Pubdate: Fri, 25 Apr 2014
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861

DON'T GIVE POT INDUSTRY FREE RIDE, AGAIN

In November Butte County voters once again will be asked a rather
bizarre question: "Should a noxious industry be regulated?" Why does
that question even have to be asked? But once again, we may well offer
up the equally bizarre answer: "No." And that's all because the word
"marijuana" will appear in the ballot measure.

There's something about seeing that word on the ballot that makes the
soberest of people vote like they're stoned.

The view seems to be that it's just pot. Or, it's medicine. Except
it's not. It's a multi-million-dollar industry unregulated and
untaxed, and emboldened by the fact the state's laws are so vague as
to be worthless.

Butte County's marijuana industry has a total disrespect for its
neighbors and the environment, with practices that make clear-cutting
look benign. And quite predictably, it has attracted a criminal element.

In a rational world, it's the kind of thing voters would slap down in
a minute. In a rational world they wouldn't have to, because
regulators would have already done so. If your business stinks like
skunks, you would be required to do something to eliminate the impact
on your neighbors. You'd expect that, and find it reasonable to do
so.

Unless you're growing pot, apparently.

That's why county supervisors, in response to the complaints by their
constituents, put some rules in place to reduce the impact of pot
growing. That's what's being challenged: the requirement to be a good
neighbor.

The rules also have the effect of cutting off the destructive
industrial grows that are proliferating in the foothills under the
guise of providing medical marijuana. The allowed gardens are too
small to be incredibly lucrative, although someone who knows what he
or she is doing could make more on even the small plots than a farmer
could earn off an acre of almonds.

The regulations are perfectly sensible. But since it involves
marijuana, what makes sense may have no impact on what voters decide.

Those opposed to the rules are making a ton of money and it's in their
best interest to spend as much of it as necessary to be able to
continue making a ton of money.

They'll wheel out the argument about letting granny grow her medicine,
even though those who actually use marijuana as medicine know what's
happening with pot growing in California has almost nothing to do with
medicine.

There isn't likely to be much of a counter to the hogwash, because
there are practical problems hindering a campaign to back the pot
growing rules.

The county can't defend its ordinance under law. The people most
affected by their neighbors' abuse are to intimidated to take the
lead, and rightly so. The growers have already shown disrespect for
the neighborhood, and the law, and are generally heavily armed.
They're sociopaths with guns and vicious dogs. Heck, they have the
professional regulators scared, as evidenced by the refusal of the
state's water quality cops to get involved because it was too dangerous.

The only real hope for an organized campaign would be if Butte
County's environmental community shook itself out of its inexplicably
passivity about the carnage being caused in the hills. It's possible
to mount a campaign against fracking, which isn't happening here, but
apparently not to fight the here-and-now No. 1 abuse to Butte County's
environment, which is the unregulated industrial reshaping of the
county's geography in order to grow pot.

Hills are being terraced, creeks are being diverted, pesticides are
being spread indiscriminately, and those poisons, fertilizer and silt
are seeping into the denuded watersheds, just waiting for winter rains
to wash them down to us.

In November, voters will get the chance to say that's not OK. They
aren't likely to get much help with the decision. We can only hope
they can see through the hype and do the right thing.
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MAP posted-by: Matt