A simple proposal for regulating marijuana in Humboldt Co. that seeks to avoid destroying our environment or our economy: An opinion by Kym Kemp (This doesn’t pretend to be a final answer. I expect that input from others will modify my ideas.)

As Washington and Colorado struggle to deal with how legalizing marijuana will play out in their communities, Humboldt should listen to the discussion carefully. The decisions of those states are likely to affect our financial picture because while exporting cannabis from either state is illegal, the reality is that legalization in Washington and Colorado results in illegal sales across the nation.  This likely affects the ability of black market growers in Humboldt to sell their marijuana and results in lower prices. Those lower prices translate to lower prices in the medical market also as there are many dispensaries whose prices reflect black market prices. This is beginning to impact Humboldt’s economy now and will impact it even more in the future.

But beyond the price issues, the ideas discussed in those states where marijuana is now legal can help Humboldt as we attempt to grapple with issues here.  A variety of institutions and non-profits are rushing to work with Washington and Colorado as those two states are in the exciting but difficult position of being at the forefront of legalization of cannabis.  Now lawyers, scientists, and policy people are studying the situation and offering facts and advice based on what they have learned. Humboldt needs to listen in and see what can and can’t be applied here.  

Right now for instance, Alison Holcomb, drug policy director for the Americans Civil Liberties Union is advising the Washington State Liquor Board which is responsible for coming up with rules for growing marijuana licensing to only allow mom and pop growers.  According to the Seattle Pi, she said, “We want to make sure that every one of the small scale growers who showed up at the Liquor Board meetings, and said they want to come out of the cold and join the regulated system, get to do so…We would like to see the state start out small and license comparatively small grow operations, and not allow super-large grows of the sort that some entrepreneurs have proposed… .”

The thousands of small growers here in Humboldt would be more likely to support regulation at the county level if they were assured that regulation would help protect them from the very real impacts large pot plantations have not only on the environment but on the income of all growers—pounds from huge grows flooding the market at low prices have caused small mom and pop growers to lose a substantial share of the market and of their income in recent years.

In addition, mom and pop growers want to be assured that they won’t be handing over their names and addresses to a county government entity that will eventually, in turn, hand that information over to the federal government.  This is the very entity which might choose to prosecute them—a situation that those who participated in Mendocino’s zip-tie program are currently facing.

The new county draft ordinance should focus mainly on limiting the size of grows. This should and could be done without requiring registration. A limit on square footage which is allowed to be planted with marijuana should be created.  This limit should be relative to parcel size but not to exceed a certain amount of square feet in cultivation which would need to be determined. Multiple parcels with one owner with different grows on them should not be allowed. This would allow law enforcement to quickly assess whether a garden meets or exceeds limitations if they are led to an area by complaints. Law enforcement should be mainly complaint driven. Though possibly oversight by aerial or Google Earth could allow law enforcement to determine if gardens were out of compliance, also.

If this proposal was followed, water consumption, sediment movement, and nutrient offloads from the gardens would be limited simply by the size of the gardens. (Those issues should not be forgotten though but rather dealt with unilaterally in county regulations so that a cattle farmer’s draw from a creek would not be any better or any worse than a marijuana farmer’s.  A developer’s grading is neither worse nor better than a growers. All are subject to the same restrictions and the same need for permits. Some time should be allotted for permits to be obtained this should be governed under the County’s General Plan Update.

This will help the majority of growers which are mostly small mom and pop type farmers feel supportive of the regulations.  This in turn will allow regulation to fall into place as quickly as possible.  The environment needs a quick response.  The economy and our small farmers need a careful response. This proposal allows a quick response that can be modified as needed over time to adapt to our changing understanding of what will work.