rough draft position paper

Rachelle Gainer

Position paper

English 101


Pot farms in rural areas


After passing initiative I-502(legalization of marijuana) there has been a lot of issues in creating the laws that are going to be taking effect. Recently when working, one of my everyday costumers came in and expressed her concern to me. She was upset, “can you believe they are trying to put one of those marijuana farms down the road from us?” Her concerns were similar to those that I have recently heard on the local news or papers; “It will bring weird people around,” or “crime in my neighborhood is going to go up.” Being a dear customer of mine that I have also come to have a friendship I sympathized for her worries but trying to prevent bickering happening between costumer and employee I didn’t let her know that I thought her concerns were unnecessary and we should have a right to put any agriculture that has been legalized by the people on our own personal property with certain restrictions.
I understand the many worried neighbors that believe crime will began to populate in there neighborhoods I don’t think its as bad as what they are imagining. Its believed that pot farms are going to be notorious for being broken into. None off the finished product that is of interest will actually stay there, It is shipped of to local dispensaries. The business owners that have put thousands of dollars if not hundreds of thousands into their farms are going to do whatever it takes to make sure that this isn’t going to happen, their concern is at a much higher stand point. They will have high fencing, if not double fencing, cameras and more. As you read in www.king5.com article Pot farms next door a 'complete shock' to neighbors, it states “The pot farmers on hold say they're victims of untrue, fear-based worries such as an increase in crime.” "I think the neighbors who are upset will calm down in 12 months when people see that all of these negative things don't come to fruition," said the "Red Frog" owner. "I live at the end of the property. I'm not interested in having these negative issues." Sometimes people are afraid of the unknown and although majority of us voted this in, there are still going to be people that know nothing of such agriculture and therefore must be cautious. What we do know is that all business’s have a chance of crime. Coffee stands, convenient stores all have reputations for being robbed, yet not so much concerned about those being down the road from your house. Part of this concern seems to come from the type of people that these farm will be attracting, people think that, as my customer would say “a bunch of weirdo’s” will now be in their neighborhood. These farms didn’t get put up by being a slacker of any sort, these are hard working people that took a lot to get here. There is a stereo type here that I see. I didn’t grow up with any religion and know very little about it. I have heard stories my whole life in the news about higher people in churches and religious groups doing bad things and committing bad crimes. Should I protest a church being put up down the road from my house? I know I don’t judge every person that goes to church or who is a priest.


Many parents are concerned with having to drive by the farms everyday and explain to their children what the green stuff in the green houses are. The law states that there has to be an 8 foot fence and in some counties be a certain distance from sight which I totally agree with. Some will probably have higher fencing. When driving by its hard to tell the difference between these and a tomato farm. If you weren’t told my guess is you probably wouldn’t be able to tell and they wont be advertising marijuana plants out front of the farm. I have to assume that the people with these concerns do not smoke cigarettes or have a drink at a BBQ because how else would they not know how to explain to their children about marijuana. Would a winery be acceptable down the road? Or a tobacco farm? Cannabis is not something that should be treated any different.
These marijuana farms could actually help local neighborhoods. Its always good to have a booming business in your community and this business is definitely booming. Having a good economy starts in your own neighborhood. As it list on the website http://wallstcheatsheet.com/business/16-jobs , the manufacturing can be quit the process from start to finish and it list 16 new jobs including government that will be provided by these pot farms like; deliverer, security, trimmer, ect. These could be local jobs created and money going back into local economy. Others can agree like mayor of Cleveland Ohio as you can read at http://wkbn.com article, Ohio could get 10 indoor pot farms if voters OK ballot issue, where it states “If this gets legalized, why would you not want the city to benefit economically?” Ritenauer said, adding that the farm could produce as much as $2 million annually for his cash-strapped city of 64,000 people.

There can be other huge benefits by having more legalized local farms as well. Watching the video from http://www.motherjones.com/environment you’ll see the impact that illegal outdoor pot farms in the “emerald triangle” - the triad of Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties. It shows the pollution that these unregulated farms are leaving behind. a lot of camping supplies are left behind. They are creating their own irrigation by redirecting and damning streams. They also have been known to poison some of the animals to keep them away from the plants. This kind of irrigation is not suppose to be done in the middle of the forest there. As we all should know we could definitely go with out all the garbage left behind. I also believe we should be able to walk into are national forest that belongs to all the people and not have to worry about running into someone’s crop. Though I agree with some of the things in this video they may try to over due parts. They mention one of the guys they found had a gun on his hip but they don’t say it was hidden, he resisted, that he was violent, or that it was an illegal gun. After all he was hiking in the middle of the woods by himself, most men would carry a gun. I think its one of those things people want you to fear more of what you don’t understand. What might help prevent this continued abuse to the national forest and restore the ability to safely use all the land everyone of us own is by letting the people use their own private land to harvest their crops legally. A lot of the trash was from campers up there. Not only could this help by having local trash cans to dump garbage and prevent it from being in the woods, but there would be people to regulate what chemicals the farms will be using to element waste in the wrong places. There also wouldn’t be the same problem with animals so they wouldn’t have to use poison and risk damaging the ecosystem.


There is a reason why majority ruled and why so many people worked for so many years to get here. I feel for peoples concerns but I don’t think by having marijuana farms in our neighborhood will be a bad thing. Education can be beneficial to all. We still have a long road with initiative I-502 but I think it will be what we make of it.