Moratorium on cultivation, sale, & processing of Cannabis in San Mateo County

This petition requests the Board of Supervisors of San Mateo County place a moratorium of 2 years before passing any ordinances allowing marijuana/cannabis cultivation, sale, processing and all other commercial activities in the County of San Mateo. This moratorium allows the county time to study the potential impact of marijuana/cannabis commercialization and cultivation on our county’s youth, public health, environment, public safety and traffic.

The County of San Mateo is currently considering an ordinance authorizing greenhouse and nursery cultivation of marijuana on agricultural lands within the unincorporated areas of San Mateo County. Although it currently prohibits other commercial activities such as retail sale, processing, and manufacturing, those prohibitions expire on December 31, 2018, unless extended. This means that if the Supervisors don’t act, the county will be authorized to issue licenses for the full range of commercial pot activities as of January 1, 2019!

You can read the ordinance at http://cmo.smcgov.org/cannabis-ordinance.

Just a few negatives that come from commercialization:

• NEGATIVE IMPACT ON YOUTH – Commercializing marijuana leads to the belief that marijuana is harmless leading to greater likelihood of use, despite the fact that it can have lasting and permanent effects on children’s IQ, learning, memory, and mental health. Marijuana Use: Detrimental to Youth (April 2017), American College of Pediatricians.

• INCREASED CRIMINAL ACTIVITY – Marijuana cultivation and retail activities are likely to attract criminals, lead to armed robberies and other crime and encourage black market marijuana operations. Colorado’s Black Market Thrives Under a Legal Marijuana Canopy - Law Enforcement Tries to Keep Up. May, 2017, http://gazette.com/state-of-marijuana/marijuana-black-market.

• NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS - Studies investigating marijuana cultivation practices have identified potentially significant environmental impacts due to excessive water and energy demands and local contamination of water, air and soil with waste products such as organic pollutants and agro-
chemicals. High Time to Assess the Environmental Impacts of Cannabis Cultivation, Environmental Science & Technology, K. Ashworth, W. Vizuete. 17 February, 2017.

Urge the County Supervisors to thoroughly study these issues before making a decision that could make San Mateo County and our beautiful coast side the “Napa Valley of Marijuana.”