Cannabis Advocates Alliance meeting

Cannabis Advocates Alliance is a network of citizens who are concerned about the environmental and community impacts of unregulated cannabis production, but who also know that regulations must not encourage the underground market or diminish the availability of quality, safe and effective medical cannabis.

Santa Cruz County is drafting new regulations for medical cannabis patients and providers. These new rules have the potential to turn large numbers of patients and providers into criminals and drastically roll back decades of progress won by Cannabis Activists. Without your help, these proposals could become law in January 2015.

Here are some Medical Marijuana Ordinance changes Santa Cruz County may adopt unless you take action:

Santa Cruz County is proposing to ban all commercial cannabis cultivation located in Residential Agriculture (RA) and Special Use (SU) zoned parcels, and only allow commercial cultivation in Commercial Agriculture (CA) and Agriculture (A) zoned parcels. In effect, this would make the vast majority of cannabis gardens in Santa Cruz County a "criminal matter". This rule, in particular, is problematic as it does not provide cannabis cultivators a clear, accessible path towards compliance. Forcing Cannabis cultivators to spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on land in Commercial Agriculture and Agriculture zones places an unreasonable burden on those who wish to become fully compliant. This will undoubtedly lead to widespread non-compliance and encourages the underground market. It also does not address the real concerns of safety and sustainability. Cannabis Advocates Alliance notes that, to protect the fragile ecosystems of Santa Cruz County from unregulated cannabis cultivation, and to satisfy the needs of concerned community members, regulations must be written so that a majority of gardens can become compliant and thus receive the twice yearly inspections. These inspections are key to a working Marijuana Cultivation Ordinance, and if residents who are cultivating Cannabis in a safe and sustainable manner cannot register due to unfair zoning restrictions, then those zoning restrictions undermine the intention of the Marijuana Cultivation Ordinance

Cannabis Advocates Alliance

Contact us at:
cannabisadvocatesalliance [at] gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/cadvocatesalliance
https://twitter.com/SaveSantaCruz