Pubdate: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) Copyright: 2009 Record Searchlight Contact: http://www.redding.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) RED BLUFF BAN ON CULTVATION CROSSES A LINE Our View: The City Should Respect The Right To Grow Otherwise Legal Plants In A User's Own Home. It's a hard line, but the Red Bluff City Council has every right to decide, as it did Tuesday, that medical marijuana sales and cultivation are simply unwelcome. But do the councilors have the right to say what otherwise legal users do in their own homes? They do not, and in that regard Red Bluff's newly passed ordinance goes an intrusive step too far. Medical marijuana advocates naturally hate the ban - and pending court cases might force the city to change its policy. In the meantime, it's hard to see the problem. Even though it is legal in California to use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation, local zoning outlaws all sorts of legal activities when they don't fit in a particular locale. Cities have banned fast-food restaurants and billboards. Try to raise milk goats in a suburban backyard, and code enforcement will shut you down before the first tub of cheese has ripened. Bees are vital to agriculture, but keeping a hive violates the Redding Municipal Code. We don't live on the open frontier. We live in cities. We need to share public spaces. Where the Red Bluff ordinance crosses a line, however, is when it crosses homeowners' thresholds. It's one thing to bar growing in backyards - where pungent harvest-season odors float over fences - but quite another to regulate what users do in their own homes. If a card-carrying "patient" wants to grow a few plants under lights in the garage or the back bedroom, it's hard to see how it is the business of anyone at City Hall. The city could have a stake if large-scale growers were gutting residences and converting them into grow houses. That has become a common practice in some parts, and rewiring homes without regard to fire codes poses obvious hazards. To the extent we're talking about personal use, though, citizens have a right to be left alone in their own homes. Medical marijuana advocates say Red Bluff's ban on indoor growing is a first in the state and ripe for a lawsuit. The council shouldn't back down because of a legal threat, but it should take a calm look at how far its regulations go and reconsider. Should the city protect the public? Absolutely. But the way to do that is not with an ordinance that needlessly barges into private homes. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D