Pubdate: Sat, 03 Sep 2011 Source: Paradise Post (CA) Copyright: 2011 Paradise Post Contact: http://www.paradisepost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3112 Author: Paul Wellersdick, Staff Writer TOWN COUNCIL SET TO CONSIDER POT LAW New medical marijuana restrictions will go before the Paradise Town Council Tuesday, Sept. 6 which would limit pot gardens to 50 square feet at qualified patients' homes only. The town is now under an emergency ban of collectives and cooperatives and the new ordinance would ban them and dispensaries. The law has seen a number of changes since its initial drafting following the January 2011 emergency moratorium that expires mid-December. The newest version cuts out any provision for collectives lest the town be federally prosecuted. While the previous version allowed a commercial indoor farm in a small section of the town's one industrial zone, that provision was eliminated after town attorney Dwight Moore talked with the U.S. Attorney's Office. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner previously issued the City of Chico a letter warning against breaking federal law. "Individuals who elect to operate industrial marijuana cultivation facilities will be doing so in violation of federal law. Others who knowingly facilitate such industrial cultivation activities, including property owners, landlords and financiers, should also know that their conduct violates federal law," Wagner wrote. The town's law is said to attempt to balance the rights of medical marijuana patients and the property rights and public safety concerns of their neighbors. This concern was highlighted by the 2008 home-invasion robbery and murder of Eric Jones at his Azalea Lane home, where his and other patients' marijuana was stolen. Add to that the town's concerns of being an easy target for those hoping to exploit the system governing medical marijuana, and the town voted to temporarily ban cooperatives until it could address their regulation. Other neighboring jurisdictions are approving and entertaining similar regulations, and the town feared that without similar restrictions it would be a vacuum for such activity. The town is attempting to regulate medical marijuana through land use, like any other zoning stipulation, as that category doesn't interfere with the Compassionate Use Act of Proposition 215, according to the town. However, patients have shown up at all the town's meetings on the issue to protest various portions of the regulations. Some have opposed limiting the square footage of the garden area, saying limiting plant numbers was better. Other patients have preferred stricter or looser regulations surrounding school zones. Still others have called for the entire deregulation of marijuana. The Paradise Police Department and the California Police Chief's Association have stated their support of some form of regulation. The council's consideration Tuesday is another opportunity for comments in favor of or against the regulations during a public hearing on the matter. There are two hearings scheduled ahead of the pot law and the hearings follow some routine business. The council meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Town Hall, 5555 Skyway. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.