Pubdate: Sat, 31 Oct 2009
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2009 Record Searchlight
Contact:  http://www.redding.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360
Author: Dylan Darling
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEMAND CONTINUES, SUPPLIERS ABOUND

As medical marijuana use and collectives continue to grow in the 
north state, so does the amount of pot grown both indoors and 
outdoors by people with doctors' recommendations for the drug.

"It's everywhere," said Lt. Jeff Foster of the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.

And as leaders in Redding and other cities throughout the north state 
continue to debate how they may regulate the new businesses, law 
enforcement agencies are trying to make sure growers don't plant more 
than the allowed amounts. At the same time, the collectives are 
trying to maintain a supply for the increasing demand.

Owners at three of the more than 20 collectives in Redding said they 
fill their jars with marijuana grown by their members.

"A good portion of the marijuana here is patient-grown," said Allen 
Perry, co-owner of the River Valley Collective next door to the 
Cascade Theatre in downtown Redding. "Everybody has a little extra."

Under state law, people with a medical marijuana recommendation or 
their caregiver can maintain up to six mature plants. Any excess 
grown can then be sold to a collective at a price that covers the 
cost of production, plus a reasonable salary, Perry said.

He said River Valley has about 500 members and from five to 20 of 
them come in daily to sell their extra marijuana. He said they can 
make about $200 to $500 per year selling their excess.

Sheriff's officials say it can be much more profitable if a grower 
decides to break the rules.

Twenty outdoor plants can produce more than 100 pounds, Foster said, 
possibly bringing more than $200,000 when sold to collectives - which 
he said pay about $2,000 per pound.

Given the poor state of the economy, people with recommendations are 
tempted to make money selling marijuana, Foster said.

Sgt. Steve Solus said about 7 out of 10 people growing pot in the 
county saying it was for a medicinal purposes this year were out of 
compliance for having too many plants, a expired recommendation or no 
recommendation at all. Sheriff's deputies this year pulled about 
10,000 plants from 50 outdoor and indoor gardens, including 800 
plants from one Whitmore garden grown by a man with one recommendation.

In Redding, the level of compliance was reversed, with 26 out of 36 - 
about 70 percent - indoor and outdoor gardens meeting legal 
guidelines, said Sgt. Jeff Wallace of the Redding Police Department.

Like Foster, Wallace said the possibility of a profit is what 
motivates people to grow more than allowed.

"People are making a lot of money behind this," he said.

As more people receive doctors' recommendations for marijuana and 
more collectives open, there will likely be larger consolidated 
gardens, said Steve Gasparas, owner of the Redding iCenter, a 
collective on California Street. Caregivers and patients can 
consolidate their recommendations, he said, growing six plants each 
in a garden.

He said he'd eventually like to see warehouses for marijuana holding 
as many as 20,000 plants. Such large gardens would lower the number 
of smaller gardens scattered around town, which can attract robbers 
when outdoors, and can be a fire hazard when indoors because of the 
intense lights used.

"I don't want to live next to a (grow) house and I am in the 
business," Gasparas said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake