by Lauren Brenner
The Humboldt County Growers Alliance claims voters were deceived last year when asked to sign a petition. They claim the Cannabis Reform Initiative – which was supposed to help small growers – does the exact opposite.
Seven growers filed a lawsuit against the authors of the Humboldt Cannabis Reform – also known as “Measure A.”
“The proponents of this initiative left us really with no other choice but to really try to educate the voters on what’s really happening in the county. I think there was a lot of misrepresenting this initiative in the very beginning, and it kind of got out of control,” cannabis grower Johnny Casali said.
Betsy Watson – who came up with idea and is named as a defendant in the lawsuit – says she wanted to protect small grow operations and the environment.
“The goals of measure a are to cap the size and the number of cultivation sites in the county,” she said. “There are currently 1200. The ordinance used to permit them calls for 2400 more. That would be 3600 total. So, the major reason is to protect our water and other environmental things. This is not an anti-cannabis issue.”
Growers say they’re already following strict regulations about the environment.
“I live in our sensitive watershed,” Casali told Redwood News. “My main goal is to protect the environment. My main goal is this property before anything else.”
Also named in the lawsuit – is the Humboldt County Clerk – the person responsible for putting the measure on the March fifth ballot.
“We’re preparing as if this ballot measure will be on the ballot,” Juan P. Cervantes said. “If we get a writ of mandate from a judge telling us to do otherwise, and we’ll do so at that point. So there is the possibility that if the complaint gets addressed in a way that the folks petitioning would like, that this would not appear on the ballot.”
Growers claim Watson and her organization didn’t share enough of the proposed changes to the Humboldt County General Plan with voters.
“Their main point seems to be that we didn’t include enough on the initiative for voters to see, which seems very odd to us since for ten months they’ve been hammering us,” Watson replied. “This is to a large and complicated initiative. If they were to prevail in this lawsuit, the initiative would look like an old-fashioned phone book. It would be at least 400 pages, and I don’t think that would clarify things for the voters.”
Casali says this measure doesn’t help the small farmer at all and may set things back to when growers were outlaws.
“I’m not just trying to help my farm,” Casali told us. “I’m trying to help Humboldt County. I’m a community member. I want to participate legally because I could very easily go back to traditional market days and hide in the brush. But none of that was ever good for the environment. And I want to participate legally in a pathway forward is something that i think we were offered by the state and the county. And I think, you know, making it too hard for any of us to continue is a huge mistake.”
A court date has not been set for the lawsuit.
Full text of the initiative:
Cannabis-Reform-Initiative-Text-file-stamped-and-scanned-3-4-22.pdf (cannabisinitiative.org)
The lawsuit (full text) on the Humboldt County Grower’s Alliance website
