When Measure A’s proponents collected signatures for their petition to place it on the ballot, they failed to disclose the initiative’s impacts, according to Nicholas Sanders, the attorney representing several cannabis cultivators and the Humboldt County Growers Alliance trade group. However, Measure A’s proponents did not have to outline every possible implication of the initiative and provided fully accurate information to their signatories, said Kevin Bundy, the attorney representing Measure A’s creators Mark Thurmond and Elizabeth Watson.
The county's cannabis initiative would cap permits at 1,400 and reduce total acreage to 482 down from 3,500 permits and 1,205 acres total in order to greater regulate cannabis grows in the county, but not to the extent of Measure A, which would ban new or expanded permits for mixed light and indoor grows and grows over 10,000 square feet. Measure A's proponents say it would enshrine protections for neighborhoods and watersheds that could not be easily undone, since only another county-wide measure could repeal their proposed new rules. Measure A's detractors, which include the Humboldt County Growers Alliance, a cannabis industry trade group, argue that if passed, the measure would make local cultivation unfeasible.