Hello everyone, Hope all is well with you. : ) The Sonoma city council will vote to ban *all* outdoor cultivation this Monday night, May 7, 2018. (City Council Chambers, 177 First Street West, 6pm) We only need to sway one council member's vote and the best way to do that is to send an email to all of them as soon as possible. We ask you to *please* do so and we've made it *very easy* to send. You don't have to compose anything, you don't have to look for addresses. Just come visit our website at http://www.sonomavalleycannabisgroup.com/email-council/ There you will find our letter to the Council. The only fields you need to fill out are Name, Email and Zipcode, 95476. (Please refrain from sending if you don’t live in the city limits. Those fortunate enough to live outside the limits, like Agua, Boyes and Fetters, are exempt from this ban.) Now press Send and it will go to the entire city council, directly from our web site. You’ll also receive a copy of the email you sent as verification. No muss, no fuss! You can even edit the body of the letter to say anything you’d like. Just remember, effective emails are courteous. Be firm if you like, but polite. If you have any questions or problems sending, please shoot me an email at Gil@sonomavalleycannabisgroup.com. Thank you all! This is the text of the letter. Yes, it’s long, but the main points are all “above the fold”, so even if the recipient bails out on reading the entire text, they will have seen the salient points up top: To the City Council: I’m writing today to ask the council to permit the personal outdoor cultivation of cannabis. Banning outdoor medical cultivation will create an undue hardship on the substantial number of patients who rely on cannabis to relieve symptoms of any number of ailments, from crippling arthritis to cancer. Many are home-bound and unable to travel long distances to acquire medication. Seniors especially, are likely on a fixed income, making it difficult for them to afford relief. I do not believe the majority of your constituents would agree that it is at all fair or equitable to subjugate the physical and emotional welfare of those most in need to misdirected concerns and old stigmas that still pervade this issue. I ask you, members of the council, to please take this issue to heart, especially as it regards medical patients. This is not the time to turn your backs on those seeking relief. It is time to find the courage to lead Sonoma away from fear and toward compassionate understanding. There are several reasons why the council should say no to this proposed ordinance. 1. Any ban hurts patients, many of whom are housebound and/or, in the case of our seniors, living on a fixed income. 2. Cannabis grown outdoors is natural, affordable, and environmentally friendly. 3. Indoor cultivation can be unaffordable, resulting in higher electrical cost, high equipment costs, and high cost of building acceptable structure. 4. Indoor cultivation poses unacceptable fire hazard. 5. No violent crime is associated with such small grows that involve no cash. 6. There are several solutions for mitigating odor. 7. Any outdoor ban becomes invalid when the California Attorney General determines that cannabis is legal under federal law. Considering the very latest developments in Washington, this is not far off. 8. Should the city ban personal outdoor cultivation, it will be ineligible for grants made by the state to assist with law enforcement, fire protection, or other local programs addressing public health and safety associated with the implementation of Prop 64. Let’s reconsider all the points in favor of allowing outdoor personal medical cannabis cultivation: It’s the best medicine: Cannabis grown outdoors is the most natural, affordable, medical quality medicine for patients to produce for themselves. Negative economic impact on patients: It is not affordable for low-income patients to purchase equipment for indoor cultivation, pay high electric bills, or to build a structure that may require City Permits. Dispensary prices are cost prohibitive for those on fixed incomes. We need to keep affordable options available for medical cannabis patients. It’s environment friendly: Compared to indoor grown cannabis, sun grown plants typically require less soil amendments, fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides, and use no more water than your tomato plants do. The city of Sonoma prides itself in being green, sustainable, and environmentally conscious. By forcing cannabis cultivation indoors, it does not meet these goals, and increases our county’s Carbon footprint. Fire hazard: Considering what this city and county has been through the past few months, mitigating risk of fire should be paramount. According to Press Democrat search results, there have been at least 7 house fires associated with indoor grows in the County over the last four years, at least 2 of which have occurred in the greater Sonoma area. Lighting and ventilation systems pose fire danger. Violent crime: Personal medical or recreational grows of up to 6 plants do not open a door to violent crime. The number of plants is too low and no large amounts of cash are involved. Odor: We live in a world of smells that aren’t always appealing to some. Breweries, coffee roasteries, auto exhausts are just a few that come to mind. We are subjected to the vinegary smell of grapes clipped from their vines and dropped in the vineyards along with hay and the lees from fermentation that are put back into the vineyards as compost. And of course, there is the infamous “Sonoma Aroma”. A couple of times each year, local dairy farmers start pumping out their holding ponds to spread cow manure on their fields. The odor can range from Petaluma to Sonoma in the east and all the way north to Healdsburg. Odor can be mitigated through companion planting of lavender, jasmine, rosemary, basil and many other pleasant smelling flowers and herbs. Consider that San Luis Obispo has resolved this issue through an ordinance that assumes that any odor (whether cannabis or not) is “offensive to individuals of normal sensitivity” if the city receives three or more complaints within a month from separate households or businesses about a single source of odor. In Denver, Colorado, violations occur only when an odor exceeds a 7-1 ratio - when one volume of odor is detectable within seven or more volumes of non-odorous air. Members of neighborhoods should navigate issues among themselves, first. Cannabis, tobacco smoke and barking dogs are all neighbor conflicts that share many of the same dynamics. There should always be room to propose solutions, negotiate, or seek mediation. Ban will become invalid: According to Prop 64, any outdoor ban will become invalid when the California Attorney General determines that non-medical marijuana has become legal under federal law. Less revenue: Section 34019 (f) C of the Revenue and Taxation Code authorizes state grants to local governments to assist with law enforcement, fire protections, or other public health and safety programs associated with implementing Prop 64. **However, local governments stand to lose grant funding under Section 34019 (f) 3(C) if they prohibit retail sales or cultivation, including outdoor personal use cultivation.** Respectfully,