Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2016
Source: Mail Tribune, The (Medford, OR)
Copyright: 2016 The Mail Tribune
Contact:  http://www.mailtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/642
Note: Only prints LTEs from within it's circulation area, 200 word count limit
Author: Damian Mann

POT FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS

OLCC Members Toured Pot Grows Thursday to Learn About Security Measures

Tall fences are sprouting all over the Rogue Valley as pot growers 
gear up for tough new security measures required by the Oregon Liquor 
Control Commission this year.

OLCC officials toured the area Thursday to learn what they might 
expect during inspections - and in the process they learned that the 
inspections themselves might help spread russet mites from crop to crop.

"A lot of people were hit hard last summer by mites," said Brent 
Kenyon, who owns The Wharf in Medford and has been an active member 
of the cannabis community. "Some lost a quarter-million dollars worth 
of crops last year."

OLCC, which will consider ways it can minimize the spread of the 
mites this summer, will begin its first year of ensuring that 
commercial recreational marijuana crops are inspected from seed to 
sale. Members of the Oregon SunGrown Growers' Guild, which has 100 
members statewide, was on hand to help guide the tour, which provided 
insight into security measures at grow sites.

OLCC Executive Director Steve Marks and OLCC Chairman Rob Patridge 
toured the area Thursday and listened to recreational growers express 
concern that they might have difficulty following some of the new 
rules, including backing 24-hour videos up to the "cloud." OLCC wants 
a month's worth of videos available, which would require a lot of 
uploading and storage space, particularly if a grow site has multiple cameras.

"It's physically impossible to back up from this site," said Eagle 
Point grower Will Feetham, speaking at a property in Williams. He 
said Internet access is slow or nonexistent in many parts of 
Williams, which would make it difficult to get video feeds to OLCC.

"We want to have cameras, but we don't want to back them up to the 
cloud," said Feetham, a member of the SunGrown Growers' Guild.

OLCC wants the video to monitor what happens to the pot as it's 
growing or being processed to make sure it is all accounted for. 
Also, if a crop is stolen from the property, OLCC would have video 
evidence to prove that.

Other security issues that came up included fencing. Many rural 
properties are isolated or have natural boundaries such as creeks 
that protect them and don't necessarily require fences. Others along 
major roadways have high fences, which were being built all over Williams.

Feetham said many roads in rural areas sit higher than adjacent 
properties, so an 8-foot fence doesn't effectively conceal the cannabis crop.

"If the fence is higher than 8 feet, then it has to be engineered," 
he said. "That makes the cost go through the roof."

Many growers would prefer to use natural vegetation or some natural 
feature to block their plants rather than build a fence, which is 
often a tell-tale sign that marijuana is being grown behind it.

"It's like a billboard," he said.

The state statute says the plants must be obscured from easy public 
visibility, Feetham said.

Feetham was standing in a property that was surrounded on three sides 
by a $24,000 fence.

Many growers say they have 8-foot fences, but their plants exceed 
that height for a couple of months in the growing season. One 
68-year-old grower wanted to know whether she needed to install 
fabric material in the summer so people couldn't see her plants being 
grown. She said the fabric material is unsightly and often draws 
attention to pot growers in the valley.

Patridge told the grower, "You've made more than a reasonable effort 
to hide it from the public." But he said he would need to check on 
state rules to make sure she had done enough to protect her crop.

Many growers in Williams said theft hasn't been a problem at their grow sites.

Patridge said OLCC will have to look at grow operations on a 
case-by-case basis to determine what security measures are necessary.

"It's not one size fits all," he said. "We've got some flexibility."

Some locations don't have electricity, others are very remote and 
others are located in more visible locations that may require 
additional security.

"At some properties, we'll have to say no," he said.

Growers expressed concern about requirements to store processed 
marijuana behind a locked door that might be more secure than the 
building it's housed in.

"The definition makes it seem like a safe," Kenyon said.

Kenyon said many of the security measures will have to be decided by 
the growers themselves.

"It's a valuable crop," he said. "You have to have some security."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom