Angst and trepidation grip the Emerald triangle’s Trinity County: Poised to legalize recreational marijuana this November, legalization for the masses minus equal opportunity for all cultivators … reeks of treacherous nepotism.

Welcome to California 2016.

Looking to help spread the word about The Trinity County Board of Supervisors’ lack of proactive planning, a diligent Weedmaps sales rep sent Marijuana.com this plea for help from the Conscious Cannabis Resources of Trinity County:

“Trinity County, although never really talked about, is one of the corners of the Emerald Triangle. Trinity supplies roughly 25% of the Cannabis in Southern California. For our collective (From the Garden Deliveries and West Coast Native Growers), it supplies 100% of it. It is the very last county of the Emerald Triangle that has not put out an Ordinance to officially close the Emerald Triangle and secure our spots for the legalization of Cannabis in California.

Last October, the state of California passed three laws to regulate the medical cannabis industry. Counties throughout the state have been scrambling ever since to either ban these activities and businesses or write new ordinances to govern them. We were told by our local government at the time these laws passed that we would have some kind of commercial cultivation ordinance by this spring in order to give local farmers direction. Unfortunately, that mark was not met, and we don’t know when we will get a commercial ordinance. This leaves us with only the personal use ordinance from 2012 to reign as the law of the land, making most existing farms in Trinity illegal. To make matters worse, there is an active citizenry driving all over the public roads of the County filing complaints on any address they can find with more than 8 plants (the personal use ordinance maximum). All this adds up to a summer full of fear, and enforcement rather than regulation and compliance.

The citations that were and are currently being handed out are civil citations. These citations are given by the county sheriff’s department without proper due process and with no official notices sent nor proper notification of hearings. The only reason why we were aware of our fee waiver hearings is because of our legal team. Because of the nature of the citations we have no choice but to exhaust our administrative appeals before we can move further.

I know it’s a lot to take in, but something has to be done, and fast.

We are here organizing and trying to gather all the small local growers here in Trinity County to stand up for their rights and fight back against a system that is set in place to tear them down. There are thousands of small family growers that stand to lose everything if we are not successful. We need the support of the Cannabis community now, more than ever; to let the farmers who help make this industry what it is, know that they are not alone.”

Ignored by their elected officials, the OG cultivators of Trinity County, many of whom helped to create the Emerald Triangle as we know it today, fear their way of life is about to come to an abrupt halt. After observing and absorbing the lessons learned from Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, Trinity’s CCR hopes you will help encourage the Trinity County Board of Supervisors to avoid some of the more egregious oversights of legalization, while at the same time cultivating a bold new horizon … for the benefit all.