LLTTLRS EROM OUR RLAJLRS

To the Editor:

There are many problems with the way the County is handling the cannabis issue currently, and with the proposed changes, things will be even worse.

It is crazy to have a system that depends on citizen complaints for monitoring. Is there any other business monitored by public individuals? What if restaurants, gas stations, factories or markets were regulated only by citizen complaints? That is the breakdown of civil society.

Citizen complaint is ineffective, especially with cannabis growers, some of whom syphon water illegally out of creeks, dump chemicals into creeks, and protect their crops with guns and dogs. Obviously, neighbors are fearful to report growers living nearby.

On our County roads, water trucks and other delivery vehicles go barrelling up and down the roads with alarming frequency, giving these roads an extra hard beating, resulting in road damage. The growers should pay for road maintenance.

Cannabis is a legal business with an outlaw mentality. It should be monitored as any other industry or business, and the owners held to the standards that other business owners adhere to, in the areas of contamination, lighting, resources, hours of operation, and treatment and salary of employees.

Done correctly, marijuana growing would not harm my property value or rlationships between neighbors, but with the County completely abandoning their responsibilities to monitor the industry, and now ready to open up to huge increases in the growing operation, this is really turning into a disaster. I feel so angry that the County of Mendocino has not yet managed to do their job well.