Years ago I had a chat with Nate Beason that went like this: “Why did you move here?” I asked.
“Why did YOU move here?” he retorted, no doubt a reference to my blog.
Nate went on to explain that in Fresno, where he grew up, people would often fight like cats and dogs about issues, but at night, would retire to the tavern and just “agree to disagree.”
That’s a good model for our town. Tonight my wife told me she ran into Reinette Senum on one aisle and Cliff Newell on another while getting dinner at SPD. Both expressed their views – which are divergent – about the marijuana ordinace passed 4-1 by the county supervisors. It will regulate “grows” in unincorporated neighborhoods.
I see both sides on this one, and will watch closely to see how it’s enforced, as well as any “unintended consequences.”
Having said that, I’m hopeful for the model that Nate referred to: Where people can agree to disagree – and hold the public policy makers accountable for the results.
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Forgive me for injecting a little NH2020 irony here…Suddenly, people who were dismissive of the fear of restrictions on property rights are up in arms over government interference in their right to operate their co-op gardens. People who see no problem with endless layers of regulations for others now chafe at the idea of having to register their grows. People who complain about neighborhood nuisances don’t see any problem with a few weeks of skunk smell at harvest time.
As usual, we are really more in agreement than we believe, it’s just a matter of perspective.
Yes, not a peep from CABPRO on this one. Can you spell “phony baloney” when it comes to their ideological defense of property rights.
It is a reach to gloat that the marijuana farmers were or would have been involved with NH2020, or that mapping resources is the same as bluntly restrictive regulations designed to impede rather than solve a problem.
The hasty vote was an opportunity lost to build a less divided community.
I think the supervisors were between a rock and a hard place.
Yet another situation where the War on Drugs proves to be in reality a War on the American people.
The recent Union poll (unscientific as it is) showed that 62% of county residents believe that pot should be treated the same as alcohol.
We’ll need to track the economic effects, if any, of this unfortunate urgency ordinance. And the probable lawsuit could have been avoided if a more thoughtful non-emergency ordinance had been passed that targeted the 2013 grow season instead of the current one.
Oh well.
Yes, perspective defines just about everything. Seems to me that’s why moderation in ones actions and views is such a nice sweetener to the bitter divisiveness today’s incessant squabbles.
Bob, your inference that NH 2020 was about restricting property rights shows a remarkable lack of understanding about what the entire process really was, particularly disturbing for one who lived here and theoretically followed the issue. The core of NH 2020 was to provide tools to allow people to exercise their property rights more fully, by understanding and streamlining the regulation that often comes along with natural resource issues. Those restrictions and regulations exist, independent of anything done here in Nevada County, and are better dealt with, and more cost effectively dealt with, when approached on a programmatic level, than they can be by any individual property owner.
That is precisely how the entire process has played out in Placer County, where attempts to misinform the public about the process were unsuccessful. Placer County developers will soon be able to get a “one stop shop’ where they can deal with all of their permitting and regulatory requirements (local, state and federal) in one place, under a single plan, at considerable cost savings, and dramatically increased certainty about the outcome–exactly what they say they need to leverage investment.
As long as certain elements within our county are allowed to misinform the public about the motives of the people involved, ascribe ridiculous properties to these processes that are fantastical, like the entire current “Agenda 21″ nonsense or the NH2020 “Protect Your Property Rights” movement, and use fear as a tool to gain political advantage, and as long as we as residents accept that as the norm, Nevada County will lag behind our neighboring counties.
Nevada County is a classic example of a a place held hostage by its extremes. Every issue become an ideological battleground. In the mean time many of the things that we can do, that the vast majority of people could agree on, don’t get done because the relationships and the trust necessary to move forward are damaged.
If people do not recognize this as exactly what it is, a tactic on the part of certain forces to control the agenda in their favor, then they are blind.
Fortunately it seems our board of supervisors is generally cognizant of this problem and manages to chart a course between the extremes, to its great credit, as do many individual citizens and small groups, who achieve remarkable things despite this tactic. But that does not mean that they can regularly overcome the divisions that this tactic creates in our community. The divisiveness of Nevada County is a drag on our body politic that limits our possibilities.
All I’m sayin’, Steve, is that many of the arguments now are similar to the complaints of NH2020, real or imagined. The legislature has had a decade to spell out the rules, but they put it on the cities and counties to face the angry masses. Now we’re all going to court.
The meeting changed tempo when Ted Owen said “I’m tired of kicking this can down the road”, refering to having to meet with both sides of this issue again, in order to fine tune the ordinance. So, it seemed the BOS (well 4 of them) wanted to avoid any further debate. Here come the lawsuits, does that come under errors and omissions insurance? Nice coverage on NCTV (online), and KVMR.
I thought Terry Lamphier nailed it in his post meeting summary on KVMR when he said the constituents of Nevada County were not well represented by the 4-1 vote. Terry L was the lone no vote. I think this was a move in the wrong direction.
I’ve never grown this wild weed, but once the paper arrived I read the summary of the restrictions imposed upon those who need to grow. I have an acre and a quarter, but if I wanted to grow, I’m restricted to a 10′ x 15′ plot. My neighbors have horses and their noise and smell are givens. No problem. Live and let live. In fact I let them use the south 40, as I call it, as a corral. They are real nice people and have w/o hesitation driven me to hospital appts. when I was too sick to drive myself. But our politics are polar opposites for the most part. On one long drive, I explained a/my/progressive point of view on one topic, and Clint was receptive, saying, “I never looked at it that way.” He also told me just about everybody in the are grows–I hadn’t a clue, if smell, sight of plants, activity were the give-aways. I did know my very sick next door neighbor, with too many maladies to enumerate, did grow and it helped his appetite. Ambulances at night were frequent at their house. I never saw any sign of plants, nor a whiff of skunk weed which no one in their right mind is going to grow anyway. I guess he grew it in a shed. (His last ambulance trip to SN ER, the doc told him his problems were psychosomatic and sent him home. He died a few hours later.)
And how will this Ord. be enforced, particularly 100 sq. ft. indoors. I suspect selectively. I didn’t see anything about having to register with the police or whomever the first draft required one to register with. That’s a positive.
But reading the last comment of Town Talk Live, an anti-grow guest, IMO, exposed a prevailing, and threatening, ignorance on this topic with the comment, “Good job to the four Supes who did not cave to organized dope growers; balanced the real needs of compassionate users, non-marijuana users against the sensationalist, self-indulgent emotionalism of the the marijuana “uber alles” lobby. Again, the reference to the Nazis. And that is what it clearly is. On other issues we’re Communists.
I can see it now, an army of sick, pot smokers, marching on Sacramento, or the Town Hall, armed with bongs, opposed by NRA and tea people, fired up with tequilla and Long Island Iced Tea, ready to gun down these stormtroopers threatening their right to mis-interpret the Constitution, while shooting themselves in the foot every time they slur a word between swills from Johnny-Recall Walker-Red Scotch.
It would be a sight to see those mellow, sick, pot smokers marching the goose step, but succeding only in goosing the butt to their front.
Too much talk from those who know nothing about this subject but what the fear mongers and spreaders of disinformation have spewed out for nearly eight decades.
Ed,
Nice post. You asked the million dollar question, how will it be enforced? Selectively you answered correctly and this is why the ordinance is a move in the wrong direction. It is more regulation of the individual.
Your experience with your neighbor is typical in small towns. We understand that we are in this together and without cooperation life could become very difficult.
I really wonder how anyone can suggest that the voters of Nevada County were not represented by this vote? Now if they were to suggest it based on who attended the meeting, okay. For those that REALLY have a medical condition and choose to use marijuana via a doctor, I have no problem. For the rest of those that self medicate and use for recreational purposes you’ll reap what you sow. That includes the gentleman busted with the 32 lbs reported on in the union this morning.
Jon,
As Supervisor Lamphier mentioned that the public input (mail, phone calls, emails, and attendance at meetings) was overwhelmingly against the ordinance. The time to decriminalize marijuana/ cannabis has come and get all this nonsense behind us. I don’t ingest cannabis but see the absolute destructive outcomes from its criminalization, prohibition doesn’t work and promotes violence/ crime.
I can’t say if the voters were properly represented or not. The real, over arching issue, is the historical path of misrepresentation, racism, lies, intra-agency competition for power and money from the Gov’t between Hoover and Anslinger, opposition from the liquer industry, draconian laws on par with Stalinist legalisms,etc. The founding fathers saw no reason to criminalize this weed. Were Anslinger and Hoover smarter then those men of the Enlightenment?
Ben,
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I think if you asked Ed Scofield he would say the public input was just the opposite of what TL found. Who’s right? I have no problem with de-criminalizing marijuana but at this time it remains illegal/criminal. Until then, I don’t believe illegal/criminal activity should take place in Nevada County. The whole medical marijuana process is a mess. The ordinances do not affect most of Nevada County’s citizens in a negative manner.
Jon,
I was taking Terry’s word as factual and since no other supervisor commented on the input I figured it was accurate. If it isn’t true about the numbers against the ordinance then I would have a different opinion on the actual vote but still would disagree with the ordinance in general.
Terry proffered the stats at both meetings – as a point to be considered in the decision making process. MOre precisely, that despite the overwhelming opposition to the ordinance, that the minority must also be protected – it was hardly a subjective guess. He did say that the numbers were cumulative, not just from his district.
If Scofield were asked – I would hope he’d have the same statistics.
The ordinance didn’t arise due to most NC citizens – and it definitely does harm those that Prop 215 and SB 420 were enacted to help.
The four Supes voting Yes made little if no effort to educate themselves as to the logistics of a healthy, amply spaced garden.
Owens, flatly stating that he needn’t see a map of the bus-stops and day care centers and how they impact setbacks was a too typical example of myopia and laziness in the face of a complex issue needing more consideration. Huh? Does it make any sense to blithely disregard data when making decisions?
Peter, I listened to some of the KVMR broadcast of the proceedings and heard several valid points like you mention raised. I too was disappointed by how little effort went into defining the problem and then finding a creative solution that potentially could be a win-win for everyone.
The marijuana growers as a group might still have a window of opportunity to present a careful and thoughtful plan that addresses the issues fairly.
One major issue that I didn’t hear mentioned is that for about 50 bucks in Sacramento anyone can get a marijuana prescription by feigning an approved ailment. This is a very dysfunctional way to regulate a drug. Imagine the situation if the same could be done for minors to buy alcohol if it had some side benefit. Many marijuana users are simply abusers no different from alcohol abusers. One doesn’t justify the other and as a society it is imperative we face the problem of drug abuse effectively for all drugs. I don’t know exactly what this would look like but I do know it is important to do and that it should be on the table when discussing a marijuana grower ordinance.
When people abuse pot, it’s a medical problem. Not a criminal problem. Not a nuisance problem.
These ordinances would be unnecessary if marijuana was legal and regulated, like beer.
The huge grows in Nevada County are a direct result of immoral, insane, cynical, and deeply evil marijuana laws. Supervisor Lamphier won’t say it out loud, but I suspect his vote was based on a belief that the present laws regarding pot are unjust.
“One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all’. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.”
Martin Luther King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
Michael,
Unjust laws are tools for intimidation and suppression that are used selectively to keep people in line.
Well… if Terry Lamphier’s number of emails were collectively from all the districts, I stand corrected. However the number of emails and their bent isn’t necessarily indicative of how this county would vote on the issue. That would be like making a decision based on a Union poll or listening to the discussions on KVMR. While I believe there are medical benefits to marijuana and to real patients, I also believe that quite a large number of people are lying so as to further their recreational pursuits, ‘legally’. If noone believes there is too much pot grown here than why the large number of hydroponic stores?
Jon,
If you talk to career growers they don’t want to see the legalization of cannabis as well. It brings down the value of their product. My guess the people who use cannabis for medical reasons is less than 1% of users. Although, THC has dozens of health benefits and using the medical angle is a backdoor way of legalization.
Personally I think the outright legalization of cannabis would be a mistake that will allow monopolistic companies such as Monsanto to patent the entire plant or specific aspects that would create more government agencies/control and more laws, which in turn would create more crime. I am an advocate of decriminalization of cannabis along with most other naturally growing “drugs” that are currently outlawed in the US.
I would disagree with that low of a figure, but that really isn’t particularly relevant. I agree with just plain decriminilization. As others have said, the laws are evil, selectively enforced, etc., and like with Prohibition, you can bet your last dollar that plenty of palms in the DEA and elsewhere are greased by the Cartels.
Ed,
Let me preface this with I don’t think cannabis should be illegal at all and their is nothing immoral about ingesting the plant. So my position of not using for medical reasons isn’t a negative but acknowledgement of what I have experienced in my life.
I would be surprised that even 1% of users use for actual medical reasons. I will put it to you this way- out of dozens and dozens of friends of mine who partake, none of them originally did so for medical reasons. I been around it my entire adult life and I can only think of a handful of people who used it for known medical reasons. I am the butt of joke with a group of friends of mine. I am offered the bong, pipe, or joint every time despite saying “No I am good” for over 25 years. Outside of alcohol altering myself has never really appealed to me. Even with alcohol I am a 1 or 2 drink person. I have had my moments of being really intoxicated but I can count on my fingers how many times that has happened. I literally get my highs from being in nature- forests, oceans, rivers, and deserts.
Ben, I totally understand. My first time getting high was when I reported to my squad in the field in Vietnam. For a couple of weeks a joined the others, then just stopped for the rest of my tour. After a few months back in the States, started rooming with old friends–muscians and ‘so-called hippies” and started again, but some nagging pains and other things finally made me see a doctor before I was to give a talk to one roomie’s class on the War. Instead, he put me right in the hospital–I told him I could sell my old Jag for about $800 to pay the bill. Well, that was the beginning; VA refused me entry into medical system as I deteriorated until finally a doctor at Greenwich Hosp. called a doctor he knew at the West Haven, CT., VA hospt. and arranged for me to be admitted. In critical condition I was admitted on a Saturday, operated on a coupled days later, spleen removed, part of liver and many cancerous nodes. Then Nitrogen Musterd administered and away we went. Prognosis was just, “I’m sorry.” Parents of friends took me in when released and didn’t smoke until much later, when I was well enough to get an apartment and re-enter college, but still doing chemo every Weds. a.m. On my own, on G.I bill and compensation, as cancer was deemed service connected. Smoked a lot, but even while improving, doctors still gave me little chance of surviving past another year or so. But I fooled them and pot helped my mental attitude, if nothing else. Definitely helped after full body radiation at Yale Medical Center. Had shrunk from 165 lbs to 115 lbs. and had been the #1 Marine in my Platoon in the USMC physical fitness test. So lots of elements went into beating what was supposed to be unbeatable. Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, CSN&Y, The Doors, sure helped too.
But it didn’t end there as I’ve said,with other serious illnesses, two more cancers and now with this rare leukemia, for which there is no cure when it finally decides to accelerate. For now, it just keeps me feeling crappy most of the time, and the damage to a few of my vertabrae from the 1st cancer cases plenty of pain and use of a cane. The irony is, now that I have a script, I only use the stuff when still awake after all the meds I take at night, for pain and sleep, because to stay awake during the day I now have to take prescribed amphetimines, which I hate. Even then, I still fall asleep soon after I start to read another history book. (BTW, you are right, it can be fun provoking Dragons Breath as a ongoing exchnge on history between us shows what a waste.)
But I learned a long time ago not to sweat the small stuff. I’ve accomplished a lot of my goals; wrote my book, getting up a three a.m., writing for a couple hours, then going to work with the gang kids, and much more. Keeping the pressure on to rid society of laws such as the totally bogus ones re. pot, born of lies if one knows the history, and hopefully preventing the total take over of this country by the people like this county’s right wing bloggers are absolute musts, for they are the biggest threat to the ideals of our founding fathers and what fairness and a just society are meant to mean. And if these people take control, it would not be a country that at age 20, against everyones urging, I withdrew from UCONN to join the USMC and go to Vietnam, as my duty and to put my body where my mouth was–just barely–and assist defeating the NVA and VC whom I still consider unmitigated murderers the way the won the countryside. I’m just a guy that always covers a friends back. And I have totally scorn for the Bush crowd, chickenhawks, who all found a way to avoid service, and that goes for all these right wing bloggers up here, even the fly boy, where being in the Air force, unless a fighter pilot, was pretty much a jokie as far as being in harms way. So I see these guys as big loud mouths, but they’re dangerous and so many of their side are so close to fascists, one couldn’t pull a sheet of paper between their professed ideology and that of the Stormtroopers of 1930′s Germany.
I do go on, but injustice, shameful laws, hypocricy should all go up in a puff of smoke.
Yes, one of the main reasons Prop. 19 was defeated in 2010 was because voters in large-grow counties such as Humboldt, Mendocino, and Nevada wanted to keep marijuana illegal. It was a craven vote for profit over justice. Very unfortunate.
Using the medical angle is a backdoor way of legalization. My opinion, exactly, and this has more to do with the opposition to the ordinances. If it was just about the small number of those patients that actually have a medical problem I believe that there would be little uproar.
As the population ages, more and more will need the plant. I doubt Monsanto can patent it, as it is also used in religious ceremonies. I’ve been surprised that Obama didn’t move full speed ahead to at least decriminalize it, but this country does have a lot of dead weights in it. If I were to grow, it would only be after there were no criminal or civil sanctions from any branch of the government. So I doubt I’ll be growing for many years yet.
“Give me that old time religion…”
Elders of the modern religious movement known as the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church consider cannabis to be the eucharist,[41] claiming it as an oral tradition from Ethiopia dating back to the time of Christ.[42]
Like the Rastafari, some modern Christian sects have asserted that cannabis is the Tree of Life.[43] Contra, some have asserted that it is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the forbidden fruit which the Serpent persuaded Eve, and Eve her husband Adam, to eat, which caused the Fall of Man.[44][Need quotation to verify]
Other organized religions founded in the past century that treat cannabis as a sacrament are the Santo Daime church, the THC Ministry, the Way of Infinite Harmony, Cantheism, the Cannabis Assembly, Temple 420, Green Faith Ministries, the Church of Cognizance,[45] the Church of the Universe,[46][47] The Free Marijuana Church of Honolulu,[48] The Free Life Ministry Church of Canthe[49]and the federally tax-exempt inFormer Ministry Collective of Palms Springs, CA.[50][51][52]
Modern spiritual figures like Ram Dass[53] and Eli Wyld openly acknowledge that the use of cannabis has allowed them to gain a more spiritual perspective and use the herb frequently for both its medicinal and mind-altering properties.
In Mexico, followers of the growing cult of Santa Muerte regularly use marijuana smoke in purification ceremonies, with marijuana often taking the place of incense used in mainstream Catholic rituals.[54]
I don’t subscribe to the The Union online or in ink but if the title of this opinion piece is accurate then Terry L. statement on the numbers against the ordinance were very true. Maybe someone who gets the union can elaborate a bit more on the article.
op ed
Supervisors betraying the wishes of 80 percent of citizens
http://www.theunion.com/article/20120512/OPINION/120519940/1024&ParentProfile=1056#allAccess
I’ll look for the issue in my recycle bin, I think one of the last issues I rec’d when I canceled the Union. As Douglas Keachie points out, cannabis has a long history in religious ceremony, albeit, not the dominant Judeo-Christian collection of denominations and countless sects, some so extreme and perverted they carry automatic rifles and preach violence and murder, instead of peace and tolerance. And, the ancients experimented with the various roots, plants, newts and pig ears to find combinations which would alleviate the discomfort of the sick. (I’ve always wondered how many died, particularly in China, by this trial and error method of discovery.)
But it seems evident, four of the Supervisors know little about the subject–its history, its effects, its medicinal qualities, etc., probably rely on their life-long, strongly held biases, buttressed by voices of one of the main lobbies against decriminilization–law enforcement.
Now, I’m just asking a question, for I’ve forgotten exactly the procedure. During the Catholic mass–which I’ve attended with friends at weddings, Christmas, becoming a Godfather several times; many years ago–when parishoneers take Communion, do minors sip wine? (Not a rhetorical question.)
I don’t believe the 80% figure for a second, Ben. There needs to be some sort of controls in place to readily determine who grows medicinal marijuana and those that are pretending. I say allow grows to support those locally that have real medical ailments that have been given a prescription by a reputable ‘doctor’, only. For the rest of them let them gamble with their futures.
Jon, I don’t know how accurate the 80% figure is; perhaps it is lower. And of course you’re correct in implying great abuse of the medicininal marijuana law overwhelmed CA, threatening its availability for many.
However, most doctors, regardless of personal views and an institutional disdain and disinterest in even discussing alternative medicines, much less cannabis–were further intimidated in recommending cannabis because of Federal threats of messing with their ability to prescribe medications. With the multi doctors I have to see, I only asked a couple years ago, and their fearful rejections made me want to give them a Valium to calm them down. Thus, some doctors began to specialize in just medicinal marijiana. When diagnosed with my 3rd cancer, B-Cell lymphoma, I finally found such a doctor , from Sacramento, who had opened a second office in Orange Co. My case was pretty much a no brainer.
But, one doesn’t have to have a cancer and be treated with chemotherapy for cannibis to bestow relief. Big Pharma is another of the top five lobbyists to keep cannibist illegal. They’d rather have one take Valium for stress reduction, than take a hit or two of cannibis. Remember “mother’s little helper,” from Jefferson Airplane. So true.
Because some M.D.s do believe in the medicinal properties of cannabis does not mean they are not reputable. (This is not to say, so docs aren’t part of the over prescribing–but brings us back to the bogus reasons for its illegality and the entire history of cannibis since the depression.) When I renew yearly, in Sacremento with the same doctor, I bring all my meds and place them on the table. He encourages me to get rid of this and that and use more cannabis. When I see certain docs, usually VA ones, one in particular used to go nuts when I admitted I had a script for cannibis. He wanted to increase dosage of a med for my diagnosed PTSD. Another doc had me take a drug test before transferring a perscription from my private PCP for my cluster headaches and the cancer caused spinal damage pain for Metadone. I hated that drug and quickly stopped it.
So, it is a very slippery slope defining pretenders and who is reputable, particularly when doctor’s office frequently have the drug cos. reps handing them free samples ad infinitum. And FDA approved drugs have led to the deaths, near deaths, birth defects, etc, at a rate far greater than we an even begin to calculate accurately that that simple old weed. Can I prove that assertion; of course not, because as you probably know, even research on cannabis has been illegal except for that one small agency of the gov’t. for decades.
Ed, I’d agree pretty much with everything that you stated except some doctors are over prescribing to those with questionable or ficticious ailments. I am for legalization of marijuana and hemp. But as the Federal laws are what they are I get disgusted with some of these ‘medicinal’ efforts to allow more grows. I do sympathize with those that truly need it especially if there having a hard time procurring what they need. While I’m not a user, in Nevada County it seems to be very abundant and easy to come by. Grows are all over the place and some don’t trouble themselves to hide the fact much.
Jon, I guess we are pretty close afterall, as you say. And concerns of parents in the more densely populated areas of downtown G.V. & N.C. need intelligent consideration, based on fact, not mythical fear. But may I suggest a possible motivation of some doctors who prescribe to persons not seriously ill, but simply with symptons for which their are OTC meds such as aspirin–which can eat through your stomach, a little hyperbole; or Tylenol, the leading cause of liver failure when taken in amounts over recommended dosage, especially with alcohol, no hyperbole. Perhaps we have a form of medical “Jury Nullification,” in a sense. Recognizing a law which is inherently dishonest from its foundation built in the thirties, and all the supporting B.S. added since, with penalties surpassing to the nth degree harm, destrustiveness and damage to human lives than any thing, despite 100′s of millions to billions of dollars spent looking for something to justify its criminalization. And. again, like alcohol, we don’t want kids to have access.
I don’t have a legal education, but I sure do believe in jury nullification at times. It’s a form of protest. I don’t dismiss the role of money, nor do I dismiss the possibility of doing what is one’s power to nullify what we agree is a bogus law, allowed to continue its cancerous influence on society; a lousy diagnosis and bad medicine, like bleeding people for just about every malady of years not so long ago.
Just a thought.