Pubdate: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA) Copyright: 2014 Chico Enterprise-Record Contact: http://www.chicoer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861 Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority POT GROWERS TAKE SLATE MAIL TO A NEW LOW It's the silly season of the election. It's the season of the slate mailers, which we're still amazed is an industry that survives. They're so close to fraud, but those rules are set aside when politics are in play. Slate mailers are mass mailings, sent out by for-profit companies, that seem to link local candidates and issues to better known candidates and on-paper institutions that seem to be established political organizations Thing is, you can buy a spot on a slate mailer. In Chico, Larry Wahl could buy a slot on a mailer that would suggest Jane Dolan supports him. In Oroville Mayor Linda Dahlmeier could buy what appears to be an endorsement by her rival Cheri Bunker. There'd just be a little asterisk by Larry's and Linda's names to indicate they'd paid for that spot. Jane and Cheri wouldn't have to be consulted. And legally, it wouldn't matter if they were annoyed. It doesn't usually get that blatant, but this year's been the exception that proves the rule. We've had Democratic candidates for non-partisan local offices like the Chico City Council appearing to represent themselves as Republicans, and then being self-righteously defensive about doing so. And then there are the yes on Measure B folks, the marijuana growers who've taken it to a whole lower level. They've spent $3,300 to appear on the mailer of the "California Republican Taxpayers Association," an entity that is nothing more than a money-making fiction. It's bad enough that the Butte County Republican Party sent out a press release saying, "that's not us." The latest slate mailer is atrocious. Besides the link to a number of candidates who are likely appalled to appear to support Measure B, Measure A is represented as a "$20 million boondoggle." Huh? We have no idea where the $20 million came from. There have never been any monetary values attached to this debate. Measure A doesn't qualify as a boondoggle by any definition of the word we're familiar with. But there's no question there are voters who are totally out of touch with reality, and maybe this will get a few more fools to vote for B. Its backers are counting on the fools. That's their only chance. Measure B will win only if its backers are able to obscure what Measure A is. Both measures provide access medical marijuana. The difference is that A says growers need to be considerate of their neighbors, and B says growers - and only growers - get make the rules. It's not a good strategic position for B to start a campaign from, which is the reason for the obfuscation. Indeed, the existence of B is an initial step to cloud the question. Measure A calls for approval of a set of rules put in effect this year to address excesses that occurred after the 2012 referendum that overturned Butte County's first set of medical marijuana regulations. After that election, the county sat down with a group of people that supposedly represented both sides of the issue to draft a new set of rules. By all accounts, the pot growers took over those negotiations and came up with regulations favorable to them. Almost immediately it became clear those rules were having an extreme negative impact on the neighbors of pot growers. It is a fairly noxious industry with the stench of skunk, and threat and reality of crime and gunfire. The rules were changed to address those concerns, and the pot growers challenged that by referendum. That's Measure A. The 2012 ballot measure had somewhat confusing wording. The lesson was learned and this year's choice was made clearer: Here are some rules that let medical marijuana patients get their medicine but require growers to have respect for their neighbors. Yes or no? Those kinds of clear questions undercut the extremely lucrative businesses that have thrived in the fog of Proposition 215's vagueness. So pot growers mounted the drive to put Measure B on the ballot, which allows marijuana farms big enough to meet even the most ridiculous medical marijuana "needs," and still provide a substantial surplus for sale for profit. Placing Measure B on the ballot provides a choice for voters, and whenever there's a choice, there's a chance to work a con. And that's been the Measure B campaign out of the gate. A vote for Measure B is a vote for property rights, we are told. False, but maybe some people will buy that. A vote for Measure A cuts off patient access. False, but maybe some other people will buy that. And now, Measure A is a $20 million boondoggle. A total fiction, but maybe a few more people will buy into that as well. P.T. Barnum wrote that there's a sucker born every minute. If that's true, there are certainly enough people in Butte County to approve Measure B, the most blatant shell game offered up to voters that we can recall. Gather enough fools together, and they win. In a few more days we'll know if Butte County is indeed a fool's paradise. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom