Bee Opinionated: State Fair says yes to pot, county says no + When COVID finally gets you
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It’s Robin Epley, with The Bee Editorial Board. Let’s talk about marijuana.
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors turned down up to $9 million in estimated tax revenue from allowing cannabis sales in unincorporated areas. Before last week’s vote, we suggested in an editorial that the county could use the revenue to fund youth prevention programs. But supervisors didn’t even get that far. The final tally to put a measure on the November ballot fell short by one vote.
Board Chair Don Nottoli’s reasoning for rejecting the proposal was that consumers could easily get the product in the city of Sacramento. As fellow Supervisor Rich Desmond pointed out during the meeting, that’s not necessarily a good thing:
“Cannabis products are prolific in the unincorporated county. It’s everywhere, and the tax revenue is all going to the city of Sacramento. So we’re not only leaving money on the table; we are allowing a different municipality to be the only one making decisions about how the tax money is spent.”
And making money they are: City officials told me that Sacramento saw cannabis tax revenues grow from $4.8 million in 2017 to $25.4 million last year.
The county proposal needed four out of five votes to pass, but it’s unlikely the county will find a way to resuscitate it in time to meet this month’s deadline for ballot measures. The whole process so perfectly encapsulated the county’s inability to get anything important done in a timely manner.
Reefer Gladness
For the first time, the California State Fair held a cannabis competition and is featuring a museum-like exhibit, wrote Yousef Baig. Organizers hope it will become just another agricultural show at the fair, but based on some of the reaction to the inaugural competition, it still has a long way to go before being accepted.
Just to be clear, no one is getting “stoned” inside Cal Expo — it’s a showcase of what California farmers have spent decades working to perfect, and they deserve the chance to show off their crops like any other industry, Baig wrote.
“Marijuana has been elevated to its rightful place alongside the state’s other world renown agricultural products, including beer, wine, olive oil and cheese. But the reflex to shun cannabis takes up energy that could be better used to deepen our public understanding of it, overshadowing the craftsmanship and work of farmers.”
On The Sick List
Marcos Breton came back from a recent trip to Hawaii with more than a tan — he and his family finally caught COVID after two long years of dodging the virus. He wrote a compelling column about how COVID is still affecting our lives long after many Californians have stopped trying to slow the spread.
“This pandemic is hopelessly politicized to the point where many liberals and conservatives are acting as if it’s over for their own partisan reasons. Politics have vanquished science. We’ve seemingly given up on reducing transmission. And that means we’ve given up on looking out for each other. Someday social scientists will have a field day studying how shared sacrifice was dumped in favor of falsehoods about the virus.”
AAPI Changemakers
Help us honor AAPI leaders by nominating community members who have invigorated Sacramento with their vision, authenticity and creativity in The Bee’s inaugural AAPI Changemakers project, in partnership with the Nehemiah Emerging Leaders Program.
You can find more information, as well as a submission form, here.
Opinion of the Week
“And if we keep prosecuting insurrectionist minnows like (Stephen) Ayres — 874 had been arrested at last count — but then let the flounder-in-chief swim free of the net, the former president’s coup attempt will have succeeded.” — Melinda Henneberger in a column this week admonishing the punishment of Jan. 6 “bit players” while outlining the stakes if the investigation fails to ensnare the biggest fish.
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Hope you got in a nice nap this weekend,
Robin Epley
