GREATEST SHOW IN CHICO

Medical-Cannabis Debate Continues During a Goofy Meeting

As Chico City Council meetings go, the hearing Tuesday night (Nov. 16)
on a proposed medical-marijuana ordinance was hugely
entertaining.

There were the usual slightly addled medi-pot users insisting on their
right to take their "medicine," and there were dispensary owners who
wanted us to believe they were earnest do-gooders providing a service
to the sick. There was even a guy who said he'd been working on a plan
whereby the city would become the medi-pot provider and use the
revenues to fund city services. Socialized medi-pot!

There was also a contingent of men in dark suits from Los Angeles,
most of them of Japanese heritage, with big ideas. They hope to turn
the 600,000-square-foot Koret building at the airport into a major
marijuana-growing facility. Chico as pot capital of America!

The only people speaking against the ordinance were three attorneys
from DA Mike Ramsey's office, including the big guy himself.
Collectives are legal, dispensaries are not, Ramsey insisted. He
didn't seem very passionate about it, however, perhaps because he
could see which way the smoke was blowing.

It was another goofy night on the medi-pot front.