MEDICAL MARIJUANA LIMIT INCREASED

Medical marijuana card holders now can possess as many as 25 plants at any
given time, two to four times what was legal before Wednesday.

But the legal maximum for dried pot remains unchanged, at two pounds.

The county has issued around 800 medical marijuana cards to people in the
county since the program was initiated by District Attorney Norm Vroman and
Sheriff Tony Craver in 1999.

Vroman said Thursday he upped the legal number of plants - from a maximum
of six flowering or 12 immature - at the request of those medical marijuana
patients and care givers.

"I think 25 plants is more in keeping with what they need," he said.

The number was chosen after a couple months of discussions with affected
parties, Vroman said.

"We talked to a lot of people," he said.

Vroman conceded choosing a figure isn't exactly scientific because it's not
possible for him or Craver to figure out just how much marijuana patients
need. Nor are there medical guidelines available to go by.

"We're just flying by the seat of our pants," Vroman said.

Among other things, the new number takes into account that some people have
green thumbs and others don't, Vroman said.

Talented horticulturists can just about get their two pounds from a single
plant, he said.

"I've seen some (plants) that look like trees," Vroman said.

But not-so-adept gardeners may produce scrawny plants, some of which never
reach maturity.

In those cases, patients essentially were being deprived of their
medication, Vroman said.

He said the new numbers also will make it simpler for law enforcement to
determine if someone is growing more than their legal limit.

It will no longer matter whether a plant is mature or not.

The number applies to plants of "any size or shape, indoor or outdoor,"
Vroman said.

Just because someone has more than 25 plants doesn't mean automatic
prosecution, he said.

He said that fact would generate a report, and his office would make a
determination from there.

Vroman said the amount of dried marijuana remained the same because no one
complained about it.

"The only complaints I had was about the number of plants," he said.

Craver said the decision to increase the number of plants to 25 was
Vroman's, but that he has no quarrels with it.

"The law gives him the discretion," he said.

Craver noted the new limit "doesn't sit well with deputies."

But they tend to think of plants in terms of the big ones that produce a
lot of usable weed, he said.

The people he and Vroman have been talking with "haven't been able to grow
a sufficient amount of marijuana to meet their needs," he said.

Often it's because the only place they have to grow is indoors.

And that's costing them.

"I talked to a woman who pays $20 per eighth of an ounce," Craver said.

"The sad part of this is it seems the folks who need it the most are the
folks who do not have the ability to grow in sufficient quantities," he said.