Pubdate: Mon, 27 Apr 2015
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority
Author: Garry Cooper

BUTTE COUNTY WILL SOON REGRET MARIJUANA SEARCHES

It's unfathomably ignorant and abusive what the county officials have done.

They get Measure A passed to enforce pot cultivation rules, which may 
or may not be upheld in court.

Instead of just getting complaints from the public and investigating 
them, the county code enforcement and sheriffs teamed up and barged 
into what is estimated to be at least hundreds of properties without 
so much as obtaining a specific allegation of a violation of that 
ordinance, and in most cases, the actual complainant is the sheriffs 
themselves it is believed - a warrantless search.

Basically, what they did is hire an army of seven new code 
enforcement officers and teamed them up with carloads of sheriffs to 
carry on a campaign of terror and intimidation against a particular 
class of people. The judge issuing these erroneous "inspection" 
warrants, the code enforcement and sheriffs, the supervisors, the DA, 
and any other county staff involved seem very well guilty of conspiracy.

All could have been fine and the ordinance reasonably enforced in a 
constitutional and nonabusive manner but now Butte County, along with 
every official involved, have opened themselves up to millions upon 
millions in damages.

Read the following article online where a current federal court case 
was upheld to continue against the county officials in Lake County 
for conspiracy and civil rights issues: 
www.courthousenews.com/2015/02/04/medical-marijuana.

Butte County's abuse and terror campaign makes that one look like child's play.

I can't grasp why they didn't just leave well enough alone.

Childish.

- - Garry Cooper, Durham
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom