Dear Honorable Supervisors,
I read & support the previous public comments from Blaire as well as fully support the MCA & CCAG memos. I hope you do, too. We have heard talk about phase 1 cultivators being upset to lose an edge to more competition in the county as a reason we do not agree with the expansion as it’s now presented for phase 3, but that is not true. We personally would rather see a pathway for the 1000s of small farms both from phase 1 & phase 3 (potentially), than the entire program become only a handful of larger permits given over to a “boom & bust” or as it’s called in the cannabis industry “turn & burn” bubble, with corporate cannabis taking the profits out of the local community. Thank you for taking the time to have this meeting, I look forward to hearing from the different agencies involved & believe there is so much good that can come of this situation if we can all work together... Sincerely, Laura Clein
First I would like to thank you for all the time you have taken on our cannabis program. All of us have used countless hours to work on all of this and I know we all look forward to a day when this whole thing is operating smoothly.
Our farm is Radicle Herbs (for cannabis) and Folk Life Farm (for all of our other agricultural activities). For Radicle Herbs we have held 2 county embossed receipts for 3 years and state provisional license for 3 years. We have done every possible thing requested to fulfill the needs of all the regulations both locally and by the state.
We are a diversified farm growing cannabis, vegetables, fruits, herbs, animals for meat and fiber, hay production, catering, and value-added products. I am on the board of the Friends of the Round Valley Public Library (help to manage the community kitchen and farmers market), Board of the Biodynamic Association of Northern California, and sit on the policy committee of MCA (Mendocino Cannabis Alliance).
In 2018 we won the Regenerative Farm award at the Emerald Cup along with 2 other amazing Mendocino County Farms (Happy Day Farms and Sun Roots Farm). We also hold multiple certifications for our farm: Demeter (Biodynamic) Certified, Dragonfly Earth Medicine Certified and most recently Sun+Earth certified.
I consider myself to be a competent person when it comes to filling out documents and completing tasks. In college, I had the 3rd highest grade in my department and selected as class marshal by the department head. Yet for the process of becoming legal, I have had to hire many consultants. I have a lawyer to help with completing all documents related to our applications, a consultant for CDFW and Waterboard, two consultants for Building and Planning, and most recently a consultant to help us with Appendix G/CEQA. Yet we still hold embossed receipts and provisional licenses 3 years after applying.
I am telling you all of this so that you can consider the challenges to becoming legal because as you deliberate on all these complicated issues today I ask you to consider folks like us and folks who may not have been as lucky to be where we are today. I agree and understand that we must do something about egregious environmental violations and crime but while you consider that please also consider folks who have been doing everything they have needed to do and also consider the folks in between. How do we create a program that incentivizes compliance? How do we create a program that does find ways to "weed" people out but encourages them to comply. The war on drugs has always been a losing battle. Getting more cultivators legal benefits everyone as many have been locked out of the legal system to no fault of their own. The Equity Grant program has only recently become available and folks should have the opportunity to use those funds to get legal.
I would like to show my support for all of the MCA memos and CCAG memo that were submitted and ask the board to please take careful consideration of the thoughtful recommendations that have been presented.
Dear Honorable Supervisors,
I read & support the previous public comments from Blaire as well as fully support the MCA & CCAG memos. I hope you do, too. We have heard talk about phase 1 cultivators being upset to lose an edge to more competition in the county as a reason we do not agree with the expansion as it’s now presented for phase 3, but that is not true. We personally would rather see a pathway for the 1000s of small farms both from phase 1 & phase 3 (potentially), than the entire program become only a handful of larger permits given over to a “boom & bust” or as it’s called in the cannabis industry “turn & burn” bubble, with corporate cannabis taking the profits out of the local community. Thank you for taking the time to have this meeting, I look forward to hearing from the different agencies involved & believe there is so much good that can come of this situation if we can all work together... Sincerely, Laura Clein
Dear Honorable Supervisors,
First I would like to thank you for all the time you have taken on our cannabis program. All of us have used countless hours to work on all of this and I know we all look forward to a day when this whole thing is operating smoothly.
Our farm is Radicle Herbs (for cannabis) and Folk Life Farm (for all of our other agricultural activities). For Radicle Herbs we have held 2 county embossed receipts for 3 years and state provisional license for 3 years. We have done every possible thing requested to fulfill the needs of all the regulations both locally and by the state.
We are a diversified farm growing cannabis, vegetables, fruits, herbs, animals for meat and fiber, hay production, catering, and value-added products. I am on the board of the Friends of the Round Valley Public Library (help to manage the community kitchen and farmers market), Board of the Biodynamic Association of Northern California, and sit on the policy committee of MCA (Mendocino Cannabis Alliance).
In 2018 we won the Regenerative Farm award at the Emerald Cup along with 2 other amazing Mendocino County Farms (Happy Day Farms and Sun Roots Farm). We also hold multiple certifications for our farm: Demeter (Biodynamic) Certified, Dragonfly Earth Medicine Certified and most recently Sun+Earth certified.
I consider myself to be a competent person when it comes to filling out documents and completing tasks. In college, I had the 3rd highest grade in my department and selected as class marshal by the department head. Yet for the process of becoming legal, I have had to hire many consultants. I have a lawyer to help with completing all documents related to our applications, a consultant for CDFW and Waterboard, two consultants for Building and Planning, and most recently a consultant to help us with Appendix G/CEQA. Yet we still hold embossed receipts and provisional licenses 3 years after applying.
I am telling you all of this so that you can consider the challenges to becoming legal because as you deliberate on all these complicated issues today I ask you to consider folks like us and folks who may not have been as lucky to be where we are today. I agree and understand that we must do something about egregious environmental violations and crime but while you consider that please also consider folks who have been doing everything they have needed to do and also consider the folks in between. How do we create a program that incentivizes compliance? How do we create a program that does find ways to "weed" people out but encourages them to comply. The war on drugs has always been a losing battle. Getting more cultivators legal benefits everyone as many have been locked out of the legal system to no fault of their own. The Equity Grant program has only recently become available and folks should have the opportunity to use those funds to get legal.
I would like to show my support for all of the MCA memos and CCAG memo that were submitted and ask the board to please take careful consideration of the thoughtful recommendations that have been presented.
Thank you very much for your time,
Blaire AuClair