County cannabis regulations moving forward

Over the past several weeks the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has hosted a series of town hall meetings to gather input from the community to shape future rules addressing medical cannabis. Later this year, Californians will again vote on whether or not to legalize recreational use of marijuana.
Regardless of the outcome of legalization, county supervisors will use the input to write one or more county ordinances regulating the drug, in its various forms.
The town halls were held in each of Sonoma County’s five districts. Each one opened with the district’s supervisor explaining the goals of the public engagement and was followed by city staff from various departments explaining what they were hoping to learn.
Supervisor James Gore spoke about counties in Colorado, where marijuana is legal for recreational use. Gore said that some counties remained staunchly conservative and maintained prohibition on marijuana but the drug was still pervasive, while the county reaped no financial gain. According to Gore, elected officials “probably wouldn’t get reelected” if they backed regulations that allowed permitting and taxation. He said he personally did not have a moral issue with cannabis, “I don’t have a problem with ‘the devil’s weed,’” he said, borrowing a term he’d heard in Colorado.
After the brief presentations, questions and answers took place but the meeting moved quickly along to where people could talk with elected officials and county staff, one-on-one and in groups. Sheets of butcher paper were stretched across tables and markers provided for people to write concerns, suggestions, questions and comments.
People wrote down a wide variety of feedback for the county staff to track. Among the most common complaints about marijuana is odor and the effect on neighbors. At the fourth district meeting on Aug. 4 at the Luther Burbank Center one comment said: “We have an indoor (marijuana grow) next to us and are smelling it in July. It nauseates me. We are getting odor at 2:30 a.m. It isn’t fair! Our property value will probably decrease.” The comment went on to cite concerns about water supply and concluded that marijuana should not be grown near homes.
Other comments expressed concern that the impending taxes will make medical cannabis products more expensive than they are now: “What will happen to the pricing for the critically ill if your taxation is too burdensome (?) For instance: Epileptic patients. My daughter’s oil currently is $600/month now.”
Other key issues outlined in the presentation included:
Public safety concerns in residential areas.
Desire for a path for current cultivators to come into compliance.
Provide safe and affordable access to medicine.
Consider patient access/personal grows.
Reduce environmental impacts.
Protect public health and welfare.
Limit overly burdensome, expensive compliance.
“We’re compiling the feedback that we got from people. Based on what it is and how well it groups, we’re trying to figure out a way to transmit that back to everybody,” said Sita Kuteira, administrative analyst at the Sonoma County Administrator’s Office. “So, as we’re compiling it, we’re figuring out that next step.”
Kuteira said that the county is trying to have a proposed land use ordinance online by “early to mid-September.” In September and October, the county will again hold meetings with the public on land use issues involving marijuana, and to discuss the proposed ordinance.
At the town hall in Santa Rosa on July 28, third district supervisor Shirlee Zane said that in addition to an increase in teen use of marijuana, more children are turning up in emergency rooms after mistaking edible marijuana products for food or treats, such as candy bars. “We want to make sure things don’t end up in the wrong hands,” said Karen Fies, assistant director for Sonoma County Human Services. Fies said that rules might be written regarding how marijuana edibles can be packaged for sale to help avoid accidental exposure by children who see candy-like packaging.
As towns and cities in Sonoma County develop their own rules regarding marijuana, city limits will be the dividing lines of regulation. For towns that want to maintain a prohibition on dispensaries, the concern is that a business will open just outside the city limits. Gore said that the county can create a buffer zone around towns and cities to avoid this conflict.