COUNTY SEEKS TO IRON OUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA ISSUES

Seeking to get out in front of issues surrounding the use and growing
of medical marijuana in Humboldt County, the Board of Supervisors on
Tuesday appointed supervisors Mark Lovelace and Jimmy Smith to a
subcommittee charged with brainstorming possible regulations.

Lovelace, representing the county's 3rd District, said the goal would
be to explore various options -- without hurting patients who
legitimately need their medicine -- to eliminate some of the
consequences that can arise from medical grows, such as fires and
building code violations, among others.

"We need to find a way to deal with it so that people who need
medical marijuana ... can grow it or have access to it without
inviting the abuses that we've seen, and without the potential
neighborhood impacts," Lovelace said.

During his campaign for the 3rd District seat, Lovelace said it
topped the list of voter concerns.

"Again and again, I heard, 'I support 215, but we're seeing too much
abuse of the public's compassion on this issue,'" Lovelace said.

The subcommittee will consult and work with other municipalities, law
enforcement, patient advocates, and dispensaries, among other
interest groups, to find the best approach to regulation, Lovelace said.

Greg Allen, local attorney and a spokesman for Humboldt Medical
Supply, said it's clear that among those growing medical marijuana,
there are some who do not take the necessary precautions for their
own safety, and that of others.

"It appears that there needs to be some sort of regulation so that at
least everyone knows what the rules of the game are and can follow
them," Allen said. "For those that don't, then having some regulation
is a vehicle for bringing these folks to heel."

But for growers who are not operating under a Proposition 215
umbrella, regulations will have little if any effect, he said.

"For those folks who are illegal, under the law they are criminals,"
Allen said. "Anyone would have to be skeptical that regulations are
going to do much with these folks."

Similarly, Allen said any new rules by the county will have no impact
on the biggest marijuana problem of all -- the outbreak of vast
marijuana plantations on public lands, which are often manned by armed guards.

But medical growers would likely cooperate, at least to establish
where they stand legally.

But even with buy-in by the area's medical providers, how do such
regulations get enforced?

"In terms of having an enforcement mechanism, I'm somewhat skeptical
that there's much the county can do," he said. "It's a very, very
slippery slope when one starts playing with a person's rights under
the Fourth Amendment. ... A supreme court justice has defined the
most precious right as the right to be left alone, so anything that
creates contact or conflict with law enforcement is not a good idea."

At the same time, Lovelace said his constituents have voiced fears
that if the problems surrounding medical marijuana aren't dealt with,
there could be a backlash against compassionate use.

"We just need to find a way to make this work," Lovelace said. "What
those ways will be, I don't know."

In other business, the board voted unanimously to support a decision
by the Headwaters Fund Board to reject a grant application that would
have helped fund an online nursing program at Humboldt State University.