against right prohibition on retail
placing retail stores too stores in San Francisco’s
close to schools, daycare Chinatown. They want fu-
centers and anywhere else ture retail stores to be at
that children might gather. least 1,500 feet (460 me-
Tuesday’s board meeting This Oct. 19, 2009 file photo shows a neon sign at the entrance to the San Francisco Medical Can- ters) away from schools,
in San Francisco was emo- nabis Clinic in San Francisco. child-care centers and any
tional, with some supervi- Associated Press other places where minors
sors arguing to get tempo- working on its rules. state marijuana regulator, erators. gather.
rary rules on the books for The state expects to re- has said she doesn’t know Jeff Sheehy, a San Fran- Several supervisors ex-
the first day of legal sales lease emergency regula- how many growers or re- cisco supervisor who uses pressed outraged at the
while others urged the tions later this month and tailers will come forward to medical marijuana to miti- way cannabis advocates
board to take more time to has said it will begin issuing seek licenses. It’s a critical gate pain from older HIV have characterized Chi-
make the regulations right. temporary licenses on New question, since the state’s medications, pleaded with nese opponents, calling
San Francisco Supervisor Year’s Day. legitimate pot sales could the board to adopt the the comments overtly rac-
Malia Cohen urged the Lori Ajax, the state’s top be undercut by illegal op- temporary measure. ist and intolerant.q
board to hold off until it
could meet again in two UN says better protections needed from mine water disasters
weeks, saying a stop-gap By MATTHEW BROWN
measure to allow existing Associated Press
marijuana outlets to sell BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A
recreational weed Jan. 1 string of mining waste di-
would only benefit existing sasters — some deadly
operators, who are not Af- — over the past decade
rican Americans, veterans, show better protections
women or other tradition- are needed for communi-
ally marginalized groups. ties downstream of mas-
“Doing this ensures that the sive polluted material stor-
final legislation passed is age sites, according to a
thoughtful, culturally sensi- United Nations report.
tive and the best legisla- The UN Environment Pro-
tion for the city of San Fran- gram report tallied 40 sig-
cisco,” Cohen said. nificant mine waste acci-
Supervisor Aaron Peskin dents in the past decade.
said passing the temporary Most involved dams or
measure would give the other storage areas that
board more time to hash failed, releasing torrents of
out rules and send a sig- polluted water.
nal that San Francisco “is Among the accidents
ready to enter the dawn of highlighted by the agency In this Oct. 13, 2016, file photo, a cow skull is wired to a fence post in front of a hamlet destroyed
the 21st century.” were a 2015 dam collapse by a mudslide triggered by the Nov. 5, 2015 failing of a dam holding back a giant pond of mine
Recreational pot might at a Brazilian iron-ore mine waste in Paracatu, Brazil.
be available in San Fran- that killed 19 people and Associated Press
cisco in the first week of the Gold King Mine disas- some 40 million cubic me- 30,000 industrial mines bombs,” said Payal Sam-
January, if officials meet a ter in the U.S. that spilled ters (52 million cubic yards) worldwide and hundreds of pat with the U.S.-based
tight timeline requiring the pollution into rivers in three of waste that polluted hun- thousands of abandoned group Earthworks, adding
mayor’s quick approval. It Western states. dreds of miles of rivers and mines that continue spew- that governments and the
could also be ready Jan. 1 Although the rate of such streams. ing pollution for decades mining industry have done
if supervisors meet in spe- accidents has been fall- The UNEP recommended after they’ve closed. too little to prevent ac-
cial sessions. ing, the report warned that governments and mining Advocacy groups said in cidents.The International
San Francisco isn’t the only the consequences have companies adopt a “ze- response to this week’s Council on Mining and
California city struggling grown more serious as ro-failure” goal for mining UNEP report that 341 peo- Metals last year issued new
with local permits, which waste impoundments get impoundments known as ple have been killed by safety guidelines that said
growers and retailers need larger. The iron-ore mine tailings dams and impose mine waste accidents catastrophic mine waste
in order to apply for a state accident in Samarco, Bra- stronger regulations. since 2008.Waste storage impoundment failures were
license. Los Angeles is still zil, for example, released There are an estimated sites are “like ticking time unacceptable. q