SEBASTOPOL OKS MEDICAL POT GARDENS

An ordinance that sets rules for how medical marijuana patients can
grow their own received final approval Tuesday by the Sebastopol City Council.

When voters approved Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of
1996, it allowed the cultivation and use of medical marijuana, but it
didn't set standards.

Under Sebastopol's ordinance, patients and caregivers can grow
marijuana at their homes with the maximum number of plants limited to
100 square feet of leaf canopy.

The city also will allow the creation of up to two gardens in town by
medical marijuana dispensaries, with a maximum of 750 feet of leaf
canopy, and two additional gardens of the same size by collectives of
patients and caregivers for their own use, not for sale.

The gardens must be inside a house or outbuilding or in a yard with
solid or opaque walls six feet high and with a locked gate.

It also provides that police will investigate home medical marijauna
gardens only upon complaints about such things as odor or public safety issues.

The ordinance was read for the second time and approved in a 5-0
vote. It takes effect in early January.