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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom