LAKEPORT >> Michael Green began his medical marijuana advocacy nearly six years ago in the Central Valley ago called by what he said was a “sense of duty.”
A former journalist, he felt like he had to speak out against Fresno County’s strict bans on medical marijuana, imposing harsh fines on average citizens with small growing operations for personal use or collectives.
“I stood up where I could to say that’s not the best approach,” Green said. “At the end of the day I probably stood up one or two times too many but it’s still important to get the idea that, whatever you think about it, you still have to treat people with respect. You still have to give people due process when you take action against them.”
Since moving to Lake County in 2014, the 57-year-old has continued his mission, speaking out at numerous government meetings regarding regulation. He’s also gathered many of the legitimate growers in the county and created the Lake County Growers Association.
But now, he wants to go on the other side of the dais by being a Lakeport City Councilman and thus helping guide the city that faces new pot legislation.
“I think what I would bring is being able to be kind of a spirit guide … to be able to give a guided tour through this bumpy road of cannabis regulation, that is coming ahead.”
The Issues
Although marijuana regulation is one of his main focuses, it ultimately leads to a glaring city issue — a lack of revenues.
“Right now, we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Green noted. “We do have an opportunity with the cannabis marketplace to not only put in place some good business but perhaps put a cannabis tax on the ballot in 2018 or 2020 that would actually get a little bit of local income off of those businesses.”
One idea is to reach out to companies in the industry that are looking for new headquarters as the state rolls out the 2015 Medical Marijuana Safety and Regulation Act and or Proposition 64 if its passed by the voters in November. Yet, he believes it will require proactivity similar to the actions currently taken by the county like Measure C, for which he’s also leading a campaign.
According to him, both governments should focus on pot instead of the annexation battle because the potential income is much greater.
“It’s like two dogs fighting over a small bone. We need to grow revenues above and beyond whatever’s on the table there,” he added. “We need to move beyond that.”
Another issue he wants to address is the city’s tourism. While Green doesn’t have a specific plan, he said he wants to explore lakefront revitalization such as a hotel.
Finally, Green’s last big issue is technology. A website designer himself, he wants to do what he can to support e-commerce. Specifically, his focus will be on the connectivity infrastructure.
“First thing I would have to do is research but I have an inkling that we may not be exactly where we need to be on our pipeline,” he said. “We can talk about tech all day long but if we don’t have the biggest, baddest pipeline, that’s going to be a technological hurdle we can’t get over, so we have to talk about that.”
