Lompoc cannabis advocates hoping to break stigmas with new show and chamber membership

A new show is coming to Lompoc’s public access channel.

Active cannabis advocate Joe A. Garcia has put together what he’s calling “CannaVision,” filming parts of the show out of Lompoc’s rec center.

“So today we are going to be wrapping up our final segments which will include news segments and a segment called “Joints with Joe,” where I’ll be interviewing my father who is a cancer survivor and used cannabis to help him in his battle against cancer,” Garcia said.

On his show, Garcia hopes to discuss topics like city issues, cooking segments and even host live interviews – all to help make the community more comfortable about cannabis.

“Certainly there’s a lot of people in the public that are not aware of cannabis; they are not in the know about cannabis, and a lot of people that don’t know about things, fear something that they don’t know,” Garcia explained.

This show is currently working independently from the Lompoc Valley Cannabis Association.
This organization has some new goals of their own – they’d like to join the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

“We would like people to come up to us and ask us questions about cannabis, concerns and fears – anything like that and the Chamber of Commerce certainly has a lot of activities and events and we’d like to be a part of that,” Garcia said.

That’s good news for future dispensary owners like Richard Smith, who’s now in the process of getting permits from the city. Smith believes partnering both groups could help get their needs across better.

“This is exciting times – Lompoc can be the Mecca for cannabis in California as long as city administration embraces and realizes the cannabis industry will fill buildings and create higher paying jobs than minimum service industry jobs,” Smith said.

The Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commmerce tells us in statement quote:

Any person, association, corporation, partnership or estate dedicated to the
Purpose of this chamber shall be eligible for active membership on approval
Of the membership application by the board and payment of such dues and fees
As the board may fix from time to time.

A Lompoc city spokesperson says so far three out of the 13 dispensary applicants have been issued permits so far and are now moving on to approval from the state before they can start opening up shop.

The city has their own website where you can find out more information about cannabis in the city. Click here for more information.