SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT BACKS OFF FROM SOME POT PROSECUTIONS

Kern County has changed the way it enforces a controversial ordinance
limiting the cultivation of medical marijuana after a judge raised
concerns about its tactics.

The law, passed in August, was challenged in court by attorney Phil
Ganong on behalf of several medical marijuana collectives and advocates.

Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe refused Ganong's request
to block implementation of the ordinance limiting grows to 12 plants
on a single parcel while the law was being litigated.

But Lampe threw in a twist by also saying he was concerned that the
Kern County Sheriff's Department was prosecuting violations of the
county rule as a criminal act and eradicating the plants
immediately.

The 12-plant limit, he noted, is a land-use law that makes growing
more than a dozen marijuana plants a nuisance similar to those posed
by trash-filled residential yards or unsecured empty buildings.

Owners of most nuisance properties are allowed a hearing process and
the opportunity to clean up the violation before county officials
clear the land and impose financial penalties.

Kern Chief Deputy County Counsel Mark Nations told Lampe in court that
during sheriff's raids, all marijuana plants exceeding the limit of 12
are destroyed immediately.

Lampe asked Nations why the county was treating the owners of
marijuana plants differently than the owners of trash-filled lots --
then echoed the concern in his ruling.

Kern County Chief Deputy Sheriff Francis Moore said Wednesday that
following Lampe's ruling, sheriff's officials met with county lawyers
and Kern County Engineering, Permit and Survey Services officials --
who enforce land-use code violations -- and decided to change the way
the ordinance is enforced.

County officials still plan to enforce violations of the ordinance,
but it will be code enforcement officers and not sheriff's deputies
handling the case.

Moore said that in cases where there is a violation of county
ordinance but not of state criminal laws, the Sheriff's Department
will refer the situation to code enforcement and the county will
follow a standard procedure for allowing land owners to get rid of the
problem and come into compliance.

One of the first cases enforced under the new procedure will go to the
Kern County Board of Supervisors Tuesday afternoon, said Chris Hengst,
a supervisor with county code compliance.

In that case, sheriff's officials learned of an illegal marijuana grow
operation in the 3300 block of south Dorothy Street in southeast
Bakersfield just south of Mira Monte High School, Moore said.

Deputies served a search warrant at the location and determined the
property was not in violation of state law but was in violation of the
county ordinance, Moore said.

There were 26 marijuana plants being grown, Hengst
said.

Moore said no criminal charges were brought as a result of the raid,
no marijuana plants were initially destroyed by sheriff's deputies,
and the violation of the county ordinance was referred to code
enforcement.

Moore said the property owner did call the Sheriff's Department the
day after the raid and asked to have 14 of the plants removed.

Moore said that under the county ordinance, each day there are more
than 12 plants on the property counts as a separate violation of the
ordinance and that carries a stiff $1,000 fine and a potential
misdemeanor sentence of six months in jail.

Hengst said a hearing on the penalties against the property owner for
the violation of the 12-plant limit will be held before Kern County
supervisors on Nov. 1 at 2 p.m.

Attorney Ganong said he still believes that medical marijuana patients
growing their own pot can and should challenge the county's limit if
12 plants do not provide enough marijuana to meet their needs.

Groups of medical marijuana patients that are cooperating to grow
marijuana for a group's use should also challenge the limit, he said.

But Ganong counts the county's enforcement change as a
victory.

"That's great. I think we've accomplished part of what we set out to
do," he said.