Medical Marijuana Voting Guide for City Attorney

The June 3rd election for San Diego City Attorney is the one of the most contentious in years. Five candidates, Mike Aguirre, Amy Lepine, Jan Goldsmith, Brian Maienschein, and Scott Peters are vying for the seat. If no one candidate wins 50% of the vote, the top two vote getters will run against each other in a November run-off election. Hope Unlimited has been seeking to gather public opinions from the candidates on medical marijuana. The following voter guide has been prepared based on the response to our inquires and research of past medical marijuana legislation.

We will update as we hear new information from the candidates.

Grading the City Attorney candidates on medicinal marijuana

Jan Goldsmith B+

-Superior Court Judge, endorsed by Republican party, former State Assemblyman for North County

Goldsmith was a State Assemblyman when Proposition 215 came before California voters in 1995. Prop 215 became Bill 1529 when it reached Assembly. It passed committee by a vote of 5 to 2. The bill then went before the full assembly where it narrowly passed 41 to 30. Goldsmith was one of the 41 who voted in favor of implementing prop 215 guidelines. However, he has been labeled an anti-drug Republican, and when bill 1529 came back to the Assembly for a second vote Goldsmith was absent or abstained.

Scott Peters B-

- Represents District 1 and is currently president on City Council, Democrat, attorney

Peters sat on the San Diego City Council in 2003 when recommendations from San Diego's Medical Cannabis Task Force came up for vote. The measure authorizing medical patients to possess a pound of tried cannabis or 24 plants was a milestone in San Diego. It passed 6 to 3, Peters was one of the 6 voting in favor of adopting local medical marijuana guidelines. More recently in 2006 he was criticized by San Diego Americans for Safe Access (ASA) for obstructing them in getting a resolution docketed for City Council.


Mike Aguirre F

- Current city attorney, claims office should be used to "serve the public interest", Democrat

Aguirre has never been in a position to put himself on the record with a yes or no vote on a medical marijuana initiative. Hope Unlimited has contacted him repeatedly to give him a chance to state his views on medical marijuana but neither his campaign or his city office have responded. Judging from his recent attempt to shutdown "smoke shops" shows his motivations. Publicly he told City Beat he was going after crack and meth pipes. The actual letter sent out to smoke shops had the following passages underlined and asterisked: "bongs", "otherwise introducing into the body a controlled substance", & "marijuana, ... hashhish, & hashhish oil". Aguirre seems to have been caught in a lie on this one.



Brian Maienschein F

- Represents District 5 on City Council, Republican, attorney


Maienschein also sat on San Diego City Council for the 2003 vote. He was one of 3 who voted against implementing medical marijuana guidelines. When this item was voted on it took about 7 hours to hear everyone who wanted to speak on the issue. Many passionate cases were made for individual's medical need of marijuana. Maienschein made a point at the time to speak out against the guidelines.


Amy Lepine ?

- Former Deputy City Attorney under Aguirre, quit and filed suit claiming sexism



Has no taken no public stance on the issue to the best of our knowledge.