Opinion: South Tahoe’s cultivation ordinance hurts patients
Publisher’s note: This letter was written to South Lake Tahoe City Manager Tony O’Rourke and reprinted with permission of the author.
Hi Tony,
I had an opportunity to review your latest draft of the proposed cultivation ordinance. I must tell you I was shocked by what you are proposing, not just because it is illegal, immoral, and unnecessary. No, I was deeply shocked and disturbed by the text of your ordinance because it is truly a shameful document.
Under the proposed ordinance, sick, disabled and dying patients will have until the end of the year to comply with capricious and illegal regulations or face fines, criminal convictions and up to six months in jail, for each day they are in violation.
Steve Kubby
Here is just one of numerous outrageous regulations that could land sick, disabled and dying patients in jail for years:
“Any violation of this ordinance is hereby declared a public nuisance per se. Any person violating any provision of this ordinance shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $1,000.00, by imprisonment in the County jail not to exceed six months, or by both a fine and imprisonment. Such person shall be deemed guilty of a separate offense for each and every day during any portion of which any violation of this ordinance is committed, continued or permitted by such person and shall be punishable as herein provided.”
Whoever wrote this document clearly understood the city will be violating our civil and medical rights because in order to comply with this new ordinance you must agree to grant you guys full immunity for your illegal, unconstitutional and immoral actions:
“To the fullest extent permitted by law, any actions taken by a public officer or employee under the provisions of this ordinance shall not become a personal liability of any public officer or employee of the City.
“Permitees pursuant to this ordinance hereby agree to save, defend, indemnify and keep harmless the City and its officials, officers, employees, representatives, agents and volunteers from all actions, claims, demands, litigation, or proceedings, including those for attorneys’ fees, against the City in consequence of the granting of this permit, and will, in all things, strictly comply with the conditions under which this permit is granted, if any.”
Although the Compassionate Use Act was written as 11362.5 of the Health and Safety Code, the proposed ordinance will move enforcement back to the police chief and fire marshal, granting both the power to invade our home, apparently without a search warrant, if I correctly understand Chapter 17 of the City Abatement Code.
Furthermore, sick, disabled and dying patients must now notify local burglars and drug police of their activities and location by filing a public notice in the form of a building permit.
Absolutely nothing in the new ordinance does anything to protect patients. No patients were consulted at any time in the creation of this ordinance. Nor does the ordinance fix any problem that cannot be fixed by landlords who can add whatever prohibitions or fines they wish to their leases in order to prevent cultivation in their rental properties.
At a time when the City Council is firing valuable employees because of budget cuts, it seems dangerous and unwise to attempt to pass an ordinance that will most certainly face expensive court challenges. How many more valuable city employees will you have to fire in order to pay for these additional court costs?
Your primary responsibility as city manager is to protect the health and safety of the residents of this city. Instead, you are proposing new ordinance is a direct threat to the health and safety of the medical marijuana community. Please step back and think about the fear, anger and disrespect for you and the City Council that will surely result if you persist in campaigning for this awful and ill-conceived ordinance.
Let freedom grow,
Steve Kubby, South Lake Tahoe
Steve Kubby played a key role in the drafting and passage of Proposition 215. He has written two books on drug policy reform and serves as executive director of the American Medical Marijuana Association.
steve do you believe that mountain collective should be aloud to open.They are following the guide lines of a winery.
Well let me start by saying i have not read the new ordinance so i cant coment on the ordinance itself. I am still kind of curious regarding the state laws and the federal government laws. As i understand marijuana is still illegal under fed laws right?? The talk about civil rights and my medicine i dont buy into to. So if i have a headache and shooting heroin helps take away the headache is that then medicine?? Oh but the headache was caused shooting up the day before to deal with the headache from the day before. I like to call it a vicious cycle. I have worked in construction all my life my body hurts actually pretty much wore out i should say. People have said that i should “Get A Card”. The new answer to everything and every ailment. If you want to smoke dope and be high all the time that is your business. Please dont push it on to my kids and make them feel that marijuana is ok. It is a drug and it is illegal kinda i guess. So what happens when President Obama is not reelected and the republican president cracks down on these collectives?? I guess we will get to have more cops on the payroll to deal with a non tax paying business in this town. Im sure you will all claim i dont know about the benefits, i am being mean by not wanting people to get thier medicine, everyones civil rights blah blah blah heard it all before. What about a person who has worked all thier life and payed our taxes been promised so much. Mmaybe i should start smoking and growing dope seems to be the only sucsessful business in town any more so kudos to you Mr Kubby of being so oportunistic. I do respect you for that
Frankly, Mr. Miles, you sound bitter for having worked and “payed our taxes”. Let me gently remind you that the government you apparently wish to have crack down on peaceful people is the same government that forcefully takes a portion of your income. Let’s face facts: you don’t pay taxes voluntarily. You do it because someone who thinks they know better than you FORCES you to. Pretty arrogant, eh? Yeah, so when a self-described “worn out” construction worker thinks they know better than someone else how to live their life,then you’re just like that arrogant person who forcibly takes your money.
Robert, your comment is award winning….
If there was an award for extremely faulty logic incoherence, illogical assumptions, and terrible analogies.
‘if i have a headache and shooting heroin helps take away the headache is that then medicine’. By the definition of medicine, yes. It might not be good medicine.
‘Please dont push it on to my kids and make them feel that marijuana is ok. It is a drug and it is illegal ‘
No one is pushing it on your kids. The legal status of anything, does not dictate it something is OK or not. Do I even need to comment on ‘telling kids what is ok’ in relation to binge drinking, prescription pills, gambling, etc?
Contact me to accept your award.
How can you grow a weed, or let nature grow it, and you use it be illegal?
Mr. Miles,
First off, there is nobody in this town making that much money on Cannabis. Average grower probably makes about as much as a construction worker. The reason they don’t pay taxes on it’s sales is because our state government has decided not to regulate it as an industry. The growers in this town have kept the hardware stores open, the property values of rentals from plummeting and at the very least have kept some of our 20% unemployed workforce with some income during this era of non-prosperity.
In addition, Bayer corporation first marketed Heroin as a pain reliever back in the late 1800’s, one of the first synthetic forms of opium. They fought to keep it legal in one form or another for about another 100 years knowing full the harm it could to. The point I’m making here is you need to decide what is good for you and your family. Nobody is pushing marijuana on you and your kids, I don’t see billboards saying “smoke marijuana” anywhere do you? (I do see that for liquor and gaming though, that’s interesting, hmm)
Cannabis is a legal herb that has unrivaled medical uses. It can be grown in your backyard or in your basement at a reasonable expense. Unlike harmful prescription medication which can be physically addictive, harmful and can cause overdose leading to death, Cannabis is safe if not consumed while driving or operating heavy equipment.
Lastly as a successful businessman myself I consider myself to be in a high tax bracket and I don’t going around complaining about paying taxes because it is my choice to stay here in California and America. In fact I pay a considerably higher rate of tax than someone who is per say, a construction worker and I don’t get paid by the hour. In fact I work a 70-80 work week so when some 40 hour a week construction worker ******* about paying taxes it really irritates me because I sign my freaking checks on the front and keep people employed so they can put beans on their table. I’ve worked all my life too that does not give me the right to go around telling people they can’t use medical marijuana.
Your logic is flawed sir.
Sandsconnect i find it funny you think i only paid hourly wages taxes. Funny i got this big house on the lake with a nice big dock with a 40 foot boat next to it. Everyone here brings up great points. This is the great part of our country is agreeing to disagree. Yes i did make my money in construction Sands and yes i made a lot of it and i also worked 70-80 hours a week. Nice to sit back now and enjoy the fruits of my labor. Once agian great points everyone sorry that idont agree but you dont agree with me but its all good.
The fines start at only $100. The dispensaries told the council yesterday that they were too low. Kubby was referring to a 5 month old draft.