BIGGS PROHIBITS MEDICAL POT SALES

Biggs is the latest Mid-Valley community standing in the way of the
sale and cultivation of medical marijuana - even before anyone asks.

A new ordinance next month will bar marijuana sales and distribution
from all residential, commercial and industrial parcels in the Butte
County town. City Council members made a second vote Monday to add
the restrictions, clearing the way for them to take effect Jan. 20.

Also Monday, the council also launched an ordinance to tighten curbs
on outdoor pot cultivation, which the city added to its list of
public nuisances last year. A second vote to put it into effect is
planned for January.

The law would shorten the city's notice period for alleged outdoor
growers from 14 days to 72 hours to remove the plants, and impose
daily fines up to $500 for ignoring the notice.

City officials say the shorter period would prevent offenders from
harvesting their pot before the city can enforce its code - and
reduce the risk that exposed drugs could become a magnet for theft
and violence.

"Our code calls any outdoor growing a public nuisance," said City
Administrator Pete Carr. "When people know there's a cash crop out
there outside, it invites burglary and other crimes."

No people or collectives have applied to sell marijuana for medical
use in Biggs, according to City Planner Scott Friend.

Voters in 1996 passed Proposition 215, making California the first
state to allow marijuana dispensaries to sell the drug for medical
purposes, such as nausea relief in cancer and AIDS patients.
However, attempts to legally sell pot in the Mid-Valley have
foundered on counties' unwillingness to create zoning areas
permitting the drug, or challenge the federal prohibition on it.

Yuba County has blocked two attempts this year to establish
marijuana outlets in Lin da, saying it has no specified zoning for them.

Olivehurst resident Steve King was ordered to close a dispensary
eight days after it opened without a permit on Oct. 14. In July, the
Marysville Healing Center shut down after a few days after District
Attorney Pat McGrath warned it was illegal for not belonging to a
cooperative, which both grows and sells marijuana. Owner Chander
Sidher later said McGrath and the Yuba County Sheriff's Department
threatened to arrest him if the shop stayed open, a claim the
district attorney denied.

Yuba City bars medical marijuana sales by ordinance, and Sutter and
Colusa counties are among the minority of California counties
without card programs to let residents legally possess medical pot.
Colusa County began a study into launching a card program in
late 2008, but Sutter County has resisted such efforts.