LIVE OAK PRESSES AHEAD ON OUTDOOR POT GROWING BAN DESPITE OPPOSITION

A draft ordinance to ban outdoor medical marijuana grows in Live Oak
will be prepared for the City Council after a study session Tuesday
produced mostly public opposition.

"This is ridiculous," resident Raymond Cooper said of a
ban.

Cooper said he refuses to take pharmaceutical drugs for problems that
include spinal degeneration, using medical marijuana instead.

A ban on outdoor grows would boost electrical use for indoor
cultivation, he said.

"If you push it indoors," Cooper said, "It's bad for the
planet."

But council members Diane Hodges and Steve Alvarado raised concerns
about the odor of the plant as well as exposing children to marijuana.

"I would not want that happening next door," Hodges said of outdoor
cultivation.

Alvarado agreed: "I wouldn't want my kids seeing it or smelling it,"
he said.

More than 15 people were at the usually sparsely attended study
session and the discussion of a ban that began with City Manager Jim
Goodwin recounting citizen complaints about outdoor grows.

Gridley and Biggs in Butte County adopted measures prohibiting
cultivation in yards, Goodwin said.

Mayor Gary Baland cited thefts of marijuana and shootings, saying that
if someone is growing marijuana, "You're just increasing the
possibility of bad things happening."

People who cultivate the plant and have children at home "are just
putting them in danger," Baland said.

Sutter County sheriff's Lt. James Casner, who oversees law enforcement
in Live Oak, said three crimes connected with marijuana cultivation
have occurred in the community in the past year.

"They don't' steal it to use it," Casner said of plant thefts. "They
steal it to sell it."

A resident who declined to give his name said that he should have the
right to put up a sign stating he isn't growing the plant but that his
neighbor is. That would protect his property from people after
marijuana, he suggested.

Live Oak resident Sharon Huber agreed and said if someone nearby is
growing the plant she'll put up a big sign reading: "Pot next door."

A speaker who opposed a ban asked if the city would provide money for
low-income families to build structures to house indoor medical
marijuana grows.

"I don't believe we would be," Baland answered.