Pubdate: Thu, 10 May 2012
Source: Visalia Times-Delta, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Visalia Times-Delta
Contact: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2759

SAFETY COMES FIRST IN MANAGING MARIJUANA

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors this week unanimously and 
enthusiastically approved a plan to make it tougher to grow and 
distribute medical marijuana and easier for the county to shut down violators.

It's a step designed to safeguard the public and it's a step in the 
right direction.

It's also a step closer to alignment with federal drug policy under 
the Controlled Substances Act.

Legal in California under the Compassionate Care Act, 
medical-marijuana cultivation and distribution is often done by small 
operators, which was likely the intention of legislators. How and 
where plants could be grown were specifically outlined and, in a 
perfect world, that might have been enough.

But this is far from a perfect world.

Because people grow more than they are allowed, in areas that aren't 
properly zoned or in structures that don't meet the requirements for 
marijuana grows, public safety has now become a much bigger piece of 
the problem for local law enforcement agencies.

Law enforcement officers understand that in recent years, the 
opportunity to legally grow marijuana has attracted growers away from 
mountainous areas to the Valley floor, often in ordinary 
neighborhoods next to unsuspecting neighbors. Others are in more 
rural areas surrounded by, and shielded by, farmland.

In either case, they are everywhere.

Last year, the Tulare County Sheriff's Department identified more 
than 600 marijuana grow sites in the county and this year, an 
additional 250 have been identified. Some are operated by 
individuals; others are suspected of having ties to drug cartels.

Because not all of the grow sites could be thoroughly investigated, 
many residents believe that they have reason to be concerned.

In addition, the Sheriff's Department has identified at least 12 
homicides or attempted homicides at or near grow sites that resulted 
because someone was shot stealing from a site or tending a site.

There are other less-frightening reasons to be worried about the 
medical-marijuana industry.

Medical-marijuana cultivation and distribution is, after all, legal 
when carried out in accordance with the law. As long as they do so, 
legal operators are threatened by the actions of the illegal operators.

When an unsavory element develops and overshadows an industry, law 
enforcement officials and legislators quickly lose patience, 
affecting those who otherwise would create no compliance problems.

What about the actual users?

Those people with a doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana - 
who support the legitimate businesses - have a reasonable expectation 
that they will be able to obtain their prescribed allotment on an 
ongoing basis.

That now is threatened.

But until there is a unified, cohesive plan to regulate the industry, 
local law enforcement will be forced to do what is necessary to guard 
the public safety, even if that means eradicating the legal 
businesses along with the illegal grow sites.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom