Pubdate: Sun, 06 Mar 2016
Source: Modesto Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Modesto Bee
Contact:  http://www.modbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/271

IT'S HIGH TIME WE HAD A COMMUNITY DISCUSSION ABOUT MARIJUANA

Recreational Use of Cannabis Is Likely to Be Legal in 2017

If We're Going to Allow It to Be Sold Here, We Need Serious Rules

There Are Advantages but Significant Dangers That Must Be Talked Through

Let's start with the assumption that recreational use of marijuana 
will be entirely legal by this time next year. Let's also assume that 
budding entrepreneurs in Modesto, Atwater, Ripon, Ceres, Turlock and 
every other city in the northern San Joaquin Valley will be eager to 
put their wares in front of customers.

Will we be ready?

Perhaps, if we require all those leafy businesspeople to meet certain 
community standards  locating only in specific areas; using discreet 
signs; disposing of waste responsibly; making certain the air outside 
doesn't smell, well, skunky.

There are people in our cities and counties responsible for making 
such rules, and they're already asking these questions. The answers 
they formulate are of vital interest to all of us.

Start with the most obvious question: Will it be legal here?

Maybe or maybe not. Most polls show overwhelming support for 
legalizing recreational use, with seven different measures proposed 
for the November ballot to do just that. At least one, and more 
likely three or four, will make it. So voters will have to choose 
their favorites.

The proposition with the most backing  including from Lt. Gov. Gavin 
Newsom  gives counties a "local option." If residents don't want 
legal marijuana, it will remain illegal  though it won't go away. 
Keeping it illegal means sales will be on the "black market" and the 
county won't be collecting sales taxes. It also jeopardizes a 
county's ability to share in the much higher taxes being collected by 
the state  probably around 15 percent.

Meanwhile, people will continue to consume. And with likely 
availability in nearby counties, consumption will go up  along with 
all the associated problems. Counties that don't legalize it will 
still face increased psychological, health and law enforcement 
burdens of residents but without more money to pay for them.

People will continue to consume. And with likely availability in 
nearby counties, consumption will go up  along with all the 
associated problems.

Those burdens could be higher than we're being led to believe. States 
that have already legalized recreational weed report higher use and 
greater incidence of associated problems, from overdoses to underage abuse.

The Bee isn't yet taking a position; we have more research to do. But 
burying our heads in the sand isn't a good strategy.

Fortunately, our supervisors and other elected officials aren't doing 
that. The county is proceeding on parallel tracks. One group, 
spearheaded by supervisor Vito Chiesa, is bringing together an 
elected official and the city manager from each of Stanislaus' nine 
cities to, we hope, establish common rules. It would be better, the 
thinking goes, if one set of rules governed use throughout the county 
so cities aren't competing for those sales-tax dollars.

The other group is more broad-based. Led by supervisors Dick Monteith 
and Terry Withrow, it is examining challenges on several 
levels  where it can be grown and under what conditions, what are the 
health concerns, the regulations, law-enforcement needs?

That group is likely hearing echoes from across California. In Santa 
Cruz County, where numerous "weed patches" have been growing in the 
mountains for years, a county commission has been meeting since 
September. It includes four growers (admittedly illegal), and the 
county is considering rules that will provide protections for small 
growers. In nearby Monterey County, where the ground is flatter, the 
county will insist on "rigorous rules around cultivation." But those 
rules might favor farmers who have water rights, experience in 
dealing with waste and fertilizers and pesticides. After all, who do 
you want growing your marijuana  people who have been skirting the 
law for decades or those who know how to farm legitimately?

No one we spoke to at the Stanislaus Farm Bureau knows anyone openly 
talking about getting into the marijuana business. But considering 
the retail price of cannabis can reach $480 for an eighth of an ounce 
in Colorado, there are some obvious incentives  especially if the 
price of nuts continues to fall.

We're glad such discussions have started. But there's more to talk about.

Should a societal stigma hang around cannabis like a cloud of smoke? 
Probably not, considering the vast majority of people alive in the 
United States today have at least tried it.

Should it be accepted as harmless? No, because it's not. A clear 
connection has been shown between chronic use and loss of cognitive 
function. Further, it has been shown to diminish gray and white 
matter in the brains of adolescents more rapidly than in the brains 
of those over 25.

It's true that marijuana has been used as a drug for at least 4,000 
years, but what's being harvested today in California's Emerald 
Triangle is 10 or even 100 times more potent than what baby boomers 
experimented with in the 1960s. Overdoses and deaths among 
adolescents and children have ticked up slightly in Colorado.

At the same time, the medicinal value of cannabis is undeniable and 
can be profound. It greatly reduces seizures for children afflicted 
with some forms of epilepsy, eases the symptoms of cancer treatments, 
is used in treating anorexia, arthritis and glaucoma. Denying 
patients access should also be considered criminal.

But should enjoying the psychotropic effects of cannabis remain 
illegal? That's not just a question for board rooms and council 
chambers. It's a question we should bring to service clubs, church 
groups and even the dinner table. The more likely it is that cannabis 
will become legal, the more important it is that young people in 
particular understand the dangers. We also should reach out to those 
more prone to addiction or psychosis.

There's so much to talk about in how we, as a community, relate to 
marijuana. We need to start talking about it now.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom