City could ban medical marijuana grow houses
Nov 24, 2011 | 1647 views | 1 
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| 5 | | Without an explicit policy regarding the practice, the five councilmen were asked to direct staff to clarify the issue on a local level — either by starting work to ban growing medical marijuana within city limits, or deciding which specific medical marijuana activities would be immunized from civil and criminal enforcement.
Federal law bans growing and using medicinal pot, the state allows it, and city code doesn’t mention it by name, so staff sought to make the city’s position more certain.
Eight residents of a central Tracy neighborhood pleaded with the council for an outright ban.
They explained how a house with legal clearance to grow medical pot has crossed the line from neighborhood nuisance to imminent hazard.
Sometimes seething with frustration, residents described how one Cumberland Drive house with a backyard filled with marijuana plants has become a repeated target of criminals, with people coming and going at all hours and thieves using next-door yards to make their getaways.
Between the enveloping smell of the growing weed and the danger of armed trespassers, residents near the house say they can’t even open their windows.
“This action has put my neighbors and family in harm’s way,” said Joseph Smith, who said his backyard has been used as an escape route by thieves more than once.
Other neighbors allege the operation has strayed from its doctor-licensed purpose as a legitimate medical marijuana grow site and has devolved into illegal activity.
“We know what they’re doing. We know why they’re there. But there’s nothing we can do about it,” said one area resident, who didn’t share his name.
Tracy Police Department Chief Gary Hampton also related numerous issues with houses growing marijuana in Tracy. Even those licensed to cultivate the stuff under the California Compassionate Use Act attract problems, he said.
It’s common, he said, that large operations purporting to grow “medical marijuana” are just using the medical label as legal cover. State law specifically prohibits medical pot from being cultivated or distributed for profit.
“The greater population that are engaged in the cultivation of marijuana have difficulty establishing an actual medical need and are, in fact, engaged in the illicit sale (of marijuana),” he said, telling the council that police have encountered numerous houses around the city that not only attract crime, but are themselves booby trapped and hazards to other residents.
Hampton said he couldn’t recommend anything other than prohibiting growing medical marijuana.
Dave Helm, a former police officer who said his father uses medical marijuana to treat chronic pain caused by cancer, argued there should be a “common sense” solution short of an outright ban. He said there should be a way to differentiate between patients who have or grow a small amount for personal use and those with prescriptions for dozens of plants who are obviously cultivating weed for sale and generating problems in the community.
At least one other speaker worried stricter city policies against medical marijuana might infringe on the ability of legitimate patients to bring in pot from other cities and use it in their homes.
That fear was somewhat allayed by Hampton, who said what people do in the privacy of their own homes is none of his concern, so long as it doesn’t rise to the level of a criminal complaint.
A unanimous council eventually issued a clear directive for staff to draft a policy making the cultivation, sale and other uses of medical marijuana a violation of city land use code, though Mayor Brent Ives suggested the final law should not limit those with a medical marijuana card from smoking the drug in Tracy.
City attorney Dan Sodergren and Hampton both stressed that even if the change to municipal code is passed, getting rid of grow operations will be a code enforcement, not a criminal, process. California law immunizes carded medical marijuana patients from prosecution, and Hampton explained local cops aren’t authorized to make federal arrests for pot.
“This would be from a land use perspective,” Sodergren said.
Sodergren added that while the city could immunize some practices and outlaw others — for instance, turning a blind eye to storefront dispensaries while banning cultivation — it was “clear” the council leaned toward an across-the-board measure.
Read more: Tracy Press - City could ban medical marijuana grow houses
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