You are probably aware of the fact that there are different levels of health care available based on your ability to pay for it, but if a proposed new county ordinance passes we will have a new category of patient, the medical marijuana user.

If enacted, this ordinance will make the medical marijuana user a second-class citizen, who's visual presence has been deemed so disturbing that they are to be segregated from the decent folk by forcing them to buy their medicine from dispensaries located in places zoned for heavy industrial use.

Among other hurdles thrown at medical marijuana patients, dispensaries must be closed by 8 p.m., and the dispensaries won't even be allowed to describe their business on their signs, which are to be extra-small in size as well.

Why such harsh measures to manage a group of people who have caused no significant problems in the many years dispensaries have been in operation in Lake County?

It's due to a basic misconception about the marijuana business that has taken hold in some quarters, which is that Lake County is becoming a dope-a-topia for pot growers and that unless strict limits on dispensaries are passed we will soon be overrun by pot shops that will in turn hamper all other forms of commerce.

This is a completely off-base analysis as it shows a total lack of understanding of both the marijuana

business and basic economics as well, as the real outlook for pot production and sales here in Lake County isn't for expansion – it's for a shrinking of it.

Unlike other crops like winegrapes, pears and walnuts, there is nothing about Lake County's soils or climate that suit it to growing pot, and in recent years there has been an ever-increasing amount of medicinal pot being grown in urban areas – a trend certain to continue.

With large legal, government-sanctioned grows in the cities there is less reason to grow in remote rural areas like Lake County, and as there are more sources at the production end every day there has been a dramatic reduction in the value of marijuana, meaning it's becoming less and less profitable for growers. So the feared invasion of pot tourists isn't going to happen, as there will always be sources closer to home to access.

In fact, if there is an issue worth worrying about it is the fact that the local marijuana business is certain to lose its market share in the coming years, meaning that the roughly 2,000 to 3,000 people here who work full- or part-time growing, selling and processing pot will be reduced, which in turn will affect nearly every business in the county – for the worse!

Like it or not our local economy has become dependent on the tens of millions of dollars put into it every year by the marijuana business, and you would be hard pressed to find a business here that hasn't profited from it – in fact, it has probably saved a few from bankruptcy.

We don't need draconian laws to solve imaginary problems and don't need the government meddling in and micromanaging our health care more than they already do, and every real American should be offended by the concept of unjustified discrimination against a segment of our society that should have our compassion rather than our disdain.

Ironically, the people who would most benefit from this plan are the illegal growers, who will be more than happy to take up the slack when dispensaries close.

This is the time to let our leaders know that we will not tolerate this sort of second class citizenship bestowed on medical marijuana users, as the county planning commission will be taking up this proposal on April 28 at 10 a.m., after which it will go to the Board of Supervisors.

Philip Murphy lives in Lakeport, Calif.