COUNTY SERVES NOTICES OF VIOLATION ON MEDICAL POT GROW-OPS

On Wednesday, Tulare County Sheriff's Department officials served four
illegally zoned medical marijuana operations near Visalia, Ivanhoe,
and Seville, with notices of violation requiring they shut down within
the next ten days.

If the owners and operators refuse to comply, the county will file for
a preliminary and permanent injunction to enforce compliance, Tulare
County officials announced Thursday.

The move comes nearly four weeks after a Tulare County Superior Court
judge found the Foothill Growers' Association, a medical marijuana
cooperative that was previously located in Ivanhoe, violated a county
ordinance adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2009. The ordinance
requires marijuana collectives and cooperatives to be located on land
zoned for commercial or manufacturing use within the unincorporated
areas of the county.

Foothill Growers' Association was reportedly operating on strictly
agricultural land and was served with a civil suit by the county.

The cooperative has since relocated to Exeter, and the cooperative's
attorney William Romaine, says the Association is in the process of
appealing the judge's order to the Fifth District Court of Appeals in
Fresno within the next two months, the Foothills Sun-Gazette reports.

The county issued seven notices to owners, occupants, or lessees of
four separate properties, where, according to a county statement
released Thursday, medical marijuana cooperatives are operating or
medical marijuana cultivation violates the requirements of the ordinance.

"Tulare County will be more aggressive in enforcing the county's
ordinances regulating medical marijuana cultivation, distribution, and
operations after winning a civil injunction earlier this month against
Foothill Growers," Mike Ennis, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors,
is quoted as saying in Thursday's statement.

"Medical marijuana operations like the Foothill Growers' Association
and the others who received notices of violations are a major threat
to the public safety of our residents."

Cooperatives are where two or more medical marijuana cardholders grow
or distribute marijuana. As long as these comply with county zoning
ordinances and do not exceed the legal limit of plants they are
allowed to grow, they are considered legal operations by state law.

Those operations that exceed the legal limit of plants or are using
fraudulent doctor recommends to grow the marijuana, are considered
illegal and growers will be prosecuted for illegal cultivation of
marijuana. The county sheriff's department has raided several of those
operations this summer, many in the Porterville area.