Mendocino Medical Marijuana News

Medical marijuana rules still being debated

By TIFFANY REVELLE The Daily Journal
Updated: 09/15/2009 12:00:20 AM PDT

The county's ongoing effort to regulate medical marijuana drew 19
speakers Monday who expressed fears, opposition, support and ideas about
future countywide policy.

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors' Health and Human Services
Committee was tasked in the spring with reviewing the county's marijuana
cultivation ordinance, codified as Mendocino County Code 9.31.

Many attendees spoke on behalf of medical marijuana patients, saying the
county's use of its nuisance abatement procedures to enforce 9.31 was
offensive and wrong.

Speakers also asked the committee to consider the rights of property
owners who don't want to see or smell marijuana growing on neighboring
lots, and who are concerned about criminal activity the gardens may
draw.

Third-party verification of nuisance complaints was suggested as a way
to buffer medical marijuana patients from criminal or civil penalties,
and County Counsel Jeanine Nadel said she wanted to explore the idea.

At the committee's urging, Nadel will also prepare a report about the
cases in which 9.31 was enforced using the county's nuisance abatement
procedures.

The county's attempt to regulate medical marijuana cultivation will
continue for another two monthly meetings of the Health and Human
Services Committee.

On Friday a group of medical marijuna patients sued the county claiming
the county's medical marijuana ordinance 9.31 is unconstitutional
becasue it attempts to set limits on pot growing under the state medical
marijuna law, Prop. 215.

Editor's note: Read the Daily Journal for a more in-depth follow-up
story about this meeting.

Tiffany Revelle can be reached at udjtr@pacific. net, or at 468-3523.

http://www.ukiahdai lyjournal. com/ci_13339637