Pubdate: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA) Copyright: 2015 Chico Enterprise-Record Contact: http://www.chicoer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861 Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority Author: Denice Lessard PROPOSITION 215 PATIENTS LEFT BEHIND BY MEASURE A So now Measure A has passed. What does this mean for patients? The entire Board of Supervisors claims to support patients rights to have access. But this is just not true. Collectives have been eliminated. There are no dispensaries in Butte County. In some areas you cannot legally grow at all. Large numbers of residents live in apartments and trailer parks that do not permit cultivation. Landlords actively prohibit "420 growing." You must get permission from your neighbors. Most important, don't forget those who are unable to grow due to physical disabilities. There was no consideration of the canopy space necessary to farm a marijuana plant that is pest and disease free. Moldy and diseased plants result from inadequate growing space and are unhealthy to consume. It is 80-plus miles one way to find a dispensary. Patients who have to use dispensaries will be forced to travel several hours and pay for medicine that otherwise was provided free by their cooperatives. The county failed to disclose it would spend potentially millions of your dollars ensuring there is no legal access for most patients to medical marijuana in Butte County. Is that really what the voters want? - - Denice Lessard, Chico - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom