Despite indoor marijuana-growing operations having been the source of numerous local fires in recent years, city efforts to create an ordinance regulating these gardens have died due to the ongoing conflict between state and federal law.

While the state of California allows the use of medicinal marijuana and the cultivation of the plant, the federal government still classifies marijuana as an illegal drug. Because of this, public safety officials have realized that regulating marijuana cultivation is not currently possible.

Petaluma firefighters responded Saturday to a fire at an eastside home that officials say stemmed from faulty electrical wiring to an indoor pot garden. To prevent such fires, which have become more prevalent in recent years, the police and fire departments last year began jointly developing a safety ordinance aimed at regulating indoor medical marijuana growing operations, but ran into conflicts with federal law that prohibits growing marijuana at all.

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