Mendocino - Medical Marijuana Regulation Initiative--Draft Proposal

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MEDICAL MARIJUANA REGULATION INITIATIVE--Draft of a Future County Initiaitve

THIS IS A DRAFT PROPOSAL OF A SINGLE-SENTENCE QUESTION SUMMARIZING A FUTURE COUNTY BALLOT INITIATIVE.

The purpose of publicly sharing this first draft is to get serious feedback from alert people who see marijuana regulation in some form as an ignored option to bail-out. The medical marijuana community has the most at stake. And medical marijuana being legal, it is the obvious place to start putting local regulations in place where possible, in ways that go around or don't confront state laws taking priority. A fee rather than a tax is an obvious distinction. Findings and facts in the text will elaborate on all essential elements of the law.

Use permits are commonly used for a wide variety of individuals and businesses. (Is there an equivalent that would work better?) The maxim is what you use, you pay for. Only prohibition has prevented medi-cannabis contributions to the county in the past. Patients, caregivers, collectives and cooperatives in the medical marijuana community use the roads, parks, schools, law enforcement, health and other county services.

So we ask the voters to make it county policy to allow us to contribute our fair share economically to the whole, based on cultivating and/or transporting marijuana for medical purposes. (Logistics to be worked out before going to the voters for signatures.)


SHALL THE MENDOCINO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS CREATE AND ENFORCE A LOCAL ORDINANCE, NAMELY A USE PERMIT TO REGULATE CULTIVATION AND TRANSPORTATION OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF ECONOMICALLY BENEFITING THE COUNTY?

The Mendo Supervisors unanimously passed a Resolution for "regulation-taxation-legalization of marijuana" for all purposes last year. They're already on record agreeing with us about the need for regulation. So our usual opponents (public officials) become our allies. The Supes sent a letter to Congress to change the federal prohibition that makes one plant a felony and prohibits medical use, so that states and counties can begin the regulation process to benefit the local economy and become self-sustaining as a county.

It would be easy enough for Congress to hold hearings reevaluating the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, which moved Cannabis to Schedule 1, the highest level of dangerousness, unavailable by prescription. In the text, the Act allows Congress to reevaluate the schedule change, if new information emerges that cannabis should be reconsidered and rescheduled.

Expert testimony to reschedule cannabis as a prescription medicine (Schedule 3, 4. or 5) would include newly emerging science of the last decade, culminating in a 2004 Scientific American article that revealed "everyone grows marijuana in their own brain" -- the human endogenous cannabinoid system was endorsed as a new and important scientific finding in a widely circulated and highly respected scientific journal. The science is undeniable.

The Federal Government's refusal to restore cannabis as a medicine despite overwhelming current evidence may be to starve the states of potential income--at least those who might get too independent if allowed to go their own way.

Pebbles Trippet
Organized by MMMAB/Mendocino Medical Marijuana Advisory Board


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