Welcome to cannabis country My husband and I purchased our home in Petaluma in fall 2020. We’re a young, newlywed couple. This is our first home, and what we thought was our forever home. It’s a beautiful yellow victorian farmhouse and heritage home on one acre of land. We are surrounded by large fields where…
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CARTEL TYPE BEHAVIORS It was Urban Oregon who legalized marijuana, but it is rural Oregon that is paying the price, and it was the Oregon legislature who redefined marijuana as an agricultural crop, which allowed large commercial marijuana grows to set up next to our rural residential farming homes bringing with them cartel type of…
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In 2016, we stood here in these chambers and gave our testimony about one of the most unexpected and difficult times we have endured in our life – living next to a commercial cannabis cultivation operation. During that time, we shared our concerns about ground and well water contamination; the depreciation and undesirability of our…
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I lived near a pot farm. The nearest greenhouse was less than 100 yards from my front door. Due to the dangerous risks this put on our family, we vacated our home in a rural residential area of Penngrove and moved to Richmond for 6 weeks. We returned to our home after the pot was…
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Dear cannabis lobby, Calling your opposition NIMBYs is fun and easy! It’s a great way to erase myriad valid arguments against commercial pot production in rural neighborhoods. Just throw a label on them and BAM everything gets simple. They’re just NIMBYs. Damn clueless, selfish NIMBYs trying to stop progress. They just don’t get how good…
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After living on our residential property for 30 years we now live next to a cannabis grow situated on 5 acres, 10 acres is required however the grower next to us was Grandfathered in allowing the 5 acre parcel to grow cannabis. We now live 300 FT from a cannabis operation that was awarded a…
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Buying a home in Sonoma County turned out to be our worst investment ever Buying a home in Sonoma County turned out to be our worst investment ever. Cannabis wasn’t legal, so a commercial-scale cannabis business in the area wasn’t part of our calculation when we purchased our dream home west of Sebastopol. After California…
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I live in West County and there are three illegal cannabis grows in close proximity to our family home, and additional illegal and legal grows within a mile. Residents have good reasons to not trust the County to enforce illegal grow operations or illegal building code violations because the county’s horrific track record speaks volumes and these residents live in fear of retribution. Two…
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Use permit for Bennett Valley cannabis grow appealed by neighbors Despite the opposition of many Bennett Valley residents, the county’s Board of Zoning Adjustments approved a use permit (with a big condition) for a cannabis cultivation project on Grange Road in November. Now, the Bennett Valley Citizens for a Ban on Commercial Marijuana Facilities has…
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From the Field: Mary Smith lives in Linda Hopkins’ district in Sonoma County. We can’t be any more specific. Mary is not her real name, she would never approve of publishing her story. She only communicates by phone out of fear of being traced online by pot growers. She lives her life in constant trepidation…
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