Pubdate: Wed, 03 Feb 2016 Source: Union Democrat, The (Sonora, CA) Copyright: 2016 Western Communications, Inc Contact: http://uniondemocrat.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/846 Author: Alex MacLean TUOLUMNE COUNTY SUPERVISORS GREENLIGHT MEDICAL MARIJUANA REGULATIONS Making laws in a democratic society can be messy, sort of like making sausages - sometimes it's best not to see them get made. After three failed attempts on Tuesday, the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance on the fourth try allowing residents in the unincorporated area to grow a limited amount of marijuana at their home for medical reasons. "This is a difficult thing to do because you're trying to accommodate a lot people in a lot of different situations and be fair," District 3 Supervisor Evan Royce told the audience of about 40 people. Effective March 3, anyone with a prescription to cultivate or use marijuana for medical purposes and who lives outside the City of Sonora limits will be allowed legally to grow up to 12 plants - or up to 24 plants if more than one qualified patient or caregiver lives on the same property - inside their home or outside in a fenced area. The ordinance also requires a 25-foot-setback and limits the grow space inside a residence to 50 square feet. Growers must live on the property or get a notarized letter from the owner approving the cultivation. A task force comprised of stakeholders - concerned citizens, marijuana advocates and law enforcement - is expected to convene in June to begin refining the regulations with an eye toward a ballot initiative in the November election that would legalize recreational use of the drug. Several public hearings have been held on the topic since November, when the county originally proposed an express ban on all marijuana cultivation. Zoning ordinances prohibit the practice, but officials say the rules are not clearly defined. In response to protest from marijuana advocates at a November hearing, Royce convinced the rest of the board to let him and District 1 Supervisor Sherri Brennan to work with county legal advisers on a proposed ordinance that would allow limited amounts of marijuana cultivation. "We just needed to take time to listen to more people so they could get a full picture of what's going on," Royce said of pushing for the regulations. "If you don't know about it, it's kind of a bogeyman thing. It's the fear of the unknown." Long road to regulations For years, the county has wrestled with the topic of whether to allow marijuana cultivation for medical purposes. An attempt to outright ban the practice two years ago was tabled while awaiting the results of a voter initiative that would have legalized recreational pot, but ultimately failed to make the November 2014 ballot. The issue surfaced again locally late last year when Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law the state's first regulations on the medical marijuana industry. Much of the discussion at the end of Tuesday's public hearing centered around the question of how much marijuana is a reasonable amount to allow people to grow. On Jan. 20, the seven-member Tuolumne County Planning Commission unanimously recommended allowing a 12- to 24-plant limit for outdoor cultivation, in addition to as much as could be grown within a 100-square-foot area inside a residence. The commission's recommendation was a sharp increase from the originally proposed six-to 12-plant limit. District 2 Supervisor Randy Hanvelt and District 5 Supervisor Karl Rodefer abstained from voting altogether out of concern that the ordinance would clash with federal laws which still classify marijuana as an illegal substance equal to other street drugs such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. "This is both a difficult and important issue," Rodefer said. "We've been dealing with this since I was in high school and we've had plenty of time to do this right, but I'm sorry, the federal government has failed us." The two abstentions meant a unanimous vote was required from the other three supervisors for the ordinance to pass. Royce made the first motion to approve the ordinance, which was amended by District 4 Supervisor John Gray to reduce the commission's recommendations to a 50-square-foot allowance for indoor cultivation. Royce's motion failed due to opposition from Brennan, who made a substitute motion to limit the total amount of plants to 24 - inside or outside. That motion failed because of opposition from Gray, who made another motion identical to Royce's because he thought the 24-plant limit may be too restrictive for some. "If we're going to agree that we can grow the product, then we should have a motion that will allow that to happen," he said. After that motion failed again with Brennan again opposed, Royce settled on the 24-plant cap - indoor or outdoor, but not both at the same time - while limiting the indoor grow space to 50 square feet. That motion passed 3-0 with people standing to applaud and tears from medical marijuana advocates. "This is a historic day," said Kira Tucker, leader of Tuolumne Cannabis Advocates, in an interview after the meeting. "The vote indicates to me that the culture and mentality is changing." A civil discussion More than a dozen people spoke at Tuesday's meeting in favor of implementing regulations on medical marijuana. None were wholly opposed to the idea, though some disagreed on various aspects of the ordinance. Despite the disagreements, the conversation at Tuesday's meeting remained civil, respectful and, at times, even light-hearted - with both sides acknowledging the concerns of the other and offering potential solutions. Many advocates and users of medical marijuana argued for the commission's recommendations because they said six to 12 plants is not enough to last a whole year, especially if something happens in the growing process to diminish their crop. "A lot of people starting off are going to be lucky to get anything off of 12 plants, let alone for an entire year," said Jon Simonian, of Soulsbyville, who uses marijuana to treat pain from conditions including fibromyalgia and arthritis. Several residents in Lake Don Pedro who have attended public hearings on the topic of medical marijuana since November say they hope enacting regulations for small, personal use would help eliminate some of the large-scale grows they have seen in their neighborhood in recent years. Phyllis Cotta, of Lake Don Pedro, said she had no objection to the commission's recommendation to increase the plant limit because she understood the concerns about growth, but she was concerned about allowing people to grow the plant inside their home. "There's no way the sheriff can drive by and determine what's going on within the four walls of the dwelling," she said. "I'm concerned there is an element of people out there who will take advantage. Those people are probably not here today, but they exist." Medical benefits Dr. Liza Ortiz, the county's health officer, spoke at the beginning of the meeting against allowing people to grow personal amounts of marijuana for medicinal use due to the lack of evidence to support the drug's medical benefits. Ortiz said pharmaceutical drugs undergo extensive testing before being approved by the Federal Drug Administration, which hasn't taken place for marijuana because of the federal ban. However, a number of county residents who use marijuana to treat a range of diseases and conditions gave testimonials about the drug's impact on their lives. Rick Hauf, who wore a sticker on his chest that bore a medical cross with a marijuana leaf in the middle, told the board he moved to California from Oklahoma two years ago specifically so that his wife, Kelly, could undergo cannabis treatment for a brain tumor. "I was raised in a conservative family," said Hauf, a retired firefighter. "I felt like California voted 20 years ago to decriminalize marijuana in an effort to sidestep the law and get high legally. That was my perspective until two years ago, basically." Hauf's wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2000 and underwent surgery three years later to have it removed. Her quarterly MRI scans remained normal until November 2013, when doctors found a regrowth in the tumor. Kelly Hauf said her Los Angeles brain surgeon recommended six months of chemotherapy. She went searching on the Internet for possible alternatives and discovered cases in Europe where people have used concentrated cannabis oil to treat tumors. Hauf said in an interview after the meeting that she and her husband moved to San Francisco, where she was prescribed cannabis oil in January 2014. Eight months later, MRI scans showed that the tumor regrowth had subsided and she's remained healthy ever since. The couple moved to a home near Tuolumne in April 2015. "I had heard about medical marijuana. I didn't judge, but I didn't really get it," she said. "Now I'm totally advocating, because how could you not?" Sonora resident Ian Nandhra, who has prostate cancer, urged the board to consider the issue in terms of compassion and humanity, as opposed to politics and personal or religious beliefs. Esperanza Phoenix, of Sonora, said she suffers from fibromyalgia and post-traumatic stress disorder and uses medicinal cannabis to help her symptoms, though the county's ban on cultivating marijuana makes access to the drug difficult for people like her. "It's prohibitive to try to purchase it through delivery or a third party," she said. "It's expensive, and because of federal restrictions, we can't use insurance to purchase it. Allowing us to grow our own medicine is the compassionate thing to do." However, not all who swear by the medical benefits of marijuana were happy with the board's decision to limit indoor growing to 24 plants within a 50-foot-space. Christopher Martin, of Twain Harte, a cancer survivor who uses marijuana to treat a painful skin condition he acquired while undergoing treatment, said he doesn't have space in his yard to grow his plants outdoors. "They basically just cut my medicine in half," he said. "They need to have a person representing indoor growers on the task force." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom