MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEMAND CONTINUES, SUPPLIERS ABOUND

As medical marijuana use and collectives continue to grow in the
north state, so does the amount of pot grown both indoors and
outdoors by people with doctors' recommendations for the drug.

"It's everywhere," said Lt. Jeff Foster of the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.

And as leaders in Redding and other cities throughout the north state
continue to debate how they may regulate the new businesses, law
enforcement agencies are trying to make sure growers don't plant more
than the allowed amounts. At the same time, the collectives are
trying to maintain a supply for the increasing demand.

Owners at three of the more than 20 collectives in Redding said they
fill their jars with marijuana grown by their members.

"A good portion of the marijuana here is patient-grown," said Allen
Perry, co-owner of the River Valley Collective next door to the
Cascade Theatre in downtown Redding. "Everybody has a little extra."

Under state law, people with a medical marijuana recommendation or
their caregiver can maintain up to six mature plants. Any excess
grown can then be sold to a collective at a price that covers the
cost of production, plus a reasonable salary, Perry said.

He said River Valley has about 500 members and from five to 20 of
them come in daily to sell their extra marijuana. He said they can
make about $200 to $500 per year selling their excess.

Sheriff's officials say it can be much more profitable if a grower
decides to break the rules.

Twenty outdoor plants can produce more than 100 pounds, Foster said,
possibly bringing more than $200,000 when sold to collectives - which
he said pay about $2,000 per pound.

Given the poor state of the economy, people with recommendations are
tempted to make money selling marijuana, Foster said.

Sgt. Steve Solus said about 7 out of 10 people growing pot in the
county saying it was for a medicinal purposes this year were out of
compliance for having too many plants, a expired recommendation or no
recommendation at all. Sheriff's deputies this year pulled about
10,000 plants from 50 outdoor and indoor gardens, including 800
plants from one Whitmore garden grown by a man with one recommendation.

In Redding, the level of compliance was reversed, with 26 out of 36 -
about 70 percent - indoor and outdoor gardens meeting legal
guidelines, said Sgt. Jeff Wallace of the Redding Police Department.

Like Foster, Wallace said the possibility of a profit is what
motivates people to grow more than allowed.

"People are making a lot of money behind this," he said.

As more people receive doctors' recommendations for marijuana and
more collectives open, there will likely be larger consolidated
gardens, said Steve Gasparas, owner of the Redding iCenter, a
collective on California Street. Caregivers and patients can
consolidate their recommendations, he said, growing six plants each
in a garden.

He said he'd eventually like to see warehouses for marijuana holding
as many as 20,000 plants. Such large gardens would lower the number
of smaller gardens scattered around town, which can attract robbers
when outdoors, and can be a fire hazard when indoors because of the
intense lights used.

"I don't want to live next to a (grow) house and I am in the
business," Gasparas said.