Opinions divided at first marijuana town hall

The consensus from those asking the commissioners to opt out was that Ballot Measure 91 was a giant document and people needed more time to understand it.

Dufur resident Kathleen Cantrell even did a poll of the room and asked how many people had read Measure 91. Only a handful raised their hand.

YouthThink Prevention Specialist Debbie Jones, who said she spent the last few days with over 400 middle schoolers and learned their perception was that more adults were regularly using marijuana than getting drunk off alcohol, encouraged the commissioners to “push the pause button to allow citizens to educate themselves.”

Liz Turner agreed.

“The rules are so complicated,” Turner said. “Good news is we can put it on the ballot. It’s going to buy us time. There’s going to be lots of problems. You see how big that is. The smartest thing now is to wait.”

Farmers Mike Davis and Chris Schanno sang a different tune and asked the commissioners to allow marijuana businesses. Both pointed out that because of Measure 91 marijuana is legal, there will be growers in other counties, and Wasco should take advantage of the jobs and tax revenue.

According to the law, a county or city that opts out of any of the marijuana businesses will not receive any state or local tax revenue.

“I don’t want to see it turned down because people are afraid of marijuana because guess what, you’re not going to get away from it,” Schanno said. “It’s out there. It’s legal in the state of Oregon and we can’t stop it from happening. It’s going to be legal in other counties, possibly Hood River, anywhere close to us and to say we’re going to stop it by putting a moratorium on it right now is impossible. It’s not going to happen. I’m not going to turn down a viable crop that can grow here if it’s going to make money and it’s going to increase the value of our property. I don’t want my kids smoking pot. I don’t smoke pot. I’m not interested in it but it’s going to be legal.

“To wait a year or two years, we will have passed by and the majority of the money that’s going to come to the community the same way it passed by with the windmills and the same way it passed by with other things.

“Keep an open mind and think about bringing money into the community so that we can pay for roads and we can pay for schools and we can pay for things that are important.”

The annual sales tax could exceed $20,000 in Wasco County. That money will go to the common school fund, mental health alcoholism and drug services, state police, cities and counties for enforcement of the measure and the Oregon Health Authority for alcohol and drug abuse prevention.

“If we decided to do a moratorium and push back and then a year, the processors are going to a different county and we lose that business,” Davis said. “All the growers are going to be at a disadvantage. My feeling is since we’re in it, I think we should embrace it and be educated.”

Reading from a piece of paper, Dufur resident David Wehrly spoke strongly against legalizing marijuana businesses in Wasco County because of the amount of water and power pot growers would use.

“Once again Wasco County has the opportunity to hang out its ‘kick me’ sign,” he said. “Wasco has become an uncontrolled mass gathering magnet, it harbors illegals as a ‘sanctuary county’ and now is moving to violate Federal drug laws.

“The Wasco County commissioners need to finally stand up for the citizens of the unincorporated parts of the county that elected them and pass an ordinance against all six elements of the marijuana legislation,” he said. “The voters will then say at the polls in November 2016, to both Salem and the commissioners, we will not sell our souls or community for those Biblical thirty pieces of silver.”

Schanno addressed Wehrly’s water and power concerns.

“The water use, I believe is an astronomical misnomer,” Schanno said. “We have water rights. We have to live by them. If I grow a crop and my water rights are shut off, I’m out of luck, whether that be hay, orchards, whatever agricultural commodity. We have to listen to the people who tell us when we can and cannot use water.”

Schanno gave the example of Azure Standard, a farm in Dufur that is a “viable agricultural community” and uses a lot of power in their greenhouse.

“They put a bunch of money and a bunch of jobs right here and to say their greenhouse is not helping us and we shouldn’t have another greenhouse because it’s growing pot and not tomatoes is out of line,” Schanno said.

Thursday’s town hall was the first of two for the Wasco County Board of Commissioners to head citizen’s input on recreational marijuana. The second is Monday at 5:30 p.m. in the Mosier Senior Center.