INDOOR MARIJUANA GROWS IN RENTALS PUT LANDLORDS, TENANTS IN A TIGHT SPOT

SANTA CRUZ -- Jon Castaline, a middle-aged disabled handyman, was
looking for a place to store his tools and his medicinal marijuana plants.

The rental units Jill Escher oversees on Beach Hill were perfect.
While the one-car garage below a motel-turned-apartment complex
didn't have electricity or water, Castaline was allowed to install
one power outlet so he could put up a light and do his handyman work
in the storage area. For $145 a month, it was hard to beat.

But two weeks into the month-to-month rental agreement, Escher
learned from other tenants that Castaline was setting up a medical
marijuana grow in the tiny Third Street garage and his operation quickly ended.

The fire danger, not the marijuana, irked Escher, she said. She
immediately moved to evict Castaline from the unit and, after some
resistance, Castaline agreed to vacate Thursday.

The renter-landlord disagreement is not unique to Castaline and Escher.

While medical marijuana cards are available in Santa Cruz County,
finding a legal place to grow pot for medicinal use is not always easy.

As a result, tenants often set up indoor gardens without notifying
their landlords. The grows -- if sanctioned under Prop. 215, the
state medical marijuana initiative approved by voters in 1996 -- are
legal and typically do not violate the terms of a rental agreement,
supporters say. County guidelines do not limit plant quantity, but
state medical growers cannot cultivate a canopy larger than 100 square feet.

That leaves landlords who don't want marijuana grown on their
property in a tight spot.

"Even though they get a renter who can pay the rent because they're
making money growing marijuana, the risk to the home is great," said
Sgt. Mark Yanez, head of the Sheriff's Office drug team. "If they
don't want that activity, they probably should include it in their
rental contract, same thing as if they don't want pets in the house."

If a rental contract doesn't expressly forbid growing and a landlord
wants the marijuana cultivation gone, Yanez said the best bet is to
pursue an eviction through civil court, a costly and time-consuming process.

Yanez said about 80 percent of the indoor marijuana grows his unit
busts are in rentals and that, often, property owners have no clue
about their tenants' activities.

A pot grow -- medicinal or not -- poses several risks to the
integrity of the home and the safety of those who live there,
according to Yanez.

An indoor garden introduces moisture to the structure, which can
cause mold, paint damage or loosen mortar around masonry. Sometimes
growers cut holes in floors, walls and ceilings to add ventilation,
the lights produce substantial heat and a grow requires ample
electricity, so a grower might fiddle with the home's electrical
system, according to Yanez.

"Houses generally aren't constructed with the idea that you can grow
a lot of plants in there," he said.

A Boulder Creek rental was damaged in August when a fire broke out in
an area where about 30 marijuana plants were growing, according to
the Boulder Creek Fire Department. The small fire, which started when
no one was home, caused about $20,000 in damage.

But Yanez also acknowledged that not every marijuana grow will cause
these problems and that some property owners have no qualms with
indoor pot gardens.

"If they're OK with it, then more power to them," Yanez said.

For Escher, the issue wasn't marijuana so much as the dangers the
grow could pose to the 12 tenants living above the garage Castaline
rented. She said it wouldn't matter if Castaline were cultivating
marijuana, growing tomatoes or cooking pizza in a wood-fired oven.

"My beef isn't with his ability to smoke. Fine. I could care less,"
Escher said. "This is about protecting my tenants."

The company Escher works for, Claradon Properties LLC, provides
low-income housing to autistic and special-needs adults through the
Housing Authority. Years ago, there was a fatal fire at that complex
on Third Street.

"I don't really care if he has permission to grow plants. ... He can
talk to me about marijuana laws all day long. It's irrelevant,"
Escher said. "The last thing I want is another fire at this property,
which is clearly a vulnerable property."

Castaline said he has no space to tend to the plants in the on-site
housing he is provided at the motel he maintains. He was keeping 11
plants and four clones in a 7-by-7-foot mylar-lined room framed
inside of the storage unit.

The motel handyman, wearing a T-shirt and paint-stained sweatpants,
said he suffered a serious neck injury in a car crash and uses
marijuana to cope with the residual pain. His prescription
medications cost $400 a month, he said.

"It's legal and I've done nothing wrong," Castaline said before
Escher inspected the storage unit Wednesday.

He eventually removed the plants, but said he didn't know where he
would take his personal-use grow.

"Maybe they should advertise pot-friendly," he suggested to landlords.