AURORA POT TASK FORCE CRAFTS PATIENTS-ONLY HOME-GROW RULE

AURORA | Medical marijuana should be grown in a defined,
180-square-foot area within a single-family home, and it should be
grown by a licensed medical marijuana patient, suggested the city's
Medical Marijuana Task Force Sept. 15.

The Medical Marijuana Task Force proposed two ordinances governing
medical marijuana home grow operations at the Neighborhood Services
Committee meeting.

Committee members recommended the ordinances be combined into one, and
further discussion about the "hybrid" ordinance will occur at the
October committee meeting.

The first suggested ordinance stipulates that the cultivation of
marijuana plants must not be evident from the exterior of the house.
The ordinance would prohibit any form of signage, unusual odors or
undue vehicular or foot traffic that could result from the growing of
marijuana.

The ordinance also states that marijuana plants should not be grown in
the common areas of a residence.

Marijuana plants should be confined to a 180-square-foot area within a
single family residence, a 130-square-foot area within an apartment or
attached unit, and a 75-square-foot area within a multiple family
unit, the ordinance states.

The suggested square-footage for a single family residence has
increased from the 80 square feet that was originally suggested to
members of the task force by Timothy Tipton, co-founder of the Rocky
Mountain Caregivers Cooperative. Tipton said in August that 80 square
feet is an appropriate limitation in which marijuana plants could be
cultivated successfully.

However, in the discussions with other city officials and medical
marijuana experts, the task force realized that 80 square feet was not
appropriate, said Tom Nicholas, the chairman of the Medical Marijuana
Task Force and deputy city manager.

"We have to account for getting in between plants and trimming them,"
Nicholas said. "That's why we increased the square footage."

A newly enacted Colorado law allows medical marijuana caregivers to
have five patients and grow six plants per patient, but the law does
not specify what is the allowable maximum number of plants.

The second proposed ordinance stipulates that marijuana plants should
be grown within a licensed patient's personal residence, and those
marijuana plants should only be used by the patient to alleviate
symptoms of a debilitating medical condition. It also clarifies the
definition of "personal residence" to mean the place where the
person's primary address is and the place that the person intends to
return following any temporary absence such as a vacation.

Councilwoman Melissa Miller voiced her primary concern at the meeting
that some Aurora homeowners are using their residences strictly for
growing marijuana.

"I do have concerns about people who are just renting and buying homes
to grow medical marijuana in those neighborhoods and nobody's living
in that home," she said. "And those homes are being broken into and
it's affecting those neighborhoods."

Under city ordinances, it is illegal for a residential property to be
used primarily for anything other than living, said Nancy Sheffield,
neighborhood services liaison, at the meeting.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates suggested at the meeting that the
Medical Marijuana Task Force develops guidelines for police staff
about how to quickly identify violations in medical marijuana home
grows.

"In every one of these locations, there will be a separate, critical
inquiry and that's whether or not those folks are committing a crime
in the possession of marijuana," Oates said. "Whether the possession
of marijuana is a violation of state criminal law is a question today
in residential areas, and it will be a question after the rules are
put in place."

As of July 1, the city's police officers have identified 63 locations
where medical marijuana was being grown in a residential home in Aurora.

That's up from the 54 grows that were reported by the police
department in early June.

Residents in about 30 locations showed some sort of documentation that
justified the existence of the marijuana plants. The number of home
grows increased by more than twofold in the past six months.

Since home grows of medical marijuana have proliferated, Oates said
his narcotics unit has devoted 40 percent of its time to identifying
the home grows and determining whether they are legitimate.