Pubdate: Sun, 18 Oct 2015
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581

THE WORK BEGINS

Now that the state legislature has passed new laws around the 
cultivation of medical marijuana, the real work must begin.

There is time before the new rules which will need to be created by 
legislation go into effect for local communities to decide on how 
they want the new laws to be carried out in their counties. Under the 
law, counties can have their own regulations or allow the state's 
regs to take effect in their counties.

We have been hearing for years about marijuana, "Well, just tax it 
and regulate it."

That time has come.

The new laws are meant to get regulations in place with an eye to the 
possibility - or perhaps probability - that recreational marijuana 
smoking and growing may become law after the 2016 November elections.

While marijuana growers had a huge say in how these new laws were 
written, and made sure to keep their own businesses the topmost 
priority, we think the general public needs to start weighing in on 
how it wants regulated marijuana growing to operate.

For instance, under the new laws, marijuana is reclassified as an 
agricultural product. Mendocino County is a "Right to Farm" county 
which generally means that nuisances from agricultural production 
smell, noise, dust, sprays, etc  are acceptable and that owners of 
residential properties next to these farms just have to accept them. 
In Mendocino County a residential builder must sign an acknowledgment 
of that to get a building permit, and real estate transactions must 
include notification of right to farm practices. So does that mean 
that a marijuana grower next door to you no longer has to worry about 
the smell or the lights? No one seems to know.

Environmental protections and smell and other nuisances from pot 
growing  which are in the new law - are already in this county's 
cultivation ordinance along with strict limits on the number of 
plants allowed, but that has not stopped significant illegal 
production and practices.

Under the new law, counties issue the permits for growing and can add 
their own taxes to the state's fees. Local governments are supposed 
to have a lot of say-so in how the new regulated marijuana industry works.

We think it should not simply mean the legitimization of all the 
current growers who will now just be more immune from prosecution, 
paying some fees and taxes, but basically continuing with business as usual.

We think this county and its cities need to get lots of public input 
about how the residents want to see a legalized marijuana industry 
controlled. (We have even heard it suggested that after legalization, 
this county might want to be the first to opt out of marijuana 
growing altogether. Think of the businesses and families who would 
want to come to a Northern California county where pot growing was 
banned? It's something to think about.)

There's a very emphatic and activist marijuana grower community in 
this county and they will do everything in their power to make sure 
that growing gets easier, that they are not hassled and that they can 
continue to make lots of money. But we know there's also a very large 
population of people out there who, while they don't really care who 
smokes marijuana, don't want to live around it, don't want to smell 
it, and don't want our children exposed to it.

This county needs to make sure that, now that regulation of marijuana 
growing is the mission, it takes a strong stand on behalf of 
non-growers, protects the local environment and raises enough in 
marijuana taxes to pay for whatever it takes to make sure that a 
regulated marijuana industry is just that.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom