SHASTA COUNTY SUPERVISORS WON'T BAN MEDICAL POT DISPENSARIES

Rejecting an outright ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in
unincorporated areas, Shasta County supervisors Tuesday agreed that
additional rules and guidelines are needed to regulate the operations.

With Supervisor Les Baugh dissenting, the board directed
administrators to develop an ordinance to try to minimize potential
problems that could arise from the dispensaries, such as increased
crime, overpowering odors and congested traffic.

Baugh, who unsuccessfully sought a full ban on the marijuana
businesses, did later vote to support the creation of a companion
ordinance that would regulate marijuana cultivation sites.

It's expected that the separate zoning ordinances will go before
Shasta County planning commissioners in January or February. Clone
medical marijuana plants are cultivated at the Redding iCenter. County
supervisors voted Tuesday to create regulations for medical marijuana
operations.

Photo by Nathan Morgan

Clone medical marijuana plants are cultivated at the Redding iCenter.
County supervisors voted Tuesday to create regulations for medical
marijuana operations.

More than a dozen speakers, many of them medical marijuana patients
and owners of pot collectives, urged supervisors to refrain from
moving forward with an outright ban.

Among them was Barbara Lee, 52, of Redding.

Lee, who said she suffers from fibromyalgia, said she has smoked
marijuana regularly for about a year and that it has helped her lead a
normal and productive life.

"It has helped me so much," she said.

Lee said she doesn't oppose guidelines and rules regulating medical
marijuana dispensaries.

"There should be guidelines," she said. But an outright ban might
force some who need medical marijuana, including her, to buy it
illegally, she said.

However, others at the meeting said that medical marijuana has created
nothing but problems for them.

Terry Taft, who lives off Airport Road, said one of his neighbors has
18 plants growing and the stench from it makes life nearly unbearable.

"The smell is worse than a skunk's smell," he said.

Supervisors noted that they receive a number of telephone calls from
residents who complain about the proliferation of backyard marijuana
gardens. Those with marijuana recommendations often band together and
grow their pot plants in the same garden, they said.

In September, again with Baugh dissenting, supervisors rejected a
moratorium on medical marijuana outlets in the county's unincorporated
areas after being told that current zoning codes already in place
should be able to adequately cover medical marijuana facilities.

Under Shasta County's current zoning laws, medical marijuana
dispensaries are considered "clubs" and are permissible only in
community commercial, office commercial and mixed-use districts after
securing a use permit.

But aside from that, county officials say, there are no other rules
regulating them.

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said there are only one or two
medical marijuana dispensaries in the county's unincorporated area,
noting that one recently opened in Burney.