JUDGE REFUSES TO BLOCK 12-POT PLANT RULE

A Kern County Superior Court judge has refused to temporarily block
the Kern County ordinance that makes it illegal to grow more than 12
marijuana plants on a piece of property.

That ordinance has sparked two weeks of frenzied raids by Kern County
Sheriff's deputies, who have eradicated marijuana grows of between a
few hundred and thousands of plants under the authority created by
Kern County Supervisors on Aug. 9.

Wednesday's ruling, which went against medical marijuana advocates,
will allow those raids to continue until at least Sept. 16 when the
full case against the 12-plant rule is scheduled to go to a hearing
before Superior Court Judge David Lampe.

Kern County Chief Deputy County Counsel Mark Nations said the decision
does not guarantee that the county will prevail at that September hearing.

"But it does set the parameters for the debate," Nations
said.

Lampe ruled on Wednesday that there was not enough evidence that the
ordinance either illegally amended the 1996 law that legalized medical
marijuana or violated state law.

He further ruled that the plaintiffs, owners of a nonprofit medical
marijuana collective, had not shown they would be irreparably harmed
if the 12-plant limit was not blocked while the trial continued.

Nations said the county argued that the ordinance is not trumped by
state law and that the county was attempting to achieve a reasonable
governmental goal by passing the ordinance.

Attorney Phil Ganong, who is representing the plaintiffs fighting the
county ordinance, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Medical marijuana advocates are doing better on another front of their
battle with Kern County.

On Aug. 9, in addition to creating the 12-plant rule, supervisors
approved a ban on store-front medical marijuana collectives and the
sale of marijuana in edible form.

Unlike the 12-plant rule, which was passed by emergency ordinance and
took effect immediately, the bans on collectives and edible marijuana
sales do not go into effect until 30 days after the decision -- Sept.
9.

There is an aggressive campaign by opponents of the ordinance to
gather enough signatures from Kern County voters to block
implementation of those ordinances and send a final decision about the
new Kern County laws to the voters.

Activists need 17,350 signatures to block the ordinance and trigger a
process that will likely put the question on the ballot, according to
the Kern County Elections Division.

Medical marijuana advocates must turn in their signatures by 5 p.m. on
Sept. 8. Since those signatures must be turned in together, there is
no data to show how many signatures have been collected.

But medical marijuana advocates have also launched an aggressive voter
registration drive.

In the past week that drive has resulted in the filing of 2,525 new
voter registrations with Kern County Elections and the pace of filings
has been accelerating, from 472 voters on Aug. 19 to 870 on Tuesday
and 1,183 on Thursday.

With just less than two more weeks left to gather signatures, medical
marijuana advocates have already registered enough voters to meet
nearly 15 percent of their goal.