Cannabis production makes problems

Posted

I am writing to The Leader in reference to Jefferson County DCD building application #MLA18-00102, Tracy Williamson, for a Cottage Industry Cannabis Processing Plant on Coyle Road.

Anyone who has driven down the Toandos Peninsula with the Olympic Mountains showing their full beauty and the rhododendrons in full bloom, knows a cannabis processing plant neither belongs here, nor is it a cottage industry. Cannabis growing and processing is not a cottage industry but a drug industry and needs to be treated as such. It does not belong in one of the most beautiful areas of the Olympic Peninsula. Yes, we have lots of land; lots of safety for a crime-prone industry. Or do we have lots of safety? According to our last community meeting with our county sheriff, drug use is the main reason for home burglaries in this area.

We already have one cannabis grow out on Coyle. When will we all lose the value of our rural lifestyle, the value of our homes and land, and deem the Coyle Peninsula the new cannabis production capital of Jefferson County?

No amount of screening stops smells, and no matter how safe you try to make cannabis, it is still a highly sought-after commodity creating the potential for criminal activity.

Allowing the continued purchase of rural residential land with the intent to grow or process cannabis is not protecting the environment of the beautiful Hood Canal. Many chemicals are used to grow this crop. How can the county call for the protection of our water supply and Hood Canal’s shellfish industry when they allow such a chemical-heavy industry to infiltrate our beautiful, pristine environment? I’ll tell you how. Taxes! As long as it isn’t in Port Townsend, who cares. Send it to the countryside!

Joy and Ward McDonald
Quilcene