Petition to Get Dispensaries Back in Business

LOS SANTOS (WZ) — Dispensary owners to ask the State Government with a public petition to open Dispensaries.

It has been nearly a month since the sudden and unexpected legal drama surrounding dispensaries occurred and business owners were forced to shut their doors to the public.

Smoke on the Water owner Cody Long has been hard at work attempting to get dispensaries back open and get money flowing by sending a petition to show public support for new laws to back these businesses.

Mr Long has expressed his dismay about how absent the State Legislature and Government has been regarding this issue in a statement he issued to Weazel News:

…I have reached out to the governor himself – to which I have been met with ‘it has been forwarded’ and a back-and-forth via twitter, last contact having been ~2 weeks ago. It has been 29 days since I was arrested for Class I Distribution and the business has been shut down.

But 29 days? I’ve stated on twitter numerous times and I’ll say it again – it really does feel like our legislators got their positions in the government, and then took the earliest flight off to Hawaii, never to be heard from again. I have put out advertisements daily trying to reach any legislators and have been met with nothing…

The Proposal lists 94 signatories, ranging from business employees, to Government staff and some Emergency Services employees. This at least conveys some wide support for the issue.

In the proposal, it asks that dispensaries ‘must’ be made legal and that there needs to be a change in law to make dispensaries a legal business. 

This petition has had wide ranging success in getting people’s attention, raising awareness and getting the talk of the town, and according to the people it’s now time for the Government to come to action over this issue.

Today the Police Department jointly with the Sheriff’s office released a set of crime statistics for San Andreas. It shows after the May shutdown of dispensaries a rise in controlled substances related charges. Before and on May 1st there were under 5 substance related charges a day, on May 5th there were at least 18 and the days following the numbers were above 10.

Article about the dispensaries closure in early May: https://news.newdayrp.com/index.php/2021/05/10/breaking-smoke-on-the-water-flash-in-the-pan/ 

Cannabis Legislation Petition:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o4giy2GKAsbPHaA8vR1Pyei6zIy13ArU_H6nSoVkNO4/edit

Full Statement from Owner Cody Long:

I want to start by saying how comforting it is to be able to reach out and speak to my supporters again. It’s been a good while since I last let out a statement or update on Smoke on the Water and I’m sure a number of you are concerned (and for that I am beyond grateful). To be frank, not much progress has been made in terms of legalizing the dispensary. I have reached out to legislators – to which I have been met with ‘nothing as of right now’, last contact having been 12 days ago. I have reached out to the governor himself – to which I have been met with ‘it has been forwarded’ and a back-and-forth via twitter, last contact having been ~2 weeks ago. It has been 29 days since I was arrested for Class I Distribution and the business has been shut down.

To an extent, I can understand it. Things take time, laws can’t magically be written overnight. But 29 days? I’ve stated on twitter numerous times and I’ll say it again – it really does feel like our legislators got their positions in the government, and then took the earliest flight off to Hawaii, never to be heard from again. I have put out advertisements daily trying to reach any legislators and have been met with nothing.

With all this in mind, I wanted to try to take things into my own hands and get the ball rolling. So I started the petition I’m sure a good number of readers have heard of by now, and have been met with tremendous support. It really can’t be overstated how thankful I am to the people who want to see my livelihood restored and a legal source of cannabis opened. Access to this petition, and the actual proposal for dispensary law reform, should be included in this story. As you will be able to see, while writing this statement the petition is at a count of 94. NINETY FOUR people the government are disregarding the needs of. And even after sending the proposal and petition, there have been no updates or apparent changes in urgency of this legislation change.

I want to clarify that this statement isn’t to bring awareness to anyone other than the state legislators. The LSPD and BCSO have actually been surprisingly supportive in this subject, albeit not too openly. The Chamber of Commerce does not have the authority to exempt dispensaries from the law, and they’ve been the most supportive out of any government group. The only people I have grievance with are the state legislators and their lack of communication, awareness of the situation and (to purposely keep things vague) encouragement to drop my lobbying.  This grievance isn’t personal, but after 29 days with extremely lacking communication and my business completely shut down (though with the need for taxes to still be paid), I am beyond frustrated at this point.

If anyone would like to sign the petition, please feel free to email me or reach out to me via the advertisements app, I will always have something up on there when I am awake. Though it hasn’t seemingly made much of a difference yet, I am nowhere near willing to drop this.

I thank each and every one of you for reading this, and should that include the state legislators, we need this change – and we need it now.

Smoke on the Water Owner and Founder,

Cody Long