DA RAMSEY PRAISES VOTERS FOR REJECTING PROP. 19

OROVILLE - Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said Wednesday
the voter rejection of Proposition 19, which would have legalized the
recreational use of marijuana, was a good decision on the part of the
electorate.

"We are grateful the voters saw through this particular con," Ramsey
said. "The voters were bright enough to really look at the proposition
for what it really stood for."

With the defeat of the proposition, "We continue on as we have, trying
to enforce the law," he said.

In February the Board of Supervisors told Ramsey, County Counsel Bruce
Alpert and other Butte County staff to work on an ordinance to
establish rules and regulations pertaining to medical marijuana
dispensaries.

Under an urgency ordinance approved unanimously by the supervisors,
all medical marijuana dispensaries are currently outlawed within the
county's jurisdiction. The ordinance gave the county until early 2012
to have the ordinance in place.

Ramsey said the working group is trying to craft an ordinance that
will assure "those who truly need the marijuana" as a medicine will
have access to it.

He said the goal is also to constrain "unlimited growth of the
medicine."