POT BACKERS SHORT ON SIGNATURES; SUPPORTERS SOUGHT GROW
REFERENDUM

A group of local medical cannabis advocates apparently fell short on
their effort to collect enough signatures to force a recent county
ordinance restricting marijuana growing onto a ballot before it became
law today .

"Even only with volunteers, it looks like we made a decent effort,"
said David Shore of Nor Cal Safe Access.

Shore didn't release the exact signature count Thursday, but said the
group collected "thousands." The group initially set out to collect
10,000 signatures.

They needed 6,544 valid signatures to land the referendum on a special
election ballot, said Cathy Darling Allen, Shasta County clerk and
registrar of voters.

The county's ordinance, which supervisors approved last month in a 3-2
vote, bans growing inside residences but allows it in detached
accessory structures and sets limits for outdoor growing regardless of
how many patients live at a residence.

The gardens have to meet minimum setbacks from parcel lines and
adjacent residences.

The ordinance also sets a 1,000-foot no-grow zone between cultivation
sites and sensitive areas, such as schools, school bus stops or churches.

Shore has said the new regulations are "critically flawed" and
severely limit the population of the county that can legally grow.

"There are people who are terrified of having no way to purchase or
grow medicine, with the collectives closing down and the county
banning cultivation," he said.

Shore said an effort to get volunteers together hindered the group's
early efforts, as did relying on volunteers and not paid signature
gatherers.

"Almost every petition drive that has been successful in the past 30
years has been using paid signature gatherers," he said.

Supervisor Leonard Moty said he wasn't surprised at the
outcome.

"It upset a lot of people," Moty said. "I think there's been kind of a
backlash over the last year."

Moty said he's received complaints during the last nine months and
constituents are expressing their belief that many have deviated from
the original intent of Proposition 215.

Board Chair Les Baugh, who voted against the growing ordinance in
favor of tougher restrictions, said he wasn't surprised either,
considering nearly 60 percent of voters in Shasta County cast ballots
against Prop. 215 in 1996.

"Overwhelmingly throughout the community, the general public was
grateful for the stance from the Board of Supervisors," Baugh said.

Despite failing to meet the signature goal, Shore said the group
managed to register new voters.

"If there was one good thing that came from our petition drive, we
registered hundreds of people to vote that never felt the need to be
involved before," Shore said. "Some of them thought they could never
vote again. Many didn't think their voice mattered."

Shore said the group can't try again, as the signatures had to go in
before the ordinance went into effect.