Contact Coordinator Ron Mullins for any questions (916) 5394975
[email protected]
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Building
700 H Street Sacramento CA, 95818 (RALLY will be on the corner of 7th and I Streets.)
July 28th 2015 ,
9:00 am Press Conference
9:30 am Hearing in Chambers
12:00 noon Rally and Political Theater
A Press Conference and Rally will demand an end to the discrimination of medical
Cannabis patients who grow their own medicine. Even though medical Cannabis is legal under
California’s Prop 215, Cannabis has now been singled out for special water rules by the
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. Instead of going after the “Cartel” style cultivation
sites that clearly violate a number of laws and destroy the habitat, they continue to focus on the
small grows of Cannabis patients. They seem to continue to blame the patient community --
instead of the illegal growers -- for the water waste and environmental damage that they have caused.
Speakers are volunteers from the following groups: Sacramento NORML (National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), California NORML, Sacramento Americans for
Safe Access (ASA), Order of Olufunmi, Crusaders for Patients Rights (CPR), Health and
Education for Legal Patient's Rights (HELPR), Brownie Mary Democrats of Sacramento County,
Crunch Nestle Campaign, Essence of Life Project.
Comments from Leaders attending the Hearing
Brownie Mary Democratic Club of Sacramento County: Club President Marcia Blount
states that she is sorely disappointed in the vote by the Sacramento County Board of
Supervisors to initiate special rules regarding the watering of medical Cannabis plants.
Medical Cannabis patients seem, so many times, to be singled out for special treatment –
which looks a lot like discrimination to us. Blount asserts, “Patients just want to have their
rights that were voted into law by the citizens of the State of California in 1996. Nothing more,
nothing less.” Marcia Blount, President http://www.bmdcofsaccounty.org/
Americans for Safe Access (ASA): ASA opposes a blanket classification of medical cannabis
as wasting water; research shows that Californians use cannabis to treat serious conditions and
it works. The Board of Supervisor should license and regulate medical cannabis instead of
taking a reactionary posture; fracking, agribusiness, and bottling water waste more water than
legitimate medical cannabis patients. Don Duncan CA Director ASA. http://www.Safeaccessnow.org
California Chapter, National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (Cal NORML): It’s
offensive to patients legal under state law that Sacramento county would consider cultivation of
even a single outdoor plant a waste of water. To say that growing one's medicine outside the
overly restrictive laws in Sacramento county is as wasteful as watering one’s lawn or driveway is insensitive, if not cruel.
This illconceived amendment will needlessly double the fines on smalltime marijuana growers.
Supervisor MacGlashan cites a single case of a bad player in her district to deem everyone in
the county worthy of another level of fines. In that case in Antelope, the perpetrators were cited
under a Fish and Game code for an illegal stream diversion, so it seems they were not using
municipal water, and that there already exists a mechanism for charging them with illegal water
use under state law. See: http://www.sacsheriff.com/Media/Release.aspx?id=1360
Sacramento County’s policy is counter to the State Water Board and Fish and Wildlife’s efforts
to enact a pilot program for regulating marijuana gardens' water use and discharge . At a task
force meeting at the Central Valley Water Board office in Redding on July 17, it was
acknowledged both by the Water Board officials and the Board of Equalization that bans on
cultivation and dispensaries make it impossible to permit those who are willing to comply with
state best practices.
The committee hopes to finalize a pilot permitting program in the Central Valley by October 2015.
See:
http://www.canorml.org/news/Central_Valley_Water_Board_Offers_Draft_Regulations_for_Marijuana_Farmers.html
Taking a statewide view, it is Cal NORML’s estimate that marijuana growing, licit and illicit, takes
an estimated 3,00012,000 acrefeet of water yearly.
That compares to 3.7 million acrefeet for almonds, 2.8 million acrefeet
for rice and 2.2 million acrefeet for grapes. See:
http://www.canorml.org/news/on_water_and_weed.html
We also object to the way this amendment was slipped in on the 14th without any prior notice or
possibility for public comment. We ask that the supervisors remove it from the ordinance.
Ellen Komp , Deputy Director CalNORML http://
www.CaNORML.org
Also available for comment at the Press Conference
Ron Mullins (SacNORML Director)
Rev. Ashiya Odeye (Order of Olufunmi)
Richard Miller (HELPR director)
Kim Cargile (Patients RIghts Advocate)
Andy Conn (Crunch Nestle Campaign organizer)
Lanette Davies (Founder CPR),
Bob Saunders (Activist with WaterEssence of Life Project)
pressreleasesaccobos.pdf |