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Monday, January 30th, 2012

Mendocino County to Lose Marijuana Permit Income

Author:    
Source:     San Francisco Chronicle
Publication Date:     Sunday, January 29, 2012 | 14:38 PST
 Link: Mendocino County to Lose Marijuana Permit Income
Stephan:   This is the wrong way to go. All this is going to do is pit the sheriff against the local people. A relationship that was beginning to heal because suddenly it was in everyone's interest for the growing of marijuana to be policed and controlled and a stable business like wine grapes in Nappa. The growers were attempting to do with medical marijuana what the vintners had done further south. Just as wine makers have developed Merlots and Cabs, growers were beginning to specialize in strains particularly good for pain, nausea, or stress reduction. Cannabis is a sophisticated and complex plant with many gifts. Now it will go back to the Mexico Mafia, and there will be an increase of violence and death.

UKIAH, CA — A major source of funding for the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department is going up in smoke over the county’s decision to cancel a medical marijuana permit program.

County officials have calculated the sheriff’s department will be losing more than a half-million dollars in revenue after the Board of Supervisors voted last week to end the program of issuing permits to cannabis collectives.

The permits allowed the collectives to grow up the 99 plants at a time, but also required deputies to conduct monthly inspections.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports ( http://bit.ly/wcIAIY) that sheriff’s officials collected $663,230 last year in fees for the inspections.

Despite the loss of revenue, Sheriff Tom Allman says he doesn’t expect to have to lay off any deputies.

Supervisors voted to stop issuing the permits after representatives from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag’s office warned that Mendocino’s law was at odds with federal law.

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