BOARD REVISITS MARIJUANA ORDINANCE

Tehama Supervisors to Vote on Limiting Size, Location of Gardens

Tehama County supervisors are expected to revisit a controversial
medical marijuana ordinance before the growing season ends this fall.

"We're still working on it," Supervisor Bob Williams said last week. A
revamped ordinance that limits the size and location of medical
marijuana gardens will probably go before the Board of Supervisors
late this month or in early October, he said.

"We have at least two more meetings and then we'll finalize it," said
Williams, who with Supervisor Gregg Avilla was named to an ad hoc, or
temporary, committee to refine the proposal.

In July, the board failed to pass a law that would have capped at 30
the number of plants allowed at one location; prohibited gardens
closer than 1,000 feet to churches, schools, day care centers and
similar facilities; required fencing and security around gardens; and
mandated registration with the county Health Services Agency.

Gardens in violation would be declared public nuisances, making owners
responsible for the cost of removing the plants.

"We've made some changes and some additions and that's what we're
going to propose to the board," said Williams, who submitted the
original ordinance modeled after one in Mendocino County. He declined
to be specific, except to say drafts of the registration form and a
landowner letter acknowledging the garden's existence will be included.

"What we'll end up with will be a good ordinance," he
said.

When Williams introduced the proposal, spurred by citizen uproar over
a garden near a school bus stop in the Gerber area, some complained it
was being rushed through.

Williams said he and Avilla have since met with Sheriff Clay Parker
and District Attorney Gregg Cohen. Parker said in a recent interview
that while he initially opposed the process, he can now support the
ordinance.

"I think that it was done too quickly," Parker said. "Now that it has
had time to be looked at a little more, I do not have any opposition
to it being enacted."

Jason Browne, a Tehama County cannabis patient and longtime advocate
for others like him, said he's disappointed that meetings to work on
the measure haven't been more inclusive.

"Instead they've formed a committee of two," he said. "They stand to
lose nothing by having a proper committee or even a task force."

With its references to violence that surrounds illegal marijuana
growing, he also believes the ordinance unduly stigmatizes cannabis
patients.

"They're lumping us in the same category as the criminal market and
they shouldn't do that," he said. "They're basically saying that we as
patients are a public nuisance."

Opponents also took issue with fencing and security rules and
assertions that lighting for indoor gardens posed special fire hazards.

While pot cultivation is forbidden under federal law, California first
legalized medical marijuana for qualified patients in 1996 under
Proposition 215. In 2004, Senate Bill 420 established statewide
guidelines that allow patients up to six mature or 12 immature plants
and up to 1/2 pound of dried, processed pot.

"I've been dealing with this for 14 years," said Parker, noting that
the county has adopted the state limits by resolution. He said his
office has worked with "dozens" of medicinal pot growers in explaining
the guidelines.

Most are legitimate patients, he said. But he has no tolerance for
people who cultivate pot for a profit.

For his part, Browne thinks it all comes down to recognizing both
public safety and patients' rights.

"Those two things are not mutually exclusive," he said.