It's 2017. A little boy is walking down a street in downtown Chico with his grandmother. The little boy looks up and ask, : "Grandma, what's that smell?" Grandma looks down and replies, "That's the smell of marijuana growing in back yards throughout the city. Smells like skunks doesn't it?" Then the little boy points to a bum lying in the street in their path. He points and says, "Why is he laying there? And why are those others lined up in front of that store?" The grandmother replies, "Well sweetheart, they are lining up to buy their marijuana from those dispensaries on every street corner." [continues 96 words]
The California State Sheriffs Association claims marijuana seriously impairs driving and has other adverse consequences (AP, Mercury News, June 28). Yet researchers find that while obviously inadvisable, marijuana only modestly affects driving (Journal of Drug And Alcohol Dependence, June 23, 2016). Marijuana users know their performance is impaired and compensate by slowing down and being especially attentive. By contrast, inebriated drivers are seriously impaired. They merely think they are in control; in fact, they speed, weave across lanes, have lethally slower reaction times, and cause thousands of accidents (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 2015). [continues 161 words]
If you do anything on Election Day, get out there and get all of your friends and neighbors to vote no on Measure L. Think of the reasons you decided to move to, or stay in, Butte County - - rapidly becoming one of the few nice California communities left with small family farms, nice neighborhoods and decent people. Pot farmers have already brought crime and nuisance to our communities. Now with Measure L they threaten to up the ante even further: huge indoor grows up to one-half acre; outdoor grows occupying up to one-quarter of a parcel; dispensaries every 1,000 feet; and damage to the environment including chemicals that poison our land and waters and kill pets and wildlife. [continues 103 words]
Staff Reports Chico - A nearly year-long investigation resulted in a raid Tuesday on a downtown business that police say netted marijuana-refining equipment for sale and landed three men in jail. The Dungeon, a jewelry and smoking shop on the 100 block of Broadway, had been under investigation for 11 months, according to a news release from the Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force. The narcotics agents served a search warrant Tuesday around 1:30 p.m. Four complete closed loop butane honey oil production systems, components for additional systems, including extraction tubes, presses and commercial grade ovens, more than 1,000 cans of butane and 13 canisters of 14-pound butane refrigerant were found at the store, according to the release. [continues 181 words]
The pot pushers have outdone themselves this time. Their new pot initiative covers everything from A to Z. They forgot one thing though. The A team. For all the money they spent, the Measure L team, which stands for loser by the way, will lose yet again. The A team will win each and every time. The loser team now wants to be commercial "medical" farmers. They want dispensaries, they want to transport pot to their "patients." They want to grow on up to 25 percent of parcel size, maximum 1 acre. They want to rezone to fit their needs. They want to be called farmers, and call their mind-altering drug a crop, and therefore agriculture. On 1 acre, 3,250 plants can be grown. Can you imagine? This will effect the whole of Butte County. We do not have enough water for our food crop farmers, property owners' wells are running dry. The abuses and negatives of pot are long and well known. [continues 97 words]
Please join me in opposing Measure L scheduled for the November ballot. My issue with marijuana is not whether smoking it is good or bad. What I care about is the impact of growing marijuana has on the personal safety and health of our citizens, the local water supply and the environment. In July, there was a double homicide related to marijuana growing in my neighborhood. The violence was not isolated to the actual property upon which the grow was located. The homes of our neighbors were hit by stray bullets during the shootout between the growers and perpetrators. [continues 141 words]
On a Sunday morning in late July, in a small town in southwest Alabama, Barbara Moore Knight gave her fellow church members news that brought spontaneous applause and murmurs of "Amen!" She told them that her son, James LaRon Knight, was among the drug felons whose sentences had been commuted by President Barack Obama the week before. In 2004, Knight was convicted of conspiracy to sell cocaine. Although the crime was nonviolent, he was sentenced to more than 24 years in a federal prison. The sentence was a travesty, an unduly harsh punishment for a family man never accused of running a substantial criminal enterprise. [continues 535 words]
Again, again? Are you kidding me? Yes, the Inland Cannabis Growers Association (better known to law enforcement in Butte County as pot profiteers) have done it again. Last Tuesday they presented enough signatures to the Board of Supervisors to put measure MC-3 on the ballot in November. We, the voters, thought we had voted to limit pot growing in Butte County by voting overwhelmingly for Measure A two years ago. But no. We had to vote to stop them again last June (with Measures G and H). [continues 112 words]
It is not an opiate problem. Neither is it a cannabis, meth, tobacco, alcohol, nor addiction problem. It is a prohibition problem. We slog ahead, making steady progress on tobacco, milder progress on alcohol. Progress is possible because these substances are not treated as criminal. Imagine the attendance at AA meetings if alcohol were criminal. Legalize it all. Provide truthful education and treatment on demand. It would be far less expensive in both dollars and blood. The drug prohibition is a hangover from our racist past and should be cast off for its immoral roots and proven futility. - - Jay Bergstrom, Forest Ranch [end]
Oroville - Marijuana is back on the ballot. The Butte County Board of Supervisors sent an initiative by pot proponents to the November ballot with a 4-1 vote shortly after noon Tuesday. Parts of the initiative, titled the "Medical Cannabis Cultivation and Commerce Measure," were questioned by the supervisors, but ultimately, with the deadline approaching to either approve the initiative as a county ordinance or send it to the November election, District 5 Supervisor Doug Teeter made the motion to have the people of the county vote on the initiative. [continues 800 words]
Oroville - Pot proponents lost in the June election, but that hasn't stopped them from getting another initiative before the Butte County Board of Supervisors. The board will have to make a decision on the initiative Tuesday, along with mulling over an extension on a tax in Gridley and Biggs, increasing salaries for position in human resources and providing direction on green waste disposal at the dump. Marijuana activists suffered defeat on two ballot measures in the primary election earlier this year, but after getting nearly double the required signatures, the supervisors have to act on a new proposed initiative to relax growing restrictions, allow commercial growers and return dispensaries to Butte County. [continues 387 words]
We now know the scope of the prescription painkiller and heroin problem in Butte County. It's imperative that we do more to address it. A seven-part series by reporter Ashiah Scharaga that ended Saturday, "Overdose Nation," studied the issue in depth. The use of opioids is a problem nationwide but it's more pronounced locally. Of California's 58 counties, Butte has the third-highest rate of drug-induced deaths. More than half of those drug-induced deaths are from opioids. [continues 552 words]
You've seen fire sales. They happen when goods or real estate are discounted sharply after fire damages a store or a building. But the term has new meaning in rural Calaveras County, where the devastating Butte Fire swept through thousands of acres last year, the seventh-worst wildfire in recorded California history. It's just possible that what's happening near towns like Murphys and San Andreas could foretell at least one aspect of life in fertile parts of California if Proposition 64 passes this fall and legalizes use of marijuana. [continues 593 words]
Is anyone else suffering from marijuana initiative fatigue? We certainly are. A month after voters rejected two efforts by the marijuana industry to overturn laws enacted by Butte County supervisors, marijuana advocates have qualified another effort for the November ballot. This latest one, like some of the others, is an attempt to allow the marijuana growers to write their own rules because they don't like what the elected officials have done. Based on their track record so far, the latest initiative doesn't have much of a chance. Voters are growing more and more distrustful of their efforts. [continues 385 words]
Oroville - A new medical marijuana initiative seeking to replace current Butte County marijuana laws with new regulations has gained enough signatures to move forward to the Butte County Board of Supervisors. Proponents for the Medical Cannabis Cultivation and Commerce Measure gathered nearly 12,000 signatures on petitions. The Butte County Clerk-Recorder's Office verified 6,177 signatures, the number required for such an initiative to move forward, on July 11. The measure's proponents seek to repeal the county's current marijuana laws, Chapter 34A of the Butte County code, and establish new regulations. The measure will be addressed at the next board of supervisors meeting July 26, where supervisors will have the option to adopt the measure, or put it before voters in November or in a special election. [continues 263 words]
About this series The nation is in the midst of a prescription opioid and heroin overdose epidemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 44 people in the U.S. die every day from an overdose of prescription painkillers alone. This series examines how the epidemic is affecting Butte County and how it will respond. Today: How did Butte County end up with one of the worst drug-induced death rates in the state? Tomorrow: A man who died from an alcohol and opioid overdose is remembered by his mother and a friend. [continues 1286 words]
Dolores wakes up in the morning with menstrual cramps. She takes Motrin and calls in sick. David has been working in the garden all day and his back aches. He takes Tylenol. Jan wrenched her wrist. To make matters worse, she has the mother of all headaches. She binds her wrist with an Ace bandage and takes two aspirin. Would you describe as recreational their use of analgesics? Should we insist that they get doctors' written recommendations before being allowed to purchase them? Obviously, the answer to both questions is "No." [continues 136 words]
Chico - Butane resale and possession may soon be restricted in Chico to crack down on illegal honey oil labs. The Chico City Council will weigh in on an ordinance 6 p.m. Tuesday in the City Council Chambers. Butte County has experienced a significant increase in the seizure of butane labs, three of which have involved explosions at apartment complexes in Chico. In three years, Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force agents investigated and shut down 103 labs, with the number shut down per year more than tripling in two years. [continues 341 words]
One of the contentions maintained for justifying the illegality of cannabis is that it lacks therapeutic value. We could go back and forth expressing our opinions on whether cannabis can be therapeutic, but it would be more productive to consider the evidence. Carl Sagan, one of the most profound philosophers and scientists of the past 100 years, devoted the last years of his life to persuading the public to accept scientific methodology as a preferred means of answering important questions. He summarized the scientific method as myriad procedures for: specifying in quantitative terms a question, objectively gathering empirical data answering that question, then interpreting results in the absence of preconceived notions. [continues 120 words]
Maybe Something. Maybe Nothing. Backers of No on G and H Donated Money and Purchased Hundreds of Signs. Signs Were Placed Throughout the County. Signs Have Been Stolen, Vandalized and Burned. Private Property Has Been Trespassed. This Is Criminal Vandalism, but There Is a More Sinister Message Here. Destroying These "No on G and H" Signs Is a Slap in the Face to Every Butte County Voter WHO Respects and Participates in the Election Process. [continues 161 words]
