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SLO County debates marijuana regulations as growers rush in

July 27, 2016

Pot grow 9

With marijuana growers and armed guards flooding into California Valley, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors discussed putting a halt to new cannabis cultivation. The board majority decided to pursue an urgency ordinance on the matter, but it does not currently have the four votes required to adopt the moratorium.

On Tuesday, supervisors Debbie Arnold, Lynn Compton and Frank Mecham voted to direct county staff to draft an urgency ordinance that would impose a countywide moratorium on new marijuana grows and would limit the amount of cultivation allowed in residential areas. Supervisors Adam Hill and Bruce Gibson cast the dissenting votes.

Hill said marijuana is going to be a big industry in California, and SLO County must capitalize on it.

“For us not to see our role in it, in the most regulated and legal way, I think we will be missing a lot of opportunities,” Hill said. “Many agriculturists are going to want to grow this crop.”

Hill also said he opposes an urgency ordinance because he does not want to see it result in drug raids.

Sheriff Ian Parkinson rebuffed Hill’s use of the word raids saying that his deputies knock on doors and ask to see permits they do not go in with tanks and camouflage. Parkinson also noted that marijuana growers are causing problems in California Valley.

“I want to spend zero time on this, but when they are going on other people’s property or destroying the county, it needs to be addressed,” Parkinson said. “It boils down to, do you support the safety of that community out there? We are asking simply for some rules.”

Growers reportedly poured into the sparsely populated California Valley, located at the eastern edge of the county, after a marijuana magazine stated SLO County does not have any regulations and is tolerant of large marijuana grows. Marijuana growers from the Central Valley have likened the opportunity to the Gold Rush.

Law enforcement estimates there are currently more than 100 fenced, half-acre to two-and-a-half-acre pot farms in the area. Farmers operating there are growing cannabis that will be sold to medical marijuana cooperatives.

Residents and visitors in the area have seen men with guns protecting the pot farms. Also, a soldier reportedly ran into armed gunmen protecting a grow.

The supervisors are expected to vote on an urgency ordinance next month. Gibson and/or Hill would have to change their positions in order for the moratorium to pass.

Despite the split vote on the moratorium, the supervisors all agreed to discuss permanent marijuana regulations following a November ballot measure on the legalization of recreational use of cannabis. The supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to direct staff to prepare a marijuana ordinance following the November election.


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Uhmmm…SLOBIRD Sorry, but I have no idea what you are trying to say.


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First, you should all know these are Asian gangs coming into California Valley for this “crops”. Everyone of you should remember this when gangs, cartels, and people like the Resnick’s come into our County and again, rape our water supply!


If anyone of you think the drugs cartels are going to say, thank you for your pass business, your were going customers, we’re going home now. What do you all think the problems in Chicago are all about. Congratulations, you think this is going to be sweet and rosie deals,


Do not come knocking on my door and ask for increases in tax money for more police protection, emergency services, health services, jails, courts, etc. Our government created this problem just like the homeless issue and then want to make a big business out of it by creating taxes on the crop and of course hiring more government employees, more benefits, more pensions as we continue heading to a socialist Country because we’ve seen how great that is. Each of you can open your doors and assistance you own family who no longer can function normally and live without drugs. What a sick society we have but we are all great and better off in America so keep on smoking!


P.S. I am for medical cannabis for those in real need and the only bright side to this will be the corrupt Dr’s issuing prescriptions for anyone with a need will no longer need this guys!


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I saw a post on another site saying water is being trucked from Creston to these grows. WTH? Isn’t that water export? Where is the county on that? Can anyone she’d more light on this?


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It doesn’t matter what the Supervisors do or don’t do, it literally doesn’t matter.


The Federal DEA has years ago packed up and moved out. They have long since stopped taking calls from local yokel PD’s begging for yet another smash and grab raid and the resultant asset seizures, which is the only point along with the salaries and overtime for otherwise useless LE employees. The largest dispensary on earth, operating openly and freely in Oakland was targeted by the DEA and the Fed’s in what they assumed would be a quick and easy open and shut case to close them down. They held all the usual big press conferences telling us so. Instead, they got there asses handed to them and quietly folded their tail between their legs and ran away.


So the Fed’s are gone.


As for local DA’s, even the most iron assed, squared away brick heads are refusing to prosecute any of the weed arrests made by their PD’s. They are no longer willing to clog the courts and waste their time on an endless revolving door of meaningless cases they can’t win. Dispensaries are treated as civil zoning violations, if anything, and possession or cultivation violations are dropped altogether.


So the DA’s are gone.


That leaves the last, one and only group still profiting and benefiting from the War on Citizens – local LE. They benefit from salaries, over time, asset seizures, pensions, and job security. They are last man standing in the fight to imprison and incarcerate as many citizens as possible. Mass incarceration is their goal and for the last 40 years they’ve had their way. But those days are over and they know it. All they can do is fight to the last weed bust, arrested citizen and seized vehicle.


Come November they will be done. Finished. Weed will be legal and any regulatory violations will be civil, not criminal. They know this.


So, it doesn’t matter what the Supervisors do. It literally doesn’t matter.


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Oh bullshit Ian Parkinson. My wife and I saw armed assassins burst through our front door and handcuff us, arrest us and publicly humiliated us thanks to your bastards al g with Rodney John of the NTF back during the doobie dozen raids in Dec. 2010. To top it off, your old pal Cory Pierce was in on it until he got sent to prison under your watch. Don’t bs us please.


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Just another crop…just like corn and barley and grapes.


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Yeah…because armed guards patrol corn fields and run you off if you come to close?


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You don’t think a farmer protects his land with a gun?


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