Efforts Underway To Bring Marijuana To Lake Elsinore

A town hall meeting that the organizer says is designed to let Lake Elsinore residents weigh in on legalizing marijuana dispensaries within city limits is set for June 28.

“Bring all the arguments – for and against – and bring questions,” said Lake Elsinore resident and town hall organizer Wayne Williams, who is also the founder of the pro-marijuana advocacy group We The People.

The town hall is being held at The Diamond Club and is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Admission is free, but seating is limited.

Guest speakers scheduled to appear at the event include, among others, notable cannabis activists such as Neill Franklin, a retired Maryland police officer who spent 33 years on the force and now speaks on behalf of the advocacy group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition; Attorney Tom Eckhardt, who ran for Riverside County Superior Court Judge, Office 1, but was defeated during the June 5 election; Dr. David Bearman, MD; and Michael Krawitz, a disabled U.S. Air Force veteran who now serves as executive director of Veterans For Medical Marijuana Access.

Also slated to appear is 70-year-old Florida resident Robert Platshorn.

“If anything, he’ll be there on Skype,” Williams said, noting that federal authorities are challenging the senior citizen’s request to travel to California.

Platshorn was an operator in the 1970s Miami marijuana smuggling ring the Black Tuna Gang, which reportedly moved half a million tons of marijuana from Colombia. He was eventually nabbed and served 29 years behind bars.

Now a free man, last year Platshorn spawned The Silver Tour in Florida. According to press reports, the tour is designed to "educate Florida seniors about the medical benefits of marijuana."

“When Proposition 19 was defeated in California, I looked at the exit polls I saw that seniors voted 65 percent against. That’s my generation. We invented marijuana as it’s known today. I mean, we were Woodstock,” Platshorn told CNN Money.

Like Platshorn is doing in Florida, Williams has pushed for “reasonable guidelines” on medical marijuana and wants to see the drug made available -- and regulated -- in Lake Elsinore. The city currently has a ban in place prohibiting pot dispensaries, but Williams is hoping to change that.

In January 2010, he spearheaded a first-ever town hall meeting about medical marijuana at the Lake Elsinore Cultural Center. He touted the event as a way to spark dialogue about the benefits of regulating pot dispensaries in the city. He invited the local community and special guest speakers -- the event drew a standing-room only crowd.

That same year, Williams and a handful of supporters collected enough petition signatures to force a special election in Lake Elsinore that would have asked residents whether they wanted regulated pot dispensaries in the city. However, former Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore disqualified many of the signatures, and as a result Williams’ effort failed. He said he didn’t have the funds to investigate the findings of Dunmore, who was fired after the November 2010 election.

Now, Williams and supporters are set to begin efforts anew: A second petition drive that seeks to bring regulated marijuana dispensaries to the city is underway. In order to get a pot initiative on an election ballot, Williams said he needs to collect qualified signatures from 15 percent of registered voters in Lake Elsinore.

A vocal advocate for medical marijuana since 1995 when he first opened a head shop just outside Lake Elsinore city limits, Williams led a medical marijuana cooperative that dispensed the drug out of a facility on Grand Avenue.

Last fall, , Williams held

Williams contends safe access to pot for those who need the drug is his primary concern.

As for bringing marijuana to Lake Elsinore, Williams said it should be up to the voters. He has learned a lot from past experiences and this time around is putting forth “a much more concerted effort,” he said, adding, “I’m very confident.”

For now, he’s focused on the town hall, and will begin the signature-gathering campaign thereafter. He said he has 180 days from May 29 to turn in petition signatures. If successful, Williams said a marijuana measure would be put to Lake Elsinore voters during a special election next year.