Dec 16 2024 Newsletter -Do You Want to Share Your Roads With Impaired Cannabis Drivers?

Supervisors’ Cannabis Events Policy Endangers Drivers and Bicyclists

Next year you may be driving or bicycling on a narrow road in Sonoma County’s bucolic countryside. Suddenly a vehicle careens around a blind curve. The driver is impaired after consuming marijuana at a “cannabis event” and loses control.

If you are lucky and a shoulder is handy you may avoid tragedy. If not, you could be a statistic. One in five traffic fatalities now are attributed to marijuana use.

Permit Sonoma, as directed by the Supervisors, is chasing a pipe dream. They hope that tastings, tours, and weddings will rescue the failing cannabis industry. County residents? We’re just collateral damage. In 2016 officials claimed that cannabis revenue would fund multiple programs. Instead, the County is subsidizing cultivation with your property taxes.

They will allow over 100 “events” per year at most rural parcels, including those that don’t cultivate marijuana. That’s almost twice a week per parcel.

Many marijuana users don’t grasp the reality that cannabis impairs the ability to drive for hours. They can’t predict when the effects will occur, and law enforcement officers can’t test for inebriation.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Supervisor James Gore told a resident that if she doesn’t like his marijuana policies, she should move somewhere else. That was a curious suggestion from someone who vacations at his property in Texas, where marijuana is illegal.

If moving out of Sonoma County or to another state is an option works for you, do nothing.

If not, call your supervisor (707-565-2241) ask why he or she supports a dangerous and unconscionable events policy.

Send this message to friends and neighbors and ask them to call their supervisor.

PLEASE DONATE

Take action - DONATE TODAY.

Donate generously to our legal fund to resist this outrageous and unconscionable policy.

Your tax-deductible donation also will fund technical experts and research that are critical to our effort to require the County protect our environment, children, and the health and safety of our neighborhoods.  New research, health studies and economic trends identify viable options. Our goal is to enlighten and persuade public decision-makers to make better choices.

The Neighborhood Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, volunteer-based, dedicated to advocating for proper cannabis and land-use policies that benefit the community. All donations support these efforts.

You can also mail a check to:
Sonoma Neighborhood Coalition
PO Box 1229
Sebastopol, CA 95473

Thank you for your support and donation.
The Neighborhood Coalition team