Ocean Beach’s ‘Outlaw’ Pot Dealer Detained On Newport Ave

by Joaquin Antique

Locals and visitors alike watched as San Diego police plainclothes officers apparently arrested a man who had set up a “mini-dispensary” at the foot of Newport Street yesterday, October 7. The marijuana products the man was selling were confiscated and bagged up and the vendor was placed in an SDPD vehicle.

For several weeks one or more individuals have erected a card table, sun shelter, and display case next to the OB Pier parking lot and have been selling pre-rolled ganja and cannabis edibles.

Plainclothes cops bagging the evidence. All photos by Joaquin Antique.

This reporter had observed the sales and heard personal accounts from disbelieving locals as well as from social media that there was open selling of weed on the sidewalk with no police attempts at curtailing the activity. No reports were received about the quality or prices of the products.

Several locals also said there has been stepped up enforcement against vendors of non-cannabis items (shirts, dog collars, framed photographs, etc.) who have recently been selling their merchandise in the triangle near the Veterans monument.

Scuttlebutt on the street and on social media blamed the heightened enforcement on the upcoming Oktoberfest. These critics claim that before major OB street events (the Holiday Parade, the Oktoberfest, etc.) police step up enforcement and then after the events resume a do-nothing approach to the unlicensed vending.

Cops bagging the evidence. Note the gloves to prevent a contact-high. Some of the product for sale can also be seen.

One OB resident who observed the foofaraw that involved two SDPD vehicles, two uniformed and two plainclothes officers pointed out that there was hardly a need for an unlicensed vendor on site when “anyone who wants to buy some weed can just hop on the Cannibus” while another local said that it points out the ridiculous city policies that prevent OB from having its own legal dispensaries.

“This (OB) has been the epicenter of San Diego pot use since the beatniks, surfers, and hippies discovered it. There ought to be a law REQUIRING dispensaries in OB”, she said emphatically.

Skater observing the bust going down.