Pubdate: Mon, 29 Oct 2012
Source: Record, The (Stockton, CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Record
Website: http://www.recordnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/428
Author: Keith Reid

MEDICAL POT ADVOCATE PUSHES FOR PANEL TO POLICE GROWERS

LODI - A Tokay High School graduate turned medical marijuana advocate
said she will implore Lodi to start a commission or panel to meet
monthly to hear complaints and deal with issues that arise with the
cultivation of cannabis within city limits.

Angel Raich, 46, is a medical marijuana patient who has a terminal
brain tumor. She has been a longtime advocate who helped write
Proposition 215, the compassionate-use act passed by California voters
in 1996. She lobbied at the state level for patient rights in recent
years.

Raich said she has concerns for how the City Council has banned
dispensaries and is expected to place a 45-day moratorium on any
cultivation of medical marijuana at its Nov. 7 meeting, citing one
case where pot plants grown in a resident's backyard have become a
nuisance to neighbors.

In that 45-day period, the City Attorney's office will draft and
recommend an ordinance that places restrictions on how marijuana can
be grown so that it is not a nuisance.

"I'm going to ask them to do a task force, and I want to be a part of
it," Raich said. "I want to see a panel that has representatives from
the community and a representative from law enforcement."

The city has made no decision, and the City Clerk's office has
reported no formal opposition to a temporary moratorium on growing or
a future ordinance.

City Attorney Steve Schwabauer and Deputy City Attorney Janice Magdich
have said they fully intend to craft an ordinance that is reasonable
for medical marijuana patients. The City Council will have multiple
options:

Banning all marijuana cultivation.

Banning outdoor cultivation.

Banning cultivation in specific city zones, such as industrial or
residential.

Setting guidelines for cultivation with specific detail on what is and
isn't considered a nuisance. Code enforcement would handle complaints
on a case-to-case basis.

Councilman Alan Nakanishi said he would like to consider an all-out
ban.

Any ordinance is likely to bring some form of opposition.

Magdich told the City Council a full-time ban is likely to invite a
lawsuit. Raich, a 1984 grad of Tokay High who now lives in Stockton,
agreed, adding that banning all outdoor cultivation would create a
hardship for some patients who cannot afford greenhouses or other equipment.

Raich said most people who grow their own medical pot in Lodi are not
a nuisance. Letting people grow under the terms of their prescription
and handling complaints, she said, is best for everybody.

"Oakland and Berkeley both have commissions that handle all the
issues, and it works," Raich said. "The main thing is ... there are
seniors using medical marijuana, normal people use it. The main thing
is we don't want people buying on the street because there are too
many restrictions."

For more information on Angel Raich, visit angeljustice.org.
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