Sheriff Tom Allman explained the Sheriff's Office's approach to marijuana-related business at a courthouse meeting of mostly attorneys Friday at noon.
Allman also discussed the proposed zip-tie tag program, which, if approved by the Board of Supervisors, would charge $25 per medical marijuana plant and also a possible eradication fee of more than $25 per marijuana plant.
"The purpose of today's meeting is very simple," Allman said. "I am trying to take confusion out of the miscellaneous marijuana laws that we have throughout the county and state.
"I am trying to provide consistency so when your clients contact you for advice or after they are arrested and you are representing them, there can be a clear understanding of what the Sheriff's Office's policy is and what our eradication policy is," Allman said.
In addition to the Sheriff's Office's directive, a copy of State Attorney General Edmund Brown's guidelines was also handed out and is published online as well.
Some priorities for what the Sheriff's Office takes into consideration on marijuana were also explained by Allman. One of the priorities will be grows that are harming the environment.
County ordinances were also included in the Sheriff's Office's directive. The ordinance includes no more than 25 medical marijuana plants on one parcel. Voter approved Measure B which limits medical marijuana growing to six mature or 12 immature plants per patient is also part of the Sheriff's guidelines and the 25-plant limit does not change with the number of qualified patients. No amount of marijuana can be grown within 1,000 feet of a school, bus stop, park or church. All medical marijuana grown outdoors must have a six-foot-high fence with a locking gate. The California Supreme Court has yet to rule on the so-called Kelly case, in which a lower court ruled the state's medical marijuana regulations limiting the number of plants per patients conflicted with Prop. 215, the medical marijuana law.
The outcome of the Kelly case will have a significant affect on the guidelines discussed Friday.
"If the Kelly case is affirmed, everything you are reading you might as well put in the recycling bin," Allman said. "But if the Kelly case is overturned I assume everything you are reading is going to remain consistent as the law."
Objectives for sheriff's deputies to follow were also presented by the sheriff.
"We will be offering compliance checks to any body who calls the Sheriff's Office and says, Listen, I think I am in compliance and I don't know if I am in compliance, will you come out and look at our garden,'" Allman said. "We are going to go after the commercial gardens. We are going to go after the gardens that are causing environmental damage." Citizen calls reporting marijuana as a nuisance is also on the list of objectives.
Gardens diverting water illegally will also be a priority. Marijuana grown on public lands will be eradicated and marijuana grown by means of trespassing will be eradicated, Allman said.
News Hawk: MsRedEye: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Ukiah Daily Journal
Author: Zack Cinek
Copyright: 2009 Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: Contact Us - Ukiah Daily Journal
Website: Sheriff lays out the law on marijuana - Ukiah Daily Journal
Allman also discussed the proposed zip-tie tag program, which, if approved by the Board of Supervisors, would charge $25 per medical marijuana plant and also a possible eradication fee of more than $25 per marijuana plant.
"The purpose of today's meeting is very simple," Allman said. "I am trying to take confusion out of the miscellaneous marijuana laws that we have throughout the county and state.
"I am trying to provide consistency so when your clients contact you for advice or after they are arrested and you are representing them, there can be a clear understanding of what the Sheriff's Office's policy is and what our eradication policy is," Allman said.
In addition to the Sheriff's Office's directive, a copy of State Attorney General Edmund Brown's guidelines was also handed out and is published online as well.
Some priorities for what the Sheriff's Office takes into consideration on marijuana were also explained by Allman. One of the priorities will be grows that are harming the environment.
County ordinances were also included in the Sheriff's Office's directive. The ordinance includes no more than 25 medical marijuana plants on one parcel. Voter approved Measure B which limits medical marijuana growing to six mature or 12 immature plants per patient is also part of the Sheriff's guidelines and the 25-plant limit does not change with the number of qualified patients. No amount of marijuana can be grown within 1,000 feet of a school, bus stop, park or church. All medical marijuana grown outdoors must have a six-foot-high fence with a locking gate. The California Supreme Court has yet to rule on the so-called Kelly case, in which a lower court ruled the state's medical marijuana regulations limiting the number of plants per patients conflicted with Prop. 215, the medical marijuana law.
The outcome of the Kelly case will have a significant affect on the guidelines discussed Friday.
"If the Kelly case is affirmed, everything you are reading you might as well put in the recycling bin," Allman said. "But if the Kelly case is overturned I assume everything you are reading is going to remain consistent as the law."
Objectives for sheriff's deputies to follow were also presented by the sheriff.
"We will be offering compliance checks to any body who calls the Sheriff's Office and says, Listen, I think I am in compliance and I don't know if I am in compliance, will you come out and look at our garden,'" Allman said. "We are going to go after the commercial gardens. We are going to go after the gardens that are causing environmental damage." Citizen calls reporting marijuana as a nuisance is also on the list of objectives.
Gardens diverting water illegally will also be a priority. Marijuana grown on public lands will be eradicated and marijuana grown by means of trespassing will be eradicated, Allman said.
News Hawk: MsRedEye: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Ukiah Daily Journal
Author: Zack Cinek
Copyright: 2009 Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: Contact Us - Ukiah Daily Journal
Website: Sheriff lays out the law on marijuana - Ukiah Daily Journal
