Compassionate Regulations, Too

I am a hospice patient treating the pain from my stage 4 metastatic breast cancer with cannabis oil. I moved here over a year ago from Mississippi, where I used to be a practicing RN, in order to have the freedom to grow my own medicine. After researching cannabis friendly towns, one where I could grow my allowed six plants, I purchased a home in New Cuyama. I appreciate all the compassion shown to me and other patients in this situation.

But I’m concerned that patients’ voices need and deserve to be heard.

I understand the Board of Supervisors has been put in a compromising position due to the drafting error in the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act that is corrected in AB 21. That error requires local governments to enact land use regulations to control the cultivation of medical marijuana by March 1, 2016. AB 21 deletes that provision and restores local control over cultivation; the same control cities and counties have over other aspects of medical marijuana.

Many cities and counties have felt a need to pass wide sweeping bans. A simple placeholder ban with a sunset provision linked to the amendment of AB 21 has proven sufficient in more than one case thus far. It allows time for locals to interact with the supervisors and create regulations that work for everyone.