By
Steve Pastis
Tulare County - Depending on where a person lives, using and growing medical marijuana in Tulare County can be a crime, or not be a crime.
As is the case throughout the state,
some local cities have ordinances in place to regulate the legal growing
and use of medical marijuana, while other cities do not accept the results
of Proposition 215, the “Compassionate Use Act of 1996.” Prop.
215 conflicts with federal law which maintains that all marijuana is illegal
in the U.S.
According to California Senate Bill 420 (HS 11362.7), which was drafted
to implement Prop 215, medical card-holding marijuana patients are able
to legally possess or cultivate up to six mature marijuana plants.
In July 2006, Tulare County started a program to protect medical marijuana patients and caregivers from arrest. The program includes ID cards which are issued by the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency and must be renewed annually at a fee of $268. Over the past three years, the agency has issued less than 100 medical marijuana cards, according to Allison Lambert, spokesperson.
Individuals interested in utilizing
the program must get a letter from a physician recommending the use of
medical marijuana. Health and Human Services verifies the information,
enters it into the state database and takes a photograph of the patient.
“Anything other than that is outside our scope,” Lambert said,
adding that it is up to the patient to get information from the state
medical marijuana program offices. “We just act as a gatekeeper,
as a liaison for the state office.”
The city of Visalia passed an ordinance in 2005 to regulate the use and growing of medical marijuana, said Fred Brusuelas, Visalia planning director. The ordinance covers how dispensaries are to operate by regulating their location and the use and consumption of marijuana, including its growing.
“We regulate (pot dispensaries) similar to how we regulate adult businesses,” said Brusuelas.
The city allows the legal growing of marijuana, but to be legal, a person must have a prescription to use marijuana and a doctor's letter explaining how many plants they can grow for personal use. Brusuelas said that can be as many as 75 plants and up to four pounds of dried marijuana. The city has no dispensaries, which by state law can grow up to 99 plants. If the dispensary becomes a co-op, it can grow much more.
The city only regulates the growing of medical marijuana by complaint – that is it does not require a person to notify the city if they are growing it. In most instances, if there is a violation, it becomes a code enforcement issue.
“It's an issue that we have that code enforcement is involved with,” Brusuelas said, adding that the city wants the growers to keep the marijuana locked and secure as to not tempt thieves. He said there have been a couple instances where an entire residence had been turned into a marijuana growing operation and those were shut down because that is not an allowable use of a residence in a residential area. However, turning one or more rooms into an indoor garden is allowed if the rest of the home is still used as a residence.
“We have had some entire houses turned into a legal pot garden,” Brusuelas said. “Then it becomes a health and safety issue.”
He added that he knows of at least a dozen complaints regarding the legal growing of marijuana, but there is increasing interest in setting up dispensaries in the city, although the most recent application was denied. That is under appeal. He said the one dispensary that was in town had 1,100 clients.
Frank Furtaw, code enforcement officer with the city of Tulare, said his city has an ordinance regulating both dispensaries and the growing of medical marijuana. It requires the marijuana to be grown indoors and in a locked structure.
He said if there is a complaint, police check it out to determine if it is legal or illegal. If they determine the person has the necessary permission, then code enforcement might be called in to see that they are complying with the ordinance.
The city of Farmersville is currently working to control the growing of medical marijuana. A proposed ordinance would restrict the number of plants grown at a location and only allow indoor growing.
The ordinance is the result of complaints concerning 21 houses within city limits, according to City Manager Rene Miller. One of the houses had eight-foot marijuana plants behind Farmersville Junior High School. There were reports that someone was taking the marijuana and selling it at the school. “That's what got the school district very angry,” Miller said.
Some California cities have used the conflict between state and federal law to side with federal law and keep marijuana illegal. Dan Mueller, code enforcement officer with the city of Porterville, said his city does not recognize the legal growing of marijuana or dispensaries.
The city of Lindsay decided to prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries in the city in January 2006. While Mayor Ed Murray believes that doctors should be able to make decisions about treatments, he noted that federal laws do not allow marijuana use, “and to me that takes precedence.”
“We don't have anything on the growing or distributing of marijuana,” said Exeter Mayor Leon Ooley. “Our stand is you cannot possess or grow it. California says you can grow medical marijuana, but we don't recognize that.”
“This is very problematic,” said Chris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, which promotes safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. “Local governments have skirted state law. One-hundred-twenty cities and counties have banned dispensaries and we believe that this is against the spirit of the state law.”
The League of California Cities offers no guidelines or recommendations about medical marijuana to cities. “Our focus as an organization is lobbying on behalf of cities,” said Eva Spiegel, the group's communications director. She said that last year, the league discussed the issue of taxing legal marijuana as a source of revenues but took no position.
Growing Their Own
Not every medical marijuana patient has the ability to grow their own medication. Some join a caregiver list at a cooperative, collective or clinic and are able to purchase marijuana for their medical needs, at a cost of about $40-$50 for an eighth of an ounce. Insurance doesn't cover the cost.
The Visalia Compassionate Care Center northeast of Visalia sees patients by appointment only, and works toward ensuring that only those who need medical marijuana receive it. It takes doctors' recommendations of up to six plants worth of marijuana and assigns one of the farmers in its cooperative to grow that amount.
“We require documentation of a medical problem that's been previously diagnosed and treated,” said Dr. Jeffrey King, who sees patients at the center. He added that he also tests patients for all drug use to eliminate those who are looking for marijuana for medical use. “People who tend to abuse marijuana tend to abuse a lot of things.”
The center requires a California driver's license or ID showing the person is at least 18 years old. The doctor is then verified. “We check with the California Medical Board if the doctor is new to us,” said King.
Patients leave with no more than a half-pound of marijuana, said Jeff Nunes Jr., CEO of the center, as well as of Medicinal Marijuana Awareness & Defense (MMAD), an information center. He added that the center doesn't want patients them back before their medication is scheduled to run out. “If someone tries to take medication from us then they're taking it away from people who truly need it,” he said. “We have to be vigilant about what we do.”
Marijuana dispensaries are not defined by law, according to Nunes. State law recognizes cooperatives, collectives and clinics. A cooperative includes farmers who grow crops and are considered “associates” to the members. Patients join a caregiver list and a farmer is given a contract to grow what their assigned patients need – by their doctor's recommendation – and no more.
“It's illegal to grow a bunch of marijuana when you don't have a contract,” Nunes said.
The medical marijuana used by MMAD is grown in ag zones, according to Nunes. “That's the right land use,” he said. “We don't grow it in the middle of a city or residential zones.” He added that the marijuana is grown by farmers with “proper equipment and security.”
Medical marijuana farmers can make $4,000 per plant if it is pharmaceutical strength, down to about $1,500, according to Nunes, who described it as “a viable, sustainable excellent buffer crop.” He said those prices were gross and that some farmers face monthly electric bills of $3,000-4,000 and $2,000-$3,000 in fertilizer costs for their medical marijuana crops.
Brusuelas said by law a dispensaries are only non-profit businesses.
MMAD has about 13 farmers, each growing about 500 plants. The farmers send their harvest to “a processing center near the foothills,” said Nunes. The center dries, trims and cures the marijuana and makes sure there are no molds, pests or pesticides.
Some of the marijuana is processed into edible products, such as milk chocolate, sugar-free chocolate, white chocolate, brownies, caramels and fruit-flavored suckers. Some marijuana is put into anti-inflammatory rubs.
Nunes, who has used marijuana to treat his own Attention Deficit Disorder, as well as a back injury, said that studies by medical institutions and the federal government “found that marijuana is a great treatment for cancer,” and that it also helps induce appetite in AIDS patients. It is also used to treat neuropathic pain, nerve damage, diabetes, migraines and post traumatic stress disorders, according to King.
Nunes believes that more regulation is needed for medical marijuana. “If this was regulated, it wouldn't be as 'Wild West-like,'” he said. He noted that marijuana shops have sprung up on the streets of Oakland. “I didn't want that here,” he said. “I want this to be a viable regulated center.”
Currently, medical marijuana is “self-policed,” according to Nunes. “This is why regulation is needed by a public or private entity.”
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