DISTANT ELECTION WILL BE INTRIGUING

Our view: We think the average voter will favor restrictions on the
number of marijuana plants a landowner can grow.

Butte County supervisors handed over their biggest headache in the
past few years to voters, but that's OK. An issue as important as how
much marijuana should be allowed to grow in neighborhoods belongs in
the hands of the voters.

After months of contentious, sometimes threatening hearings, the
supervisors decided to pass restrictions on the number of plants a
landowner could grow. The larger the lot, the higher the number of
allowable plants. For lots in the county jurisdiction - outside of
any city limits - less than a half-acre in size, growing marijuana
was prohibited.

Marijuana advocates immediately launched a petition drive to overturn
the law before it ever took effect. With enough signatures on the
referendum petition, the five county supervisors had three options
this week. They could kill the ordinance, or they could put the
question to voters one of two ways.

They chose to put it in the laps of voters on the June 2012 ballot.
That means this year's harvest will go on unmolested, and next year's
will at least get started before voters have their say. Still, it's
worth the wait.

Voters have already been duped once by the "sick people need their
medicine" pitch. They won't be again. They know the medical marijuana
ordinance, Proposition 215, has been co-opted by people whose only
sickness is they just want to get stoned legally.

Proof that people are catching on: A legalization ordinance last year
failed to win the support of Californians.

County voters can be expected to approve these modest restrictions on
growers. There have been too many stories about neighbors and
neighborhood safety being disrupted by menacing growers down the road.

There is a wild card in all this - campaign financing. Growers will
throw a lot of money at this election. They have a lot to lose. Some
of them bought parcels of land up in the foothills knowing they could
pay off the loan with proceeds from the harvest. They'll donate to
protect their livelihoods, and the organized opposition will spout
campaign slogans about the ordinance killing cancer patients or whatever.

Will there be an organized campaign in favor of the ordinance? Hard
to say. The county can't campaign. Perhaps neighbors will band
together to tell their side of the story.

Money, unfortunately, is an important variable in politics. With the
right ad campaign, anything can sound palatable. Still, we think the
average person doesn't want marijuana growing over the backyard fence.