How Measure B will help

Another voice
BY MIKE SWEENEY

The latest ploy by the opponents of Measure B is to claim that it won’t do any good.

Tell that to people who live next door to a marijuana grower and you’ll learn otherwise. Listen to the anguish in their voices as they describe the overpowering odor of the neighbor’s plants, filling the air night and day, and the fear that it will attract armed robbers. Imagine their frustration at the futile attempts to get help from law enforcement, only to be told that nothing can be done.

If Measure B passes, these long-suffering neighbors will get help at last. Overnight, the medical marijuana cards used as a shield by profit-seeking growers will be good for only one-quarter as many plants, since Measure B replaces the county’s absurdly high limit of 25 plants per card with the statewide guideline of 6 plants.

But that’s only the start. Within days of the passage of Measure B, the Board of Supervisors will be asked to follow the lead of the City of Ukiah and strengthen county nuisance laws so nobody will have to see or smell a neighbor’s marijuana plants, and so growers who don’t comply with these good neighbor standards will be subject to immediate abatement measures.

With the mandate of the voters fresh in their minds, the Supervisors can be expected to act on the environmental crisis as well. Diesel fuel is spilling into the ground and the streams all over Mendocino County from leaky plastic tanks and pipes used by growers. A new ordinance is urgently needed to prevent improper sales and storage of diesel fuel. Like all regulation of commercial marijuana, it must be a criminal statute, as well as civil, so that peace officers can enforce it.

Sheriff Tom Allman and District Attorney Meredith Lintott have already responded positively to the public outrage that created Measure B, and they are pursuing marijuana cases that would have been blocked just a few years ago under the previous sheriff and district attorney. Sheriff Allman has stated that if Measure B passes his priorities will include “complaints about growers who create a public nuisance, endanger public safety or trash the environment.”

Perhaps the most important benefit of Measure B will be that it will restore the credibility of Mendocino County in the eyes of the federal and state officials who allocate scarce resources to fight large criminal drug operations. It’s no secret that they have told Mendocino County officials, “Why should we help you? The people there don’t want us.” This is the legacy of Measure G.

The passage of Measure B will get us back in line to get more state and federal help against the commercial growers who are turning public and private land into “no-go” zones, destroying the environment, and defending their grow operations with guns and vicious dogs. Nobody is thrilled about the presence of state and federal agents but we have seen that the alternative is much worse. Sheriff Allman has a big responsibility to keep state and federal activity in line with our county’s priorities: (1) stop destructive commercial growing, (2) leave personal and medical users alone.

The debates over Measure B have really illuminated the basic policy choice that’s before the voters.

The No on B camp claims that all marijuana is medical and that they have the right to grow as much as they want without any concern for the impacts on children, neighbors or the environment.

The Yes on B side believes that public health and safety and environmental protection must come first.

If “Yes” wins, we will go through a restructuring that will establish new ground rules for marijuana cultivation, regulating the amounts that can be grown and the impacts. Because most people are tolerant of medical and personal use, these ground rules will undoubtedly be very reasonable. Marijuana will continue to be grown -- it will just be a lot less offensive.

But if “No” wins, a very different kind of restructuring will happen. The last barriers to a total marijuana economy will be breached and all restraint will be gone. After a while, there will be few people left in Mendocino County besides marijuana growers and those who profit from the underground economy.

Rarely does a vote count for so much.

Mike Sweeney lives in the
Ukiah Valley area.

A-6 & 7 – SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2008
Ukiah Daily Journal