The following comes from a Dec. 14 story by Valerie Schmalz in Catholic San Francisco.

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted 5-to-0 to allow commercial marijuana farming in greenhouses and nurseries in the areas zoned agricultural, located almost entirely in the Half Moon Bay region along the Pacific Ocean.

“The pot growers see this allowing greenhouse cultivation of pot in primarily coastal San Mateo as the first step in making San Mateo a large production, manufacturing and distribution center for this drug,” said Our Lady of the Pillar parishioner Anne Martin, who fears the coastside will soon become “the Napa Valley of pot.” Restrictions against retail, processing, storage and outdoor cultivation expire December 2018, unless extended by the San Mateo County supervisors who have jurisdiction over the unincorporated areas of the county, Martin said.

“It’s not a good message we are sending to our youth or children,” said Yolanda Novelo, a San Mateo County mental health social worker, who said that many farmworkers from Mexico, El Salvador and other parts of South America oppose marijuana farms. “Most of these families are being traumatized from drug violence in Mexico or other parts of South America. And, you know, I am just concerned that’s where we are going to end up….”