Given the great opportunities that come with cannabis — jobs, tax revenues and industrial hemp farming and manufacturing — Fresno city and county officials decided to ban it completely.

Fresno, the fifth largest city in California, sits amid the Central Valley, a key producer of agricultural products. Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman compared the Valley to Detroit. Some 80% of its farms are family owned; many are failing. Fresno has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. The mayor has asked its citizens to donate $1 each to help take care of the homeless. Cannabis could help cure some of its ills.

Nonetheless, in September 2009, Fresno City Council banned all medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives, using “must be federally legal” language in their ordinance. Fresno dispensaries shut down or moved into unincorporated parts of the county, including some areas within city boundaries.

In July 2010, the County Board of Supervisors took action against the collectives by placing a moratorium on new shops. In September, it banned outdoor cultivation. When the Planning Dept. brought a draft regulation ordinance to the Board in December, it was told to move forward with a ban instead.

“This directive defies not only safe access, common sense and changing public attitudes toward cannabis, but also state law and the attorney general’s guidelines,” said Shannon Luce of the Mind, Body and Soul Collective.

“We should be putting our farmers to work and improving the quality of the soil, air and life in general by planting industrial hemp across the Valley floor. We should be re-tooling our farms and factories to accommodate the production of hemp and its 30,000-plus uses. We should be focusing heavily on cannabis bio-fuel production with the oil reserves declining at a rate of 40% annually.”

Luce said there is currently a Central Valley chapter of NORML forming. “They are a wonderful, dedicated group of people with fabulous ideas for the future of cannabis in the Central Valley.”