Arcata City Councilmembers (from left) Stacy Atkins-Salazar, Meredith Matthews, Sarah Schaefer and Alex Stillman (Kimberly White absent) | Screenshot from online meeting video

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During its regular meeting on Wednesday night the Arcata City Council unanimously voted to oppose the controversial Cannabis Reform Initiative, or Measure A, a ballot measure aimed to impose stricter regulations on cannabis cultivation in unincorporated Humboldt County. 

David Loya, Arcata’s community development director, began by giving a bit of background on the ballot initiative and explaining staff’s recommendation for the council to formally oppose it. Though the initiative would not affect the City of Arcata’s cannabis cultivation regulations, Loya said, he does believe that it would have “secondary effects, particularly on our manufacturing sector that we’ve worked to try to cultivate and keep together as cannabis has suffered many market shocks since it was first made legal. ” 

The 38-page initiative, if passed, would dramatically restrict the size and number of permitted cannabis cultivation operations in the county, increase government oversight and add new rules for water storage, well-drilling, access roads, generators and more. Many local farmers and the Humboldt County Growers Alliance are adamantly opposed to the measure and even filed a legal challenge last week alleging that the proponents of the initiative, Mark Thurmond and Elizabeth Watson, “intentionally misled” the public while gathering signatures to place the initiative on ballot. Unless the suit is successful in getting the measure removed, it will appear on March 2024 ballots. 

Several people, including local farmers, members of HCGA and local dispensary owners, urged the council to oppose the initiative, voicing concerns over the potential negative effects the initiative could have on our community, particularly small cannabis farmers who would be unfairly impacted. 

“I think the crux of the issue for us is that this has been presented as an initiative that’s about restricting large-scale cultivation and that’s not true,” Ross Gordon, policy director for HCGA, said to the council during public comment. “The restrictions that are contained in these 38 pages are applicable – almost all of them – to farms of every single size within the county. “

Mark Thurmond, one of the initiative’s proponents, called into the meeting to ask the council members to wait to take a stance on the initiative until they had a chance to review it further. Thurmond defended the initiative, saying that the purpose of Measure A is to address environmental concerns, including the impacts of cannabis farms on our local watersheds and rivers.

“I think it’s important to bear in mind that a vote against Measure A would appear, at least for some, to be a vote against our environment, which might be considered a big poke in the eye for a couple thousand Arcata residents who signed the initiative,” Thurmond said to the council. 

But the council wasn’t swayed by Thurmond’s plea and all four present councilmembers (Kimberly White was absent) agreed that they did not support the initiative, which they fear would negatively impact our local economy, unfairly impact small farms and be very difficult to amend if it were passed, since voter initiatives can only be amended through more voter initiatives. 

“In my mind, and from what I’ve heard from farmers and members of this cannabis community, honestly, this [initiative] is gonna be the nail in the coffin for the cannabis industry in Humboldt County,’ Arcata Mayor Sarah Schaefer said during the meeting. 

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