Vice Mayor Jeff Cooper joins City Councilperson Meghan Sahli-Wells as the Council delegates on a sprawling City Hall task force that will decide regulations applying to the recreational marijuana initiative California voters approved in November.

Mr. Cooper’s singular brand of enthusiasm will deliver a bonus shot of energy as a Planning Commissioner and a member of the Finance Advisory Committee team with City Hall staffers to round out the task force.

They are expected to study and deliberate about the multiple licensing strands of the complex marijuana world – growing it, delivering it, selling it — over the next six months.

When asked if he voted for recreational marijuana last November, “Oh, absolutely,” said the vice mayor.

“It is a good idea. I feel it is not a dangerous drug, and it has many medicinal purposes.”

Mr. Cooper said that “if people use it responsibly, it will take out the black market and the criminal element that have been used for decades.”

It is too early to really plant his feet on any of the task force issues, said Mr. Cooper.

“We are in the infancy stage,” he said. “We are learning and trying to figure out what works best. So I don’t have a perspective yet.

“I need to educate myself more. I am finding out there is so much more to know about the whole (marijuana) industry.”