After multiple meeting cancelations, county Planning Commission FINALLY met for a general meeting that was advertised as a POT workshop but ended up being the same old same old linear meeting. Except that no one except for commissioner Robert Halpin seemed to know what was going on procedurally, or even what they agreed to last time. The minutes needed adjustments before the vote. I can’t comment on what the adjustments were or what the minutes were because they don’t seem to be on line, but I digress.
The committee went over some things like do the people want hemp and ThC and if so for commercial, medical, and/or recreational? DUH! What are the “hard edges” of current enforcement – 1 G a day and ultimate lien for infractions. A call to get consistent w. State law. Dr King spoke extensively about his concerns about not seeing any documentation of THC being medically useful for children and other non Germaine or timely information. Then there was a small discussion about if they would let public comment. After being reminded that THIS meeting was publicly advertised as a WORKSHOP, the comment section would be open to the public, and the WOMEN too! Time limit of three minutes.
First comments came from patient advocate, Kenn Rieders. He said that he does pain management with cannabis because it works for him, and is worried about the opioid crisis. Also, he reminded that we were only talking about adult use for 21 plus and medical use and that they had different parameters and grow regulations. For medical use, the amount of how many plants is determined by each patients physician, recreational/“adult” use is 6 plants per parcel, commercial is decided by each individual area. He said Tehama County is out of line with state standards and he was surprised that Commission didn’t know that or what the standards were. He encouraged them to learn a lot from public input. Some of his quotes – “Wouldn’t it be nice to have our cannabis grown, bought and sold from Tehama County?” Nobody has ever died from cannabis”
Next was Pati Nolen. As soon as she started speaking, she was reminded that she was soon to be the only women on the BoS and she could only have three minutes. Because, well, “math is hard!” ~BARBIE. Ok, so one of these things is a lie because I developed a taste for lying during my short lived career as a politician. First 10 peeps who can tell me what the lie was gets a FREE FUN PERMIT!!! Honest. She admirably composed herself and pulled a “math this” with the figure of 300k per shop, which only Red Bluff has taken to “harvesting.” She also brought a human face to the discussion by talking about her neighbor, Apple Bob who, with his pains issues, to Pati is the face of not wanting to bust small grows. Ms. Nolen said she thought Tehama County is doing a good job monitoring. She suggested that we look at Humboldt county and what they are doing.
Jason Browne started by thanking the committee for opening public comments and talked about hemp ordinance and he volunteered time as a consultants for ad hoc for information and support. He said hemp and cannabis ordinance has overlap that need to be looked at.
Representing myself, as a user of CBD/THC for many of my health issues. As far as THC use, I shared my observation that throughout time, people have used drugs and activities to change how they feel. I am fine with THC any and all vices being legal as long as they are taxed to offset their negative consequences. What about cannabis AND hemp being a solution for ag and our water crisis? I verified that the publicity I saw had seen said this was a public workshop. I expressed my overall dissatisfaction with the lack of transparency and timely notices from the county in general. In addition, I reminded people that alcohol and tobacco are 10-50 times more legally available locally. They actually HAVE killed people, and unlike cannabis purchase, cash purchase identity of alcohol can be shielded. Yep I said all that in under 3 minutes…
Local business owner of California Canna Company, Bill Byron said he wants to be able to purchase local, thinks it would be great $ for him and the county if local products could be exported as well.
Next, the zoning and abatement issues. First was a guy and his squatters that were all evicted because of the septic problems. Super sad. Another sad story next. I had to stop filming because the only accessible power outlets did not seem to be working so my phone died. You can listen in yourself via https://tehamacountyca.iqm2.com/Citizens/Default.aspx Tell me what you think and let the county know if you think that we should have power for the people!
Overall this was not the kind of governance I want for myself or my fellow Tehamans. Seeing staff and commission members floundering was embarrassing, especially considering I was live-streaming the meet on my personal Fakebook page and I noticed various friends, some all the way across the planet watching. The meeting was barely kept from being an epic fail by commissioner Bob Halpin actually knowing the procedural process and what happened last time. All that came out of it was an agree to form a 2 person ad hoc with it sounding like the chair was going to appoint himself and Robert H even though multiple other people volunteered. Amazingly the county audio from the meeting was posted the day!!! You can check it out at https://tehamacountyca.iqm2.com/Citizens/Default.aspx Whoever was responsible for this lightning speed efficiency gets kudos and a fun permit if they want one. Two if you can get us BoS minutes and audio in a timely fashion.
