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 - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom