EDITOR: I served on Sonoma County’s cannabis advisory group in 2017-18 as a neighborhood “rep” and had a lot of interaction with industry reps. Having read about mega operations near Palm Springs and large operations in Monterey County, I asked how local growers could compete when production costs here would be so much higher. The…
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Recently, the cannabis industry has been lobbying the state and county for tax reductions. They claim the recent drop in prices make cultivation and manufacturing taxes unaffordable. Before granting tax relief, let’s review how the industry arrived at this point, the real problem and if county tax relief is the right solution. Proposition 64’s selling…
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Shame on you, BOS Dear Board of Supervisors, How appalling, yet utterly predictable that you would vote unanimously and without discussion to give the Sonoma County marijuana operators just what they told you to give them. I am a Redwood Empire Food Bank volunteer, and it is extremely difficult to reconcile the great care &…
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Your sales and property taxes at work to worsen your life! On January 4, the Board of Supervisors will consider requests from the marijuana industry to revise the county’s tax structure. According to the information provided in the attached PowerPoint presentation (p. 10), the current cannabis program barely breaks even. If cultivation and other taxes…
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The State Board of Forestry has approved revisions to the State fire safety regulations. How many parcels will be unlocked to new development in fire-prone communities? This fight is not over: At a time when our landscapes are burning and homes and lives are again being lost, whom does our Board of Forestry (BOF) serve? Unfortunately it certainly…
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Cartelville, USA: Americans flee as Cartels take over small town California The threat of cartels can be felt and seen in one part of America more than ever before: Southern California. Small towns in the area have been overrun by gang activity, causing residents to flee. The Daily Caller’s investigative team went in the trenches…
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Foreign cartels involved By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Theft of water during a drought. Exploitation of immigrant laborers. Intimidation of residents by armed criminals.© Provided by Associated Press A marijuana grow is seen on Sept. 2, 2021, in an aerial photo taken by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office in the community of Alfalfa, Ore.…
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The Ag Commissioner has been actively promoting issuance of multiple 10,000 square feet cannabis permits per parcel that total up to an acre, in violation of the cannabis ordinance that allows an aggregate of no more than 10,000 square feet of cultivation per parcel. In this article, Ag Commissioner Andrew Smith acts like he’s solving…
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“The County staff increasingly seem to inhabit a parallel universe that by my lights is a freak and horror show” I understand that staff is proposing that Penalty Relief Project (PRP) applicants receive “equity grants” up to $70,000 based on a report entitled “Sonoma County Cannabis Equity Assessment.” The only ongoing PRP application in Bennett…
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SF ChronicleKurtis AlexanderNov. 12, 2021 REDWOOD VALLEY, Mendocino County — Lake Mendocino, once a plentiful reservoir nourishing the vines and villas of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, today is little more than a large pond, cowering beneath the coastal hills. The exposed and cracked mud on the reservoir’s floor, as much as the wildfire that burned…
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