Santa Cruz County is drafting new regulations for medicinal cannabis patients and providers. These new rules have the potential to turn large numbers of patients and providers into criminals and drastically roll back decades of progress won by cannabis activists. In letters to the Board of Supervisors, medicinal cannabis patients and cultivators are expressing their desire for "more effective, more sensible, and more just solutions" regarding a policy on medicinal cannabis cultivation and distribution.

Cannabis Advocates Alliance (CAA) is a newly formed network concerned about the environmental and community impacts of unregulated cannabis production, but who also know that regulations must not diminish the availability of quality, safe and effective medicinal cannabis.

Santa Cruz County is proposing to ban all commercial cannabis cultivation located in Residential Agriculture (RA) and Special Use (SU) zoned parcels, and only allow commercial cultivation in Commercial Agriculture (CA) and Agriculture (A) zoned parcels. In effect, this would make the vast majority of cannabis gardens in Santa Cruz County a "criminal matter". This rule, in particular, is problematic as it does not provide cannabis cultivators a clear, accessible path towards compliance.

CAA is requesting that local patients be given a greater voice in re-drafting the County cannabis ordinances, that the County draft clearer and more environmentally-friendly paths to compliance for patient-cultivators, and that in re-drafting the existing ordinances the County preserve the minimal diversity of choice required for patients to have proper access to quality cannabis medicine.

Read More | Cannabis Advocates Alliance | Jan 21: CAA meeting | Jan 27: Board of Supervisors meeting