Photo: Andrew Goff

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The Humboldt County Growers Alliance (HCGA) and seven cannabis farmers filed suit against the proponents of the Humboldt Cannabis Reform Initiative (HCRI) and the Humboldt County Elections Office in Humboldt County Superior Court today. The lawsuit alleges that the proponents of the initiative, Mark Thurmond and Elizabeth Watson, “intentionally misled” and “deceived” members of the public while gathering signatures to place the initiative on the March 2024 ballot. 

“[Thurmond and Watson] failed to include the full text of their Initiative in the petition they circulated to County voters in order to qualify the Initiative for the March 2024 ballot … and included materially false and/or misleading information in the Initiative Petition,” the lawsuit states. “In doing so, [their] illegal actions render the Initiative’s qualification invalid, and require that the Initiative be removed from the ballot to protect the integrity of Humboldt County elections.”

The initiative, set to appear on the ballot as Measure A, would impose a host of new rules on commercial cannabis cultivation operations across the county. Proponents of the initiative believe the added restrictions will promote small-scale farming and “environmentally responsible cannabis cultivation practices and support watershed health … by limiting the number, type and acreage of permits for commercial cannabis cultivation,” according to the text of the measure.

Natalyne DeLapp, executive director for the HCGA, argues that the initiative “would be a disaster for public safety and the environment,” and would “fatally undermine” the county’s existing regulatory framework “that was designed to end the harms of prohibition and the social and environmental impacts of the Green Rush.”

“If the signature-gathering efforts for Measure A were truthful, this initiative never would have made it to the ballot,” DeLapp wrote in a prepared statement. “Claiming to protect small cannabis farmers and public participation, while in fact targeting small cannabis farmers with a panoply of new restrictions and locking broken policy in place permanently, is exactly the subversion of the democratic process that elections laws are designed to prevent.” 

Seven small cannabis farmers have also signed onto the lawsuit, including John Casali, Steve Luu, Karen Hessler, Dylan Mattole, Patrick William Andrews, Hannah Whyte and Indicus McGrath Riggs.

The lawsuit seeks to remove the initiative from the March 2024 ballot.

Reached by phone earlier this afternoon, Watson told the Outpost that she was unaware of the lawsuit and declined to comment on the matter for the time being.

A copy of the lawsuit can be found at this link.

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Press release from the Humboldt County Growers Alliance:

Today, seven small cannabis farmers, along with the Humboldt County Growers Alliance, filed suit in Humboldt County court on the grounds that signature-gathering efforts for the Humboldt Cannabis Reform Initiative - currently slated to appear on the March 5, 2024 ballot - were based on a lie.

“If the signature-gathering efforts for Measure A were truthful, this initiative never would have made it to the ballot,” said Natalyne DeLapp, HCGA’s executive director. “Claiming to protect small cannabis farmers and public participation, while in fact targeting small cannabis farmers with a panoply of new restrictions and locking broken policy in place permanently, is exactly the subversion of the democratic process that elections laws are designed to prevent.” 

Throughout 2022, signature gatherers approached Humboldt voters at farmer’s markets, grocery stores, and fairs, asking voters to sign an initiative petition they said would “ensure greater public participation” and “support small-scale, high-quality cannabis cultivation.” 
The lawsuit documents how Measure A’s backers included materially false and misleading information that deceived voters into believing the initiative was about restricting large-scale cultivation and failed to include the full text of the initiative as required by law. 

“The reality is that Measure A would be a disaster for public safety and the environment, fatally undermining the regulatory framework that was designed to end the harms of prohibition and the social and environmental impacts of the Green Rush,” DeLapp continued. “When the proponents decided to write policy behind closed doors and ignore the input of law enforcement, environmental groups, farmers, and regulators, the result would always be chaos, not a functional program that protects county residents.”

“Measure A would effectively repeal and replace 143 pages of county cannabis ordinances developed over eight years of public deliberation, and yet none of this was disclosed to voters who were told they were simply ‘protecting small farmers,’” said Ross Gordon, HCGA’s Policy Director. “The Planning Department’s recent analysis of Measure A has made it clear how dangerous this policy would be, but we never would have been in this position in the first place if the proponents had simply disclosed the truth about what this initiative does.” 

The full complaint as filed in Humboldt County Superior Court, can be read here.

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