A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE

Let's just imagine, for a few minutes, that marijuana is legal. There
are signs that such legalization is in the offing: The new Attorney
General, Eric Holder, has said it will henceforth be the policy of
the DEA not to raid California medical marijuana dispensaries. There
are other signs as well.

California would become the first state in the nation to legalize
marijuana for recreational use under a bill introduced Feb. 23 by
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco. Numerous commentators have
suggested that taxing marijuana sales, a $13 billion industry in
California alone, would be a painless way to fill the state's
coffers. Taxation, long ignored as a source of revenue for our
beleaguered state, extends to marijuana sales. Imagine, for now, that
is the reality.

With legalization, comes regulation. Only sustainably grown
marijuana, meeting organic standards, is legal. Artificial
fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides, diesel generators, their spills
and contamination, along with vicious guard dogs, are relics of the past.

Sales are made only to adults, with strict punishments meted out to
anyone caught selling to underage purchasers. This is how sales of
alcohol and tobacco are controlled today; such a scheme easily could
be adapted for marijuana sales.

Mendocino County is known for strains of marijuana that treat
specific maladies, many of them providing medicinal benefits without
the high. Purchasing these strains is no longer illegal. Imagine
patients receiving treatment without being forced into bankruptcy by
prescriptions that make the out-of-county pharmaceutical companies
rich. Recall too that the defendant in the Kelly case, presently
before the California Supreme Court, grew seven marijuana plants (one
over the limit under S.B. 420) to treat pain, something he could not
afford to do by purchasing prescription pharmaceuticals.

Recreational users, for the most part, become responsible, just as
most wine drinkers are today. Wine drinking drivers know they stand a
healthy chance of being pulled over and arrested if they have
exceeded the allowable blood alcohol limit. Well publicized campaigns
against driving drunk provide further deterrence and the same could
work for marijuana.

The Sheriff deploys deputies to help the federal government clean up
trespass on federal lands where illegal grows produce no tax revenue,
only environmental damage. Illegal grows decrease rapidly because
there are more available enforcement personnel. Wildlife returns to
take advantage of the quietude and the water that is no longer
siphoned from the streams for irrigation. Consider that last season
there were 50 trespass grows on Cow Mountain Recreational Area alone,
with only one BLM enforcement agent for the entire Ukiah district.
Consequently, there was no enforcement and only minimal cleanup.

The Sheriff can deploy deputies to help the feds because it got its
act together early. Seeing legalization on the horizon, the Sheriff
and his deputies brainstormed priorities. They figured out that the
serious problems (not per se breaking the law) came from large-scale
growers using diesel powered generators to run the lights and fans
required for indoor grows. Also causing big problems were the
out-of-county residents who hired locals to tend marijuana gardens
here, there, and everywhere. And, of course, the gun-toting, pit bull
owning outlaws. The Sheriff realized that if he concentrated his
efforts on the serious problems, he could win support of county
residents. He also realized that shutting down local, small-scale
growers hurt the local economy. He quit doing that.

Paul Krugman, noted economist and New York Times op-ed columnist won
the Nobel Prize last year for his ideas about international trade.
Implied in those ideas was the notion that production (e.g., of
marijuana) becomes concentrated in areas where expertise exists.
Here, where medical marijuana expertise exists in abundance, we
should acknowledge it by promoting the various Mendocino
marijuana-based remedies. This is our opportunity. We need to take
advantage of it.

Janie Sheppard is a Ukiah resident.