The City Council has become aware of and concerned over the general proliferation of “head shops” and other establishments engaged in the sale of paraphernalia associated with drug use. Therefore, the City Council did heretofore adopt Ordinance 1892, in 1980, prohibiting the sale or display of such items to minors. However, the City Council now finds that the illegal use of such substances by all persons, especially those under 18 years of age, has reached critical proportions requiring further legislation on the subject. It is causing serious physical and psychological damage to the youth of this community, an impairment of education achievement and of the efficiency of the educational system, increases in non-drug-related crime, and a threat to the ability of the community to ensure future generations of responsible and productive adults, all to the detriment of the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Chula Vista.

The distribution of such paraphernalia intensifies and otherwise compounds the problem of illegal use of controlled substances within this community.

It has further been determined that the existing ban as prescribed in the Chula Vista Municipal Code that has been in effect since 1980 against the display and distribution of drug paraphernalia to persons under 18 years of age has not been practical. The person who displays or distributes would not have to be concerned with the question of minority and who could lawfully view or receive drug paraphernalia. The already thinly staffed law enforcement agencies would be subject to intolerable added enforcement burdens by adding age of a person who views or receives drug paraphernalia as an element of a prohibition upon display and distribution.

A significant number of high school students are 18 years of age or older. It would be unlawful to distribute paraphernalia to some students attending the same school in which the distribution to other students would be prohibited. Permitted display and distribution to adults within the community would symbolize a public tolerance of illegal drug use, making it difficult to explain the rationale of programs directed against similar abuse by youth. The problem of illegal consumption of controlled substances by adults within this community is significant and substantial, necessitating a cessation of the encouragement to abuse drugs which the display and distribution of drug paraphernalia create.

Therefore, it is the purpose and intent of the Council to introduce this measure banning the display and distribution of drug paraphernalia in order to discourage the illegal use of controlled substances within the City. (Ord. 2007 § 2, 1982).