A PROLIFERATION OF POT

It's The Wild West in the Foothills. Can the County Bring It Under
Control?

The best way to appreciate the impact of medical-marijuana growing in
Butte County is to fly over the foothills east of Chico in late
summer. From the air, it looks like everybody's got a garden. There
are a lot of sick people in them thar hills, apparently.

A good number of them were on hand last Tuesday (Feb. 22) at
supervisors' chambers to speak their minds about the county's proposed
ordinance regulating such gardens-so many people that the fire marshal
had to ask quite a few to leave.

By the end of the 5 1/2-hour public hearing, several things were
clear.

One was that the explosion of marijuana gardens in the foothills
presents many potential problems-neighborhood conflicts, environmental
issues, water issues, crime-and that some regulation is essential.

It was also clear that there are wide differences of scale when it
comes to marijuana growing. Many gardens are relatively small, while
others are like small orchards, with 50 or more plants.

The goal of the proposed ordinance is to bring order to the
cultivation arena and collect fees that cover the county's costs of
enforcing the ordinance and dealing with the inevitable problems that
will develop. It's a worthy goal, but the proposed ordinance had some
glitches.

For one, it established categories based on lot-size ranges that
seemed arbitrary. Less than an acre, you could have only two plants,
but more than an acre, you could grow 12 plants. That's too much
discrepancy.

Setback requirements were similarly unreasonable in places. For lots
in the 1-20-acre category, the required setback was 100 feet. That's
fine for 20 acres, but for a 1-acre lot it's pretty much impossible.

Most important, the fee schedule was too hard on small growers and
perhaps too easy on the larger ones. People growing for personal
medical use shouldn't have to pay as much as $1,000 to grow four or
five plants. And groups growing 30 or more plants can afford higher
fees by splitting the costs.

One of the results of the proliferation of marijuana gardens is that
the local pot market is flooded, and the cost is coming down. This is
good, because it undercuts those who grow for profit and supports
those with real medical needs. As county staffers work to refine the
ordinance, they should keep that in mind.