NORML CHALLENGES TEHAMA COUNTY ANTI-CULTIVATION ORDINANCE

In a lawsuit supported by California NORML (National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws), Tehama County patients filed suit on
June 4 against a county ordinance that limits their right to grow
marijuana at home.

The lawsuit, by the law firm of Edie Lerman and J. David Nick of
Ukiah, asks for a writ of mandate to strike down the Tehama ordinance.

The plaintiffs claim that the ordinance makes it impossible for them
to legally exercise their Proposition 215 right to cultivate medical
marijuana for themselves.

The Tehama ordinance declares it a public nuisance to grow marijuana
anywhere within 1,000 feet of a school, school bus stop, church,
park, or youth-oriented facility. It restricts gardens to no more
than 12 mature or 24 total plants on parcels of 20 acres or less. It
requires outdoor gardens to be surrounded by an opaque fence at least
six feet high and located 100 feet or more from the property
boundaries. Additionally it requires every patient garden to be
registered with the county health services agency for a fee to be
determined.

"The ordinance is an affront to property rights as well as patients'
rights," declares Jason Browne, one of the Tehama plaintiffs. "The
patient community has attempted for months to work with the county.
They have snubbed us at every turn." Browne adds, "We had no
alternative but to sue."

California NORML attorneys argue that local governments cannot
legally declare activities that are protected by state law to be nuisances.

"They can't take everyone's rights away," says attorney Edie Lerman.
"California law states patients can have whatever they need for
themselves and for collectives." Lerman warns patients to expect a
long battle, as the case is likely to go to the appellate level.

Tehama's is the most restrictive of a number of anti-cultivation
measures that have recently been proposed by local officials hostile
to medical marijuana. In another lawsuit filed by Lerman & Nick,
Mendocino County patients are challenging an ordinance that limits
patient cultivation to 25 plants per parcel, regardless of the number
of patients. The ordinance was recently amended to let collectives
apply for licenses for larger gardens of up to 99 plants under
certain conditions.

"The right to cultivate is fundamental to Proposition 215's mandate
that 'seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use
marijuana for medical purposes,'" says California NORML Director Dale
Gieringer, a co-author of Proposition 215.