Pubdate: Thu, 5 Jan 2006
Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2006 The Fresno Bee
Contact:  http://www.fresnobee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/161
Author: Marc Benjamin, The Fresno Bee
Cited: Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

CLOVIS RULES ALLOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

Ordinance Limits Cultivation, Requires Residents to Show a Note From a Doctor.

Gary and Paula Ainsworth have a pain medication that replaces all
their prescriptions and the only side effect is that it makes them
sleepy.

The problem was that the Clovis couple's cure-all is marijuana.

Today, a new medical marijuana ordinance takes effect in Clovis after
more than a year of work by city officials and medical marijuana advocates.

The Ainsworths' problems dealing with the city -- their 2003 arrests
by Clovis police on growing marijuana -- were part of the impetus for
an ordinance. The couple were exonerated.

Today, the couple acknowledge they are the poster children for medical
marijuana in Clovis.

"If it wasn't for Gary and I being arrested, a lot of people wouldn't
have what they have," said Paula Ainsworth, 48, who has bouts with
depression and back pain after a car accident. "We are responsible
parents raising children."

Doctors prescribed several drugs for her, some to respond to side
effects from other drugs. Medical marijuana addresses all her health
issues, she said.

The couple have doctor recommendations and are growing plants that
they employ in unusual pain-relief mixtures: drinks, cookies, butter
and liquid ointment. They also use them in a vaporizer or smoke the
drug.

And they have tonics and other labeled products, such as Stoney
Rancher lollipops and a drink from Jones 'N Soda Pot Co.

Voters in 1996 approved Proposition 215 to allow ill Californians to
obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes with a physician's
recommendation. There are 11 states with similar laws, but the federal
government does not recognize possession or use of marijuana for
medical purposes.

Gary Ainsworth, 45, has arthritis and underwent three stomach
surgeries after a bout with diverticulitis. He continues to have pain
from both.

"When you wake up and the first thing you do
is start throwing up, you look for something that works," he said. "I
think it's safer than aspirin."

He said he knows about 100 medical marijuana patients in the Fresno
area and said the couple tries to act as support for others.

Darin Henley, 40, of Clovis, underwent chemotherapy from June to
October for thyroid cancer at Saint Agnes Medical Center and has lost
65 pounds. He often would be unable to get to his east Clovis home
after treatments.

"I would start throwing up and I would always head for here," he said,
referring to the Ainsworths' home. "I am still dealing with the
[chemotherapy] side effects."

Clovis police Capt. Russ Greathouse said police last year went to
about 10 calls on medical marijuana issues after the city put a
stringent ordinance in place.

"I just don't see anything in this ordinance that is going to now
increase calls for service or be a greater degree of enforcement than
what we had over the past 12 months," he said.

The new ordinance limits cultivation to six mature plants or 12
immature plants per patient and requires collective cultivation of
more than 24 plants in an industrial zone or certain large residential
lots exceeding 24,000 square feet. A cooperative must be located in a
similar industrial setting and outdoor growing must be in locked enclosures.

The ordinance allows a provider to serve no more than four patients,
including relatives who use the drug as a pain medication in the same
home. The previous ordinance allowed two patients per provider. The
city will allow smoking outdoors if it is out of public view.

"If a person is consuming or medicating in the backyard out of public
view, then they are in compliance," Greathouse said. "How we are going
to learn about that will be with the public calling us and letting us
know."

Medical marijuana users in Clovis are required to show a doctor's
recommendation to cultivate the drug.

The ordinance does allow a group of patients to form a cooperative to
cultivate marijuana, but places a limit of 99 plants at one location.

Assistant City Attorney David Wolfe said city officials wanted to find
a balance between medical needs and potential nuisance issues that
sales locations, known as dispensaries, can create.

Wolfe said the city documented problems around dispensaries in other
cities, where patients smoked marijuana and congregated and smoked in
nearby parks. Other cities have reported rising numbers of people
coming to their communities for doctor's recommendations and drugs.

The ordinance was devised, he said, to allow people to use medical
marijuana without fear of arrest, but also to deter money from
changing hands.

"It's a very strict ordinance, but it does give the opportunity for
people to obtain marijuana for medical purposes through a caregiver,
family members or true cooperative cultivation as long as people are
not being paid," he said. "We don't want somebody to make a business
out of it, then it becomes a dispensary."

Bill McPike, a Shaver Lake attorney who represented the Ainsworths in
their case with Clovis police, said the city's ordinance can be
challenged because it does not allow dispensaries and safe access for
medical marijuana users.

Clovis policy is nearly identical to a Fresno ordinance outlawing
dispensaries and has been challenged by Americans for Safe Access, a
legal aid group for medical marijuana users based in the San Francisco
Bay Area.

"I think they should allow a club or association," McPike said.

Despite his differences, McPike said working out the ordinance with
the city of Clovis was helpful.

"I think it was worth the effort because it was educational," he said.
"You have law enforcement and elected officials who don't have any
idea [about medical marijuana]. All they know is the criminal side."
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