MEDICAL POT ADVOCATES SAY RED BLUFF GROWING BAN VULNERABLE TO LAWSUITS

RED BLUFF - The City Council's action this week to ban indoor and
outdoor marijuana cultivation is a rare move and puts Red Bluff in
danger of lawsuits, spokesmen for two medical marijuana advocacy
groups said Wednesday.

"Because they can't do it under state law and they'll end up in court
and they'll lose," said Bruce Mirken, communications director for the
Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project. Speaking from San
Francisco, Mirken described his group as the largest marijuana policy
reform organization in the country.

The city's amendment to its code Tuesday also prohibits medical
marijuana dispensaries, cooperatives and collectives. California's
Proposition 215, the voter-approved initiative known as the
Compassionate Use Act of 1996, permits marijuana use by patients under
certain conditions.

Eight years later, Senate Bill 420 in part set forth guidelines for
cultivation and possession of medical marijuana in an attempt to
clarify the original measure.

Kris Hermes, Oakland-based spokesman for Americans for Safe Access,
said to his group's knowledge, only three California cities have
banned outdoor cultivation - Willits and Ukiah in Mendocino County and
Cloverdale in Sonoma County.

"ASA knows of no other jurisdictions (besides Red Bluff) that have
banned cultivation outright," Hermes said. With more than 30,000
members, ASA is an organization of patients, medical professionals,
scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to
cannabis for therapeutic use and research, its Web site says.

Like Red Bluff, some cities "feel the odor and safety issue is
sufficient to zone that kind of activity out of existence," Hermes
said. But outlawing indoor growing goes one more step.

"That's ripe for a lawsuit," Hermes said. "They cannot ban all
cultivation."

ASA, which also believes banning dispensaries entirely from a city or
county is illegal in California, is unaware of any legal challenges to
the cultivation prohibitions in the three cities Hermes mentioned, he
said.

Red Bluff originally proposed only one ordinance, with city officials
saying the proliferation of marijuana and collectives prompted citizen
complaints and posed a threat to public safety. But before Tuesday
night's meeting, a second, "urgency" ordinance also appeared that
would immediately ban dispensaries and cultivation for 45 days.

That was spurred by the recent opening of the Blue Toad collective
without permits, City Manager Martin Nichols said Wednesday. But
before the council met, cultivation was deleted from the second document.

Nichols said City Attorney Rick Crabtree felt the cultivation would
"just further complicate" the issue and because the growing season is
over, it was unnecessary. A telephone message left at Crabtree's
office was not returned.

Nichols acknowledged that ban opponents were vocal Tuesday about suing
the city, but said at this point they were only "threatening" to take
such action.

The ordinance will come before the council again on Nov. 17 for
adoption, after which opponents have 30 days to initiate a referendum.

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Kevin, who only wanted to use his first name, uses a vaporizor to
smoke his medicinal cannabis at his Red Bluff home on Wednesday.
Kevin, who suffers from degenerative disc disease in his back and
psoriatic arthritis, grows his own cannabis. He said he starts his
plants in his home and then finishes growing them outside at another
location in the county. He said now he will have to change his process
which he said will affect the quality of his medicine. "We shouldn't
have to feel like we have to hide, like we're doing something illegal.
We're being persecuted," Kevin said. "I don't like prescription drugs.
They tear up my stomach, they don't give me the level of pain relief I
want and they give me adverse side effects." Kevin said. "It
(cannabis) gets me to a state where I have relief of the pain and am
able to function better than a prescription drug like Vicodin
would."Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight