TRINITY COUNTY SCHOOLS FIGHT GROWING BATTLE

Our view: A confusing state law regulating medical use of marijuana
leaves little recourse if the drug is grown a stone's throw from a schoolyard.

In most of the United States, if a marijuana garden sprouted across
the street from a high school, its owner would be in jail faster
than you can say Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

In California, it's more complicated.

Trinity County is wrestling with how to handle what school
superintendents and other critics say is the spread of open
marijuana growing since the county Board of Supervisors relaxed
limits on medical cannabis last fall. The educators worry most about
patches near schools and parks and how they're affecting young people.

Gardens have popped up across the street from Hayfork High School,
down the road from Southern Trinity High School in Mad River, next to
the park in Lewiston.

"I'm concerned about kids seeing it," said Jim French, county
superintendent of schools. "I'm concerned about kids wanting to take
it. I'm concerned about people wanting to protect their gardens."

French is pushing the county to restrict growing within 1,000 feet of
schools, parks, teen centers, child care centers and school bus
stops. The supervisors will discuss a draft of an ordinance later this month.

Marijuana has long been grown -- legally or not -- in Trinity County,
which is one corner of California's "Emerald Triangle." French and
other administrators say, however, that it has recently become much
more easily available.

"Our communities are saturated," Hayfork High Principal Tom Barnett said.

Supervisor Howard Freeman sponsored the policy allowing medical users
to grow and keep more marijuana. He stressed that he shares the
concerns about youth and substance abuse. He added, though, that teen
marijuana use and gardens near schools are long-standing issues that
the new county policy has only brought into the open. The pot was
always there; now it's just more visible.

"I think it's convenient to blame that problem on this policy,"
Freeman said. "I think it's a larger problem that needs to be
addressed. Whether it's six plants or 12 plants, under current state
law, people have the right to grow wherever they choose on their
private property."

Both Freeman and medical-marijuana skeptics like Trinity Supervisor
Roger Jaegel say local officials are trying to work with a confusing
state law. "I think we're fixing the state's problem," Freeman said.

Shasta County District Attorney Jerry Benito, who calls
medical-marijuana laws a widely abused scam, agreed with Freeman on
this point. When school officials have complained about gardens near
Shasta County schools in the past, he's had to tell them that law
enforcement can't do a thing.

It's hard to see why any grower would want to plant medical cannabis
where curious youths (or adults) could see and easily access it.
That's inviting trouble.

At the same time, a 1,000-foot buffer is a fig leaf. Teenagers are
mobile, especially when they reach driving age. A garden might be a
quarter-mile down the road instead of across the street from school,
but the distance will make little difference. As for enforcement?
Let's not get started.

Trinity County's residents will figure out an accommodation, but the
medical-marijuana laws leave California with a paradox.

Prescription painkillers are kept under lock and key in pharmacies.
Buying cold medicine requires a photo ID and a signature. But pot?
You can see it from the schoolyard.