BOARD OF SUPERVISORS NEEDS TO LISTEN TO ITS CONSTITUENTS

After attending the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday and seeing
the huge turnout of people against the proposed initiative, it is
quite obvious David Finigan and his two "yes men" have their own
personal agendas regarding medical marijuana and could care less what
their constituents would like them to do.

The new proposal is not only illegal as explained by Dohn Henion,
county attorney, as it attempted to set the limits lower than what the
state mandated, it was obviously poorly researched and was attempted
to be pushed through quickly without public input. Mr. Finigan stated
in the meeting that more people came out in opposition to this
amendment than actually showed up to the meeting which proposed it. I
would think that alone should determine how he and the board should
vote on the matter.

Without Leslie McNamer on the board, this item would not have been
tabled, nor would any of the actual patients and caregivers been
allowed input into the committee hearings. I would like to commend
McNamer for listening to the public and possibly saving the meeting
from turning into a full-on riot.

The current standards are based on scientific fact and are some of the
most effective in the state because of the huge amount of work that
went into their creation by local activists and by the previous Board
of Supervisors. I really don't feel their work should be thrown aside.
The six-plant guidelines they wish to adopt is for those counties
without any adopted standards.

The fact that Mr. Finigan is choosing to ignore the majority vote
shows once again our small-town politicians have a very hard time
representing the voters that placed them into office over their
personal agendas. All three of the gentleman on the board that tried
to ramrod this amendment through the system should be reminded they
are elected officials, placed there to represent the wishes of the
voters. They can be recalled from those positions with only a minimal
amount of signatures on a recall petition, available to all voters in
the county recorder's office of the same building.

The overwhelming turnout with only three days' notice of the meeting
should send a clear message to the board regarding public opinion. I
can only imagine how large the turnout is going to be with adequate
notice of the next hearing, scheduled for April 22 at 10 a.m., but the
board office will not even confirm if this topic will even be
discussed until the agenda is published April 17.

It was stated in the meeting only 125 people have the medical
marijuana cards issued by the county. These cards are not mandatory
and the majority of the patients in the county simply have their
written recommendations from their physicians. We need all of these
people to show up at the next meeting with any supporters willing to
come. The board will then be able to understand the actual numbers of
patients and caregivers being affected by this decision.

I encourage the Board of Supervisors to actually listen to their
constituents and the majority. If not, any and all public officials
unwilling to follow the voters' wishes can be recalled.

If every person with a medical recommendation in this county were to
gather five signatures, we would have more than enough signatures to
initiate a recall election.

Tracy Harget

Crescent City