Pubdate: Mon, 04 Nov 2013
Source: Porterville Recorder (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Freedom Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.recorderonline.com/sections/editor-form/
Website: http://www.recorderonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2887

CRACKDOWN ON POT GROWING PREDICTABLE

Tulare County has joined several other counties in California that 
have had enough of illegal marijuana growing. Now, it will be 
completely illegal to grow anything but a few plants indoors, no 
matter if you have a letter from a doctor or not.

The move was inevitable.

The growing of marijuana in the second leading agricultural county in 
the world has gotten out of hand and it is unfortunate that those 
with a medical need for marijuana will now suffer the most. But, they 
cannot blame the leaders of the county.

They only have the scores of illegal growers to blame for messing it 
up for those truly with a need.

In the past three years, the number of large, illegal marijuana 
gardens grew enormously in Tulare County.

Many times we have heard people complain about their neighbors, their 
renters or their neighborhoods where the smell of growing marijuana 
is as strong as a nest of skunks. There have been at least eight 
killings over marijuana in the past two years in the county, and just 
last week a man was killed and another wounded in a home invasion 
over marijuana in Orange Cove.

The threat of violence is one of the main reasons the county had to 
act. Although not yet passed, county supervisors are considering 
limiting the growing of marijuana to six or eight plants, not 99 as 
most Letters of Recommend from doctors suggest. Also, that growing 
must be done in an enclosed building. They are also considering that 
anyone with a letter from a doctor must have a legal residence and 
only grow at that residence in the county. Often those found at grow 
sites are from Los Angeles and their only connection to the area is 
they are illegally growing marijuana.

The law already strictly limits the growing of marijuana, so we know 
the tougher regulations will only be partly effective. The new 
regulations will be another tool in the Tulare County Sheriff's 
Department box to use on those who ignore the law and continue to put 
others at risk.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom