Pubdate: Thu, 30 Aug 2012
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/chico/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559
Author: Tom Gascoyne

STILL ON THE POT

DA Calls Medical-Marijuana Ordinance Unconstitutional

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey dropped a buz kill at the 
Aug. 28 Board of Supervisors meeting on those looking to restrict 
medical-marijuana cultivation when he said an ordinance under 
consideration was unconstitutional.

As a result, the board is back to square one, and soon to consider 
adopting an ad-hoc committee representing all sides of the matter to 
try to reach a compromise on how to grow and dispense medical marijuana.

The ordinance-based on one adopted in Kings County last fall-would 
have outlawed all outdoor marijuana grows, a plan opponents called 
impractical and dangerous because of an increased fire hazard from 
grow lights. It was set to replace the one Butte County adopted last 
year but was rejected by 55 percent of voters in the 
referendum-forced Measure A during the June primary election. 
Opponents of that plan said it was too restrictive in that it 
disallowed grows on parcels of a half-acre or smaller.

Ramsey told the board that while he was sympathetic with county 
efforts to address the "local medical-marijuana industry," there were 
legal problems with the latest proposed ordinance. Namely, he said, 
enforcement of medical-marijuana laws must be done through code 
enforcement and not criminal procedures.

"It does go too far in authorizing criminal penalties," the DA said. 
"It can't be enforced."

He said the ordinance does not follow the spirit of Proposition 215, 
the Compassionate Use Act passed by voters in 1996 allowing for the 
cultivation and use of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. 
Ramsey said the ordinance would allow him to prosecute "someone 
growing one plant in her back yard. Under 215 I could not prosecute, 
but the ordinance under consideration says I could.

"It won't happen and it's not going to happen. It conflicts with 
state law. Prop. 215 says to ensure patients and primary caregivers 
are not subject to criminal prosecution. You can save [the ordinance] 
by removing the criminal penalty and making it a civil penalty."

There were other problems with the ordinance, cost being a big one.

Paul Hahn, the county's chief administrative officer, said the county 
would have to hire three additional code-enforcement officers, two to 
three sheriff's deputies, one additional deputy county counsel and 
one paralegal-eight new positions that would cost $750,000 to $1 
million-to enforce the law.

Supervisor Bill Connelly said the important thing was protecting 
neighbors forced to live next door to marijuana growers.

"Who are you going to respect? The poor guy trying to have a barbecue 
in his back yard or the guy growing six plants?" he asked.

Ramsey said the problems in the county stem from those he called 
"profiteers;" people making money off of marijuana under the cover of 
Prop. 215. He said large outdoor grows began ramping up in California 
in 2009 when people took a cue from a federal memo from the Obama 
administration stating that the feds would not prosecute people 
following their states' medical-marijuana laws.

"It was a case of 'Olly olly oxen free,' " he said. "Now California 
is the leading supplier of pot in the United States."

Sheriff Jerry Smith said between January and July of this year 35,194 
plants had been seized, along with 51 weapons, and 42 arrests made. 
That includes 28,000 plants and two dead men found at a Magalia site.

Supervisor Larry Wahl asked the sheriff what the board should do. 
Smith said that the panel should either take Ramsey's advice or let 
the Sheriff's Department "try to enforce it and then see where it 
lands in court."

Forty-five people addressed the board, the vast majority of them 
arguing on behalf of medical-marijuana growers. The first speaker, 
however, said she had been a Butte County resident since 1963 and 
that her family had had problems with neighbors growing marijuana 
since 1974. The person following her said while he recognized the 
need for medical marijuana, the odor growing plants produced was 
driving down property values. Another woman said her family can't sit 
on their patio because of the smell, and that she's watched her 
neighbor's children playing among the marijuana plants.

She was followed by a man who said he appreciated the dilemma the 
board was facing, but when it comes to safety issues gang-related 
crime should take precedence.

And so it went, with patients saying they needed their medicine. One 
man wearing what looked like a brand-new white lab coat, and who 
purported to be a retired cardiologist from Sacramento, said if 
marijuana plants are outlawed all plants will have to be outlawed.

A man who said he'd been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis explained 
that without access to marijuana he is forced to spend $4,500 a month 
on prescription drugs and that growing marijuana indoors would cost 
him $2,500 a month.

Another man who said he lives in Connelly's district said it was time 
users and growers become part of the process "rather than just 
getting lectured to at these meetings."

Supervisor Maureen Kirk spoke first after the public comment was closed.

"In light of what Mr. Ramsey said, we need a committee with people 
from both sides and the DA and Sheriff's Office," she said. "We need 
some kind of committee."

Supervisor Kim Yamaguchi agreed and made a motion that after some 
discussion called for Hahn and County Counsel Bruce Alpert to create 
an ad-hoc committee to try finally to forge a medical-marijuana 
ordinance that is fair to all sides. That plan should be presented at 
the board's next meeting.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom