CITY MAY REGULATE MEDICAL POT GROWS

CHICO -- Rebecca Hernandez is a mother of four, a Marine Corps wife
and has spent time serving as a PTA member at her children's schools.

She also grows medical marijuana.

At just 30 years old, Hernandez's medical history is extensive, with
the Chico resident suffering from lupus and fibromyalgia.

She is undergoing chemotherapy for cancerous tumors that were removed
from her uterus and can no longer bear children.

Pain is a part of Hernandez's daily life and something that is
assuaged by the medical marijuana she legally grows in her backyard
within the Chico city limits.

"It allows me to physically move," Hernandez said. "It's lets me
change my child's diapers. It lets me cook for my kids."

But with the Chico City Council exploring the option of regulating
medical marijuana grows, Hernandez is just one Chico resident who may
have to rethink how she treats her ailments.

At Tuesday night's meeting, the council began considering a potential
ordinance to address the reported nuisance of marijuana grows within
the city limits.

After receiving several complaints from local residents regarding the
smell associated with marijuana during harvest time, the council
directed City Attorney Lori Barker to research potential regulations
the city could impose on medical marijuana grows.

Barker's report included the suggestion that should the council draft
an ordinance, the law requires marijuana cultivation to occur indoors.
Barker also advised the ordinance place restrictions on the number of
plants grown as well as ensure the plants grown on a specific piece of
property are only for the use of the property resident. Several
meeting attendees expressed support for the proposal, with Barbara
O'Brien telling the council her neighborhood is infiltrated by a
"horrific odor" the 30 days during the fall harvest.

"It really has become an extremely difficult month for me to live
through," O'Brien said, adding that she suffers from asthma due to the
marijuana smell.

Christine Johnson, whose neighbors also grow medical marijuana, said
she too is affected by the pungent pot plants.

"It is far beyond a nuisance ... it's sickening. It's making us ill,"
Johnson said.

The value of one person's illness over another person's is something
the City Council deliberated over, with Mayor Ann Schwab saying the
right to grow medical marijuana and the right to a positive quality of
life is a delicate balance.

"At what point do individual rights infringe on other people's
individual rights," Schwab asked.

With the council meeting running past midnight, the council voted 6-1
to refer the matter to the city's internal affairs committee, in order
to gain more information before their decision on the potential ordinance.

As part of the research, Councilor Andy Holcombe suggested the city
look into the possibility of a community medical marijuana grow.
"Let's provide an alternative," Holcombe said, adding that a community
garden would "minimize the need" for individual growing and
essentially squash the debate over outside grows.

But Hernandez, who said she would rather medicate herself with
marijuana than the Vicodin, Oxycotin and Percocet that her doctors
prescribe, said it is her right to grow the medicine she needs in her
own backyard and a necessity for many like her.

Hernandez said the costs associated with growing pot indoors is quite
significant, noting that private insurance does not cover medical
marijuana costs and many medical marijuana users are on a fixed income.

Hernandez said the electricity alone to run a grow light inside a home
could cost her hundreds of dollars, aside from the equipment she would
need to foster the growth of the medicinal plants.

And though Hernandez said most people tend to stereotype medical
marijuana users, she said at the end of the day, she just wants the
option to ease her pain and help her live her life as a mom and wife.

"I'm not a pot head," Hernandez said. "You're talking to a mom. I'm
intelligent. I'm a business woman. And I got a disease that I was not
expecting."