Pubdate: Sun, 06 Mar 2016 Source: Modesto Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 2016 The Modesto Bee Contact: http://www.modbee.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/271 IT'S HIGH TIME WE HAD A COMMUNITY DISCUSSION ABOUT MARIJUANA Recreational Use of Cannabis Is Likely to Be Legal in 2017 If We're Going to Allow It to Be Sold Here, We Need Serious Rules There Are Advantages but Significant Dangers That Must Be Talked Through Let's start with the assumption that recreational use of marijuana will be entirely legal by this time next year. Let's also assume that budding entrepreneurs in Modesto, Atwater, Ripon, Ceres, Turlock and every other city in the northern San Joaquin Valley will be eager to put their wares in front of customers. Will we be ready? Perhaps, if we require all those leafy businesspeople to meet certain community standards locating only in specific areas; using discreet signs; disposing of waste responsibly; making certain the air outside doesn't smell, well, skunky. There are people in our cities and counties responsible for making such rules, and they're already asking these questions. The answers they formulate are of vital interest to all of us. Start with the most obvious question: Will it be legal here? Maybe or maybe not. Most polls show overwhelming support for legalizing recreational use, with seven different measures proposed for the November ballot to do just that. At least one, and more likely three or four, will make it. So voters will have to choose their favorites. The proposition with the most backing including from Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom gives counties a "local option." If residents don't want legal marijuana, it will remain illegal though it won't go away. Keeping it illegal means sales will be on the "black market" and the county won't be collecting sales taxes. It also jeopardizes a county's ability to share in the much higher taxes being collected by the state probably around 15 percent. Meanwhile, people will continue to consume. And with likely availability in nearby counties, consumption will go up along with all the associated problems. Counties that don't legalize it will still face increased psychological, health and law enforcement burdens of residents but without more money to pay for them. People will continue to consume. And with likely availability in nearby counties, consumption will go up along with all the associated problems. Those burdens could be higher than we're being led to believe. States that have already legalized recreational weed report higher use and greater incidence of associated problems, from overdoses to underage abuse. The Bee isn't yet taking a position; we have more research to do. But burying our heads in the sand isn't a good strategy. Fortunately, our supervisors and other elected officials aren't doing that. The county is proceeding on parallel tracks. One group, spearheaded by supervisor Vito Chiesa, is bringing together an elected official and the city manager from each of Stanislaus' nine cities to, we hope, establish common rules. It would be better, the thinking goes, if one set of rules governed use throughout the county so cities aren't competing for those sales-tax dollars. The other group is more broad-based. Led by supervisors Dick Monteith and Terry Withrow, it is examining challenges on several levels where it can be grown and under what conditions, what are the health concerns, the regulations, law-enforcement needs? That group is likely hearing echoes from across California. In Santa Cruz County, where numerous "weed patches" have been growing in the mountains for years, a county commission has been meeting since September. It includes four growers (admittedly illegal), and the county is considering rules that will provide protections for small growers. In nearby Monterey County, where the ground is flatter, the county will insist on "rigorous rules around cultivation." But those rules might favor farmers who have water rights, experience in dealing with waste and fertilizers and pesticides. After all, who do you want growing your marijuana people who have been skirting the law for decades or those who know how to farm legitimately? No one we spoke to at the Stanislaus Farm Bureau knows anyone openly talking about getting into the marijuana business. But considering the retail price of cannabis can reach $480 for an eighth of an ounce in Colorado, there are some obvious incentives especially if the price of nuts continues to fall. We're glad such discussions have started. But there's more to talk about. Should a societal stigma hang around cannabis like a cloud of smoke? Probably not, considering the vast majority of people alive in the United States today have at least tried it. Should it be accepted as harmless? No, because it's not. A clear connection has been shown between chronic use and loss of cognitive function. Further, it has been shown to diminish gray and white matter in the brains of adolescents more rapidly than in the brains of those over 25. It's true that marijuana has been used as a drug for at least 4,000 years, but what's being harvested today in California's Emerald Triangle is 10 or even 100 times more potent than what baby boomers experimented with in the 1960s. Overdoses and deaths among adolescents and children have ticked up slightly in Colorado. At the same time, the medicinal value of cannabis is undeniable and can be profound. It greatly reduces seizures for children afflicted with some forms of epilepsy, eases the symptoms of cancer treatments, is used in treating anorexia, arthritis and glaucoma. Denying patients access should also be considered criminal. But should enjoying the psychotropic effects of cannabis remain illegal? That's not just a question for board rooms and council chambers. It's a question we should bring to service clubs, church groups and even the dinner table. The more likely it is that cannabis will become legal, the more important it is that young people in particular understand the dangers. We also should reach out to those more prone to addiction or psychosis. There's so much to talk about in how we, as a community, relate to marijuana. We need to start talking about it now. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom