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6A – Daily News – Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Opinion Medical marijuana restrictions D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 I have come to meetings along with my wife to ask questions and speak to about the agenda in regards to restricting cultivation below what the state law allows, and the ban on collective cooper- atives to no avail. I have e-mailed my district representative, Supervisor Bob Williams, several times request- ing he stop all actions that will restrict my family’s ability to cul- tivate my own medicine and the ban on collective/cooperative access that caused the death of a Los Molinos man. Bob has not responded to any questions or comments presented. The board has asked the dis- trict attorney assistant for many more clarifications than you do the medical patients you are affecting. I believe District Attorney Gregg Cohen and Sheriff Clay Parker are inaccurate in thier interpretation of collective/coop- erative projects as they have been deemed legal in the California courts. Dispensaries that only buy and resell marijuana and are not involved with cultivation pro- jects remain illegal, although properly established collective/cooperatives may pro- vide a dispensing location for members. Patients are only exercising their individual right to associa- tion to collectively and coopera- tively share the cost of producing the medicine distributed by indi- vidual patient needs. Respectfully, the district attor- ney is a prosecutor — just the facts. In many cases, despite patient compliance, his office has authorized the arrest and siezure of many medical patients on whom he is forced to drop charges and return all property. Being land owners and farm- ers I know supervisors under- stand a co-op. Now make sure it is registered with the state as a non-profit, seems more in line with Senate Bill 420 than any- thing the district attorney has pro- posed to you. There is a reson the district attorney can't be on the Board of Supervisors This proposal will not go unchallenged by medical mari- juana patients that you try to enforce these restictions on in Tehama County. Many items included in this ordinance will be unconstitution- al as they are not included or implied by Prop. 215 or SB 420 and exceed the board’s authority to regulate. Restricting gardens by set- backs will cause many to grow illegally by your order, only to oppose your ordinance in a Cali- fornia Court of law. By Califor- nia legislation you can impose regulation consistent with SB 420, which allows for protection from prosecution for individual and collective/cooperative culti- vation. For you to restrict our legal activities on a property we own would create a conflicting stan- dard and be inconsistant with SB 420. This proposal would eliminate our 1.1-acre parcel from being used to cultivate any medicine because of the lot dimensions. The garden is fenced and protect- ed by design without being spot- ted by passers by on the frontage road. I have cultivated my medi- cine there since 2005 with no complaints of smell or extra threats of violence. Other restrictions such as buses and schools have been addressed by SB 420; no smok- ing within 1,000 feet of a school and no smok- ing on school buses. Any restrictions beyond that have already been consid- ered by state legislators and deemed not a threat that would preclude the protections to patients provided for by Prop. 215 or the health and safety codes within SB 420. The citizens of California voted Prop. 215 into effect in 1996, and here the county adopt- ed the state law. SB 420 went into effect in 2004 and the county adopted those guidelines. SB 420 authorized the Attorney General to issue a set of guidelines for everyone, including law enforce- ment, to follow. This poses many real ques- tions. Why is the board as a group relying on the opinion of the local district attorney and sheriff, as stated, instead of adopting the State Attorney Gen- eral's guidelines as recommended by him, and authorized by the State Senate? My wife and I own two homes in Tehama County and a hydroponic supply store, and are members of a legally state-regis- tered collective that generate sales, service and property tax this county relies on. We had Guest View Ken Prather voted for Williams to represent all of us who live here because of his family history in farming and knowledge of water rights. Unfortunitly who knows what we will be forced by you to do with our investments in Tehama County if this ordinance is passed. Wait for you to take us to court for cultivation, or be forced to sell all? What is the agenda here, to restrict plant limits as Williams commented to the press? This has been proven unconstitutional — see Kelly case. Is this the least restrictive means to accomplish whatever your real agenda is? By state ref- ferance, governing political bod- ies are to use the least restrictive means to resolve a social issue as long as the governing body's decision does not conflict with state or federal laws. California courts have estab- lished that niether Prop. 215 nor SB 420 are a violation of the Fed- eral CSA and are protected under the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Have you read SB 420, including the Legislative Intent prelude or the 2005 Attorney General Report addressing what your role in SB 420 is? I respectfully ask these ques- tions. I also request the board stop the new proposal presented and redirect its efforts to compli- ance to state policy and guide- lines that will remove any possi- ble litigations with qualified medical patients complying with state law. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 4164 P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento 94249; (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Sam Aanestad (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 2054, Sacramen- to, CA 95814. (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Springtime in Washington Commentary Ah, springtime has arrived in Washington, D.C. The National Cherry Blos- som Festival is under way. The cherry trees, 3,700 of them given to America by the Japan- ese in 1912, are in full bloom. It reminds me why Ameri- cans are so wary of Washington. In the spring of 1999, you see, some culprits had been chopping down cherry trees. The National Park Service, in a state of high alert for days, finally identified the tree fellers: three beavers, who decided to construct a dam in the Tidal Basin. In a normal city, this situation would have been dealt with swiftly. The beavers would have been trapped, transported to another location and released. In fact, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), not known for common sense solutions, suggested exactly that. But Washington is no normal city. No sooner was PETA's idea floated than experts began crawling out of the woodwork. One said it would be tragic to separate the three beavers, since they're likely from the same family. Another said you can't move beavers to a new colony because the new colony — beavers are Republicans? — would reject the freeloaders. Besides, what's the point of being a beaver if you don't have any buddies to plug up storm sewers with? A third expert said that, all things considered, the most humane solution would be to euthanize the beavers. Boy, did the public react neg- atively to that suggestion. This is because beavers are cute. Their cuddly television presence clouded the public's ability to address the problem rationally. The fact is that if beavers looked more like their pointy- nosed cousins, rats, even PETA would have lined the banks of the Tidal Basin with rifles and shotguns to take out the varmints before they felled more beloved trees. By that point, PETA returned to form. It demanded the beavers be allowed to continue damming the Tidal Basin — to hell with the cherry trees and the fact that "Tidal Basin" would need to be renamed "Tidal Wave." The hullabaloo went on for some time before the Park Ser- vice finally hired a pro- fessional trapper. The trapper caught the beavers and they were carted off. You'd think that would have been the end of it. But not in Washington. Activists, suspicious of what the Park Ser- vice really did with the beavers — Guan- tanamo Bay? — demanded their loca- tion be divulged. That prompted the That's why the fellows who founded this country had the right idea when they sought to keep most of the deci- sion-making out of Washington — keep it among the people and within the states. But the birds run- ning the government right now don't see it that way. They have Washington butting into every aspect of our lives. Alas, springtime Tom Purcell Park Service to issue a statement. It said that, due to the publicity surrounding the case, the beavers were moved to a "safe house," which, apparently, is some kind of beaver witness protection program. The beaver incident illus- trates how convoluted and con- fusing things can get in Wash- ington — simple ideas and solutions that work everywhere else are twisted and contorted and made unrecognizable there. bloom. And all I can do is worry about what that nutty town is going to meddle with next. ——— has arrived in Wash- ington. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the cher- ry trees are in full Tom Purcell, a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Visit Tom on the Web at www.TomPurcell.com or e-mail him at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.