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."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom