Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
Trinity County leaders are weighing possible restrictions on medical marijuana, including guidelines about gardens near school bus stops and a moratorium on storefront collectives.
The restrictions come in response to an explosion in medical marijuana growing in the sparsely populated county.
"In our county, there are tons of folks, frankly, tons of new folks, who are growing," said Jim French, Trinity County superintendent of schools.
French was part of an ad hoc committee that helped the Trinity County Board of Supervisors evaluate medical marijuana issues over the past year. He said a key concern is the distance gardens are grown from school bus stops, parks and other places were children congregate.
"We have it growing all around us in a nonregulated sense," said Tom Barnett, principal at Hayfork High School and superintendent of the Mountain Valley Unified School District.
He said the skunky smell of medical marijuana being smoked on private property near the school's football field drew complaints from visiting teams this year.
Like fellow leaders around the north state, in Redding, Red Bluff and other towns, Barnett said Trinity County supervisors are trying to determine how to regulate medical marijuana.
"I think everyone is watching what everyone else is doing," he said.
Up for consideration by the Trinity supervisors are two ordinances - a nuisance ordinance focused on where pot may be grown and a moratorium on storefront collectives.
Meetings and votes are set for both in the next two months, said Wendy Reiss, the Trinity County supervisor whose district includes half of Hayfork and everything south.
She said the supervisors are considering a moratorium on new collectives for either 45 days or 10 months. Currently there are no storefront collectives in the county, she said, although one has been under construction in Hayfork.
She said the county is trying to find a way to balance the needs of people who rely on marijuana as medicine and the wants of people growing the crop for profit.
"I'm not trying to block people's access to their medicine," Reiss said. "But we need to discuss what this is going to look like here."
But what the supervisors are considering targets the wrong crowd, said Vince Hubble, a medical marijuana advocate who served on the same ad hoc committee as French, the Trinity schools superintendent. He said the focus should be on people tending massive marijuana plantations on federally managed land, not growers with small gardens.
"There is going to be a massive uprising," Hubble said. "This is penalizing legal, considerate growers."
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: redding.com
Author: Dylan Darling
Copyright: 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Contact: Redding Record Searchlight
Website: Trinity County next to consider medical marijuana restrictions
• Thanks to Irish for the news tip.
The restrictions come in response to an explosion in medical marijuana growing in the sparsely populated county.
"In our county, there are tons of folks, frankly, tons of new folks, who are growing," said Jim French, Trinity County superintendent of schools.
French was part of an ad hoc committee that helped the Trinity County Board of Supervisors evaluate medical marijuana issues over the past year. He said a key concern is the distance gardens are grown from school bus stops, parks and other places were children congregate.
"We have it growing all around us in a nonregulated sense," said Tom Barnett, principal at Hayfork High School and superintendent of the Mountain Valley Unified School District.
He said the skunky smell of medical marijuana being smoked on private property near the school's football field drew complaints from visiting teams this year.
Like fellow leaders around the north state, in Redding, Red Bluff and other towns, Barnett said Trinity County supervisors are trying to determine how to regulate medical marijuana.
"I think everyone is watching what everyone else is doing," he said.
Up for consideration by the Trinity supervisors are two ordinances - a nuisance ordinance focused on where pot may be grown and a moratorium on storefront collectives.
Meetings and votes are set for both in the next two months, said Wendy Reiss, the Trinity County supervisor whose district includes half of Hayfork and everything south.
She said the supervisors are considering a moratorium on new collectives for either 45 days or 10 months. Currently there are no storefront collectives in the county, she said, although one has been under construction in Hayfork.
She said the county is trying to find a way to balance the needs of people who rely on marijuana as medicine and the wants of people growing the crop for profit.
"I'm not trying to block people's access to their medicine," Reiss said. "But we need to discuss what this is going to look like here."
But what the supervisors are considering targets the wrong crowd, said Vince Hubble, a medical marijuana advocate who served on the same ad hoc committee as French, the Trinity schools superintendent. He said the focus should be on people tending massive marijuana plantations on federally managed land, not growers with small gardens.
"There is going to be a massive uprising," Hubble said. "This is penalizing legal, considerate growers."
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: redding.com
Author: Dylan Darling
Copyright: 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Contact: Redding Record Searchlight
Website: Trinity County next to consider medical marijuana restrictions
• Thanks to Irish for the news tip.
