QUIT DELAYING POT DECISION

Our view: Growing backyard marijuana is like leaving a $10,000 bill sitting in
the yard — ripe for thievery. And it stinks. Move it inside.

The Chico City Council's penchant for procrastination means things are
liable to get lively for the Police Department over the next month.

After a harrowing marijuana harvesting season last fall, where pot
burglars were busting into backyards and armed heists of marijuana
plants led to some scary confrontations and shots being fired, the
City Council decided to determine whether maybe marijuana gardens need
to be moved indoors. Other cities, such as Gridley, have mandated that.

It isn't just a matter of public safety. It's also a health and
aesthetics issue. Police and other city officials have received
complaints of skunky smells coming from neighbors' yards. Two women
testified in front of the council Tuesday that they cannot go outside
for about a month before harvest because the smell from the neighbor's
yard makes them sick.

The council started talking about this problem earlier this year but
made no decisions. On Tuesday the council appeared ready to mandate
that medical marijuana be grown indoors, but several councilors backed
off. They cited the late hour (it was nearing midnight) and the fact
that even if they made a decision Tuesday, it's too late to affect
anything this growing season.

In other words, get ready for an eventful October in some
neighborhoods as the plants become mature.

The council must vow to get this issue resolved before next spring,
when the next crop is planted. If medical marijuana must be grown
indoors, those growers must be forewarned so they can set up their
lights and watering systems.

Forget for a moment whether the medical marijuana law is a ruse. It
is. When people can get prescriptions for just about anything more
painful than a hangnail, and doctors advertise their willingness to
give such prescriptions (for a fee, of course), it's obvious the
voter-approved law needs revision.

However, we must live with the law we have for now, and there are
truly critically ill people who legitimately benefit from the green
medicine. Their needs should be considered when crafting any medical
marijuana restrictions.

Moving the marijuana indoors not only makes it safer for the growers,
it makes it less of an intrusion on their neighbors. Granted, it will
make people's energy bills more expensive. Still, it's much cheaper
than buying Codeine or other painkillers.

We heard two suggestions from the council Tuesday that should die the
moment they were uttered. One was Andy Holcombe's idea to have a
community garden where people can grow marijuana. That would be a
nightmare to police and who would want that in their neighborhood? The
other idea was Mary Flynn's suggestion to form a citizens advisory
group to discuss marijuana-growing issues. That would be perhaps the
biggest waste of staff time in recent city history — and that's saying
something.

Regardless, we just hope the council makes a decision soon. The issue
has sat in limbo far too long already.