There are some issues that transcend local government boundaries. Air pollution, traffic congestion, crime — these issues ignore lines on a map. The same is true for medical marijuana, which is legal in California. However, growing, selling and using it, even for medicinal purposes, can cause all kinds of problems that do not stay within local jurisdictional boundaries.

Those issues are likely to expand if the recreational use of marijuana becomes legal in California—something many people expect to happen, possibly this year. That’s why six California Counties — Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte, Lake, Trinity and Sonoma (all “grow counties” where marijuana is already a cash crop) banded together to try to influence the California Legislature as it considered new state policies related to marijuana.