Pubdate: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA) Copyright: 2013 Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact: http://www.newsreview.com/chico/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n251/a10.html Author: Mark Zeh RETALIATION IN THE FOOTHILLS Re "Disaster in the foothills" (Editorial, June 6): Medical-cannabis growers are getting pretty fed up with the discrimination coming from the county of Butte. This has nothing to do with unpermitted grading or building of greenhouses. DA Mike Ramsey used his resources in conjunction with the Sheriff's Office to fly around the county looking for new grading intended for cannabis growing. Ramsey then went to the Department of Public Works and told them [to order the owners to mitigate the problems] and gave the shortest possible deadline (14 days), hoping they could not comply, and he could then prosecute them with a criminal misdemeanor. If you attempt to talk to the public-works grading department about this, they tell you this is a "new" process and are not sure how it works-and refer you to the DA for information. What does Ramsey have to do with building-code matters such as grading, and why is he subjugating public works? I think it's obvious. The county is retaliating against medical-cannabis growers because they've lost the war, and are now just grasping at straws. It's sad, really. Mark Zeh Feather Falls - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom