Pubdate: Wed, 04 Apr 2009
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581
Author: Zack Cinek
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?161 (Cannabis - Regulation)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Patrick+Kelly () Kelly case

SHERIFF LAYS OUT THE LAW ON MARIJUANA

Sheriff Tom Allman explained the Sheriff's Office's approach to 
marijuana-related business at a courthouse meeting of mostly 
attorneys Friday at noon.

Allman also discussed the proposed zip-tie tag program, which, if 
approved by the Board of Supervisors, would charge $25 per medical 
marijuana plant and also a possible eradication fee of more than $25 
per marijuana plant.

"The purpose of today's meeting is very simple," Allman said. "I am 
trying to take confusion out of the miscellaneous marijuana laws that 
we have throughout the county and state.

"I am trying to provide consistency so when your clients contact you 
for advice or after they are arrested and you are representing them, 
there can be a clear understanding of what the Sheriff's Office's 
policy is and what our eradication policy is," Allman said.

In addition to the Sheriff's Office's directive, a copy of State 
Attorney General Edmund Brown's guidelines was also handed out and is 
published online as well.

Some priorities for what the Sheriff's Office takes into 
consideration on marijuana were also explained by Allman. One of the 
priorities will be grows that are harming the environment.

County ordinances were also included in the Sheriff's Office's 
directive. The ordinances include no more than 25 medical marijuana 
plants on one parcel, that the 25-plant limit does not change with 
the number of qualified patients, that no amount of marijuana can be 
grown within 1,000 feet of a school, bus stop, park or church and 
that medical marijuana grown outdoors must have a six-feet-high fence 
with a locking gate.

The outcome of the Kelly case will have a significant effect on the 
guidelines discussed Friday.

"If the Kelly case is affirmed, everything you are reading you might 
as well put in the recycling bin," Allman said. "But if the Kelly 
case is overturned I assume everything you are reading is going to 
remain consistent as the law."

Objectives for sheriff's deputies to follow were also presented by the sheriff.

"We will be offering compliance checks to any body who calls the 
Sheriff's Office and says, Listen, I think I am in compliance and I 
don't know if I am in compliance, will you come out and look at our 
garden,'" Allman said. "We are going to go after the commercial 
gardens. We are going to go after the gardens that are causing 
environmental damage." Citizen calls reporting marijuana as a 
nuisance is also on the list of objectives.

Gardens diverting water illegally will also be a priority. Marijuana 
grown on public lands will be eradicated and marijuana grown by means 
of trespassing will be eradicated, Allman said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom