Pubdate: Sun, 22 Dec 2013
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Author: Bill Connelly

SUPERVISOR STATES POSITION ON MARIJUANA

Recent articles make it important for me to clearly state my position 
on medical marijuana as a Butte County supervisor. To be clear, I do 
not support the total legalization of marijuana and I am skeptical 
there are beneficial uses for medical patients.

I have stated in the past and currently stand with four points 
regarding marijuana. One, as currently grown, there is a real threat 
to personal and family safety. Marijuana is valuable and prone to 
violent theft. Two, if you live near a marijuana grow, there are 
intrusions on you and your family including traffic, dust, noise and 
odor. Three, generally, if there is a marijuana grow near your 
property, the property value goes down. Four, many of our county's 
problems with illegal marijuana grows originate from the difference 
in state vs. federal law. It is illegal across the nation, but 
quasi-legal here. That is confusion. I have stated marijuana laws are 
creating the same problems as Prohibition did with alcohol. The 
federal government needs to drop marijuana from a class one narcotic 
and regulate it from grow site to licensed sales facilities.

The recent major problems regarding marijuana facing the Butte County 
Board of Supervisors were created by growers who cared nothing for 
the damage to our environment nor for suffering they caused their neighbors.

The Board of Supervisors recently voted 4-1 to strengthen the 
restrictions on pot cultivation. One supervisor, Larry Wahl, voted 
against the stronger restrictions, and I don't believe he favors 
marijuana legalization either.

- - Bill Connelly, Oroville
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom