Police In Yakima Skeptical Of Legal Pot Sales

Yakima Police Chief Dominic Rizzi isn't in support of a push by the Yakima city council to overturn the city ban on the retail sale of marijuana. Rizzi says he's concerned about more kids being exposed to pot that will be more available in the Yakima area even though it's only sold to those 21 and over. "It gives kids better access to it and there's proven fact that it diminishes kids cognitive skills."
Rizzi says he's also concerned about a rise in crime and that the stores could be targets for local gangs and other crime. While that's a concern in Yakima Union Gap Police say they haven't had any of those problems in their city. Union Gap Police Chief Greg Cobb. "We've had incidents in the parking lot...minor collisions due to parking issues."
In the more than year the shops have been open Union Gap police have been called 15 times for service, but only two of those calls were directly related to marijuana.
But Cobb says the black market is still very active, they're still dealing with the illegal sale of weed on a regular basis. The Yakima city council could vote on a resolution to overturn the city ban on February 16.