|
|
| City Outlaws Outdoor Pot Growing |
|
Posted by CN Staff on October 21, 2005 at 22:44:40 PT By Claudia Reed, Staff Writer Source: Willits News 
California -- An ordinance prohibiting outdoor growing of marijuana within city limits was unanimously adopted at the October 12 city council meeting. A network of medical marijuana patients, working through Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access (ASA), is threatening to sue. The ordinance in question, which adds the new chapter, Marijuana Cultivation to the Willits Municipal Code, outlaws outdoor growing as a nuisance contributing to unpleasant odors, air pollution affecting community health, and an increased risk of violent crime. The chapter does not outlaw indoor growing per se, but reserves the right to declare specific indoor growing operations a nuisance on a case-by-case basis. It does not restrict purchase of medical marijuana from a caregiver growing a supply elsewhere. Caregivers are still available, said Councilman Denny McEntire. Precluding marijuana growing in city limits doesnt preclude access to marijuana. Even those most fiercely opposed to in-city growing, including Laura McBride, who says she develops migraine headaches from pot-related air pollution during harvest season, voiced little opposition to the general concept of medical marijuana. Legalize it and move it out to the country where nobody has to smell it and tax the crap out of it! McBride said. Taxed or not, marijuana patients insist they cant afford to purchase their medicine or to grow it indoors. The majority of qualified patients wont be able to grow at all if they have to grow indoors, protested a woman identifying herself as Pebbles Triphead. Triphead said most lack the necessary expertise and cant afford the grow lights and other essential equipment. She added the fear of crime cited in the ordinance would be intensified by the fear of home invasion if indoor growing is the only option. She also threatened suit with the help of pro bono lawyers. One such lawyer, ASA attorney Joseph D. Elford, made the same threat in a Sept. 22 letter to City Attorney James Lance when the ordinance was still at the proposal stage: Because the...ordinance deprives those who cannot afford greenhouses or grow lamps of this right (to cultivate medicine), it is at odds with Californias medical marijuana laws and is, therefore, preempted. After passage of the ordinance, Elford told The Willits News: We would be a lot less interested in bringing suit if (the ordinance) set reasonable limitation on amounts within a certain residential area then to ban absolutely. It seems to me limitations on plant size and amount would solve the problem. Lance, however, told the paper he was guided by a state attorney generals opinion that a municipalitys ordinance that allows for a number (of plants) less than what the state law allows may be in contradiction of state law. That law, the Compassionate Use Act, allows cultivation of six mature or 12 immature plants per patient. State law does say a patient may grow, Lance adds, but doesnt say a patient may grow whatever he wants wherever he wants. We believe a city has the right to protect its community by limiting things that may be a nuisance. At the Oct. 12 meeting Councilwoman Karen Oslund pointed out agricultural activities in generally are limited or prohibited within city limits. I cant keep a cow in my back yard, she said. I will support this ordinance knowing we will be sued. If those who support this ordinance want to write checks for the legal defense fund we will all be grateful. I hope were not sued, said City Manager Ross Walker, a generally reserved man who spoke with great intensity. Think about what youre doing! Somebodys coming in from the outside telling us how local government ought to relate to its own citizens! Complete Title: City Outlaws Outdoor Pot Growing: Marijuana Patients Threaten Suit Source: Willits News (CA) Related Articles & Web Site: Americans For Safe Access Pot Ordinances: One Ready for Vote To Grow or Not To Grow? Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
 |
| Comment #20 posted by siege on October 22, 2005 at 12:15:04 PT |
| Legal Problems Dog Bush's Inner Circle
(((Where we when the laws where changed)))No more then two Terms for the president Office!
Cheney has said he is not interested in pursuing the Republican nomination for president in 2008. So Bush's choice to replace his running mate would tip the president's hand on his preference for(( 2008)). Florida governor and first brother,
Jeb Bush? [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #19 posted by FoM on October 22, 2005 at 12:02:42 PT |
| Yes sir you are so right. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #18 posted by siege on October 22, 2005 at 11:55:47 PT |
| They are the same!! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #17 posted by FoM on October 22, 2005 at 11:47:17 PT |
| That's what truckers call a weigh station. lol [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #16 posted by siege on October 22, 2005 at 11:42:22 PT |
| CNews has a lot good thing about it for one! I made a effective carbon filter from CNews, around the (centrul air) works good. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #15 posted by Hope on October 22, 2005 at 11:04:56 PT |
| Oh no, Siege. Commercial chicken houses that close. That's sad. I'm so sorry. Dairies, which we have a lot of around here can be bad, but I prefer the barnyard smells to the chicken coop smells. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #14 posted by siege on October 22, 2005 at 09:47:51 PT |
| orchids in the wild OMG Hawaii over powering, we have a neighbor that moved in about 4/10th of a mile from us here. all most 3 years ago He put in 4 chicken house's OMG it is dead all the time and in the summer you can't out side for it. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #13 posted by Hope on October 22, 2005 at 09:40:53 PT |
| story is here, if anyone wants to know what happened that doesn't already. http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19811.shtml [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by Hope on October 22, 2005 at 09:32:00 PT |
| I don't know. But I have a feeling that that scent...that vapor might really be good for a person that was not allergic to it...as many are not. I can easily imagine it's gases being beneficial...perhaps even for the skin and hair and the health of the lungs and body. Might make one's nose less dry or "infected", and healthier. I think I'd like it. Jovan once made a cannabis scented perfume, Grass. I still have a partial bottle of it. I liked it...until it got noticed at work. The perfume, I mean. I didn't know it was THAT kind of grass. The bottle shows blades of grass...not cannabis leaves. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by Hope on October 22, 2005 at 09:21:34 PT |
| My dear neighbor to the South and East, and he is dear...very dear, a few years ago decided to take advantage of a cheap and natural fertilizer deal he ran on to, in fertilizing the meadows that surround us. Organic? Sounded great to me. We always get blow off from what they do to those meadows. Like my orchard one year. Gone to a herbicide spraying around the fences. That was cruel. But back to what I started to say...about the harsh reality of the spreading of that stuff. It very nearly killed us and made their lovely meadow view pretty nasty looking for a long long time. The cows didn't love grazing it, either. The neighbors to our North may not have even realized why the air had turned so foul. Took our entire fall season from us. It was supposed to rain right after the ground chicken waste, including bones and bits of feathers, and chicken manure? something powdery...had been spread over the surrounding meadow. It didn't rain, as I recall, for at least two months, a stiff Southern breeze all the while. My sinuses throb at the remembrance of it. The only time in my life I ever suffered from bronchitis was that winter...for three months. My husband was out in it more than I was. He developed a staff infection around his neck. Boils. Whew! But sue them? No way! They're my neighbors and they've been absolutely wonderful neighbors for many, many years. (Like the morning we were leaving for a week long trip, only to discover that one of our daughters hadn't taken her goldfish over to be babysat. We woke them at 4:30 to receive our goldfish into their care on a moments notice.) I like them. I love them. They are truly dear to me. (Hint: We don't talk about the fertilizing incident. It's one of those things we'd rather put to the back of our minds...keeping only as a reminder to never do it again.) Siege, I know that smell you are talking about. I think it has a lot of ammonia in it and something extremely heavy in the way of gaseousness. It smells bad and poisonous and heavy. I've seen it make parks uninhabitable. I shudder at the remembrance of it. One of my daughters lived in an idyllic old creek area..."Bottoms"... homestead on the outskirts of a small town nearby in an area that was once heavily farmed...cotton mostly. The smell of wash off fertilizer was hideous there until you got used to it. It was worse sometimes than others. It flooded there regularly. It was a lush place...very lush. The floods brought other things besides wash off fertilizer. An unbelievable amount of broken glass. I mean a virtual carpet of it. FoM, onions do have big beautiful global lily like flowers. In fact...onions might be in the lily family, I'm not sure. They are fragrant though. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by siege on October 22, 2005 at 07:27:24 PT |
| about the nasty smelling TREES the city plants to beau·ti·fy
[ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by siege on October 22, 2005 at 07:14:08 PT |
| Ever smell that SH*T on the lawn!! when half the community puts it on there lawns.
[ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by FoM on October 22, 2005 at 07:10:04 PT |
| Onions what an excellent idea! LOL! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #7 posted by Hope on October 22, 2005 at 06:56:49 PT |
| Gardenias. Jasmines. Cannabis. Lilac. Honeysuckle. Sage. Lemon Balm. Cannabis. Nicotania (flowering tobaccos). Roses chosen for frangrance. Lavender. Heliotrope. Cannabis. Verbena. Mignonette, and the list goes on. Cannabis gardeners with neighbors close by, should perhaps make sure their gardens have plenty of strong scented plants to go with the cannabis. Oh...and before the gardenias and roses get big...perhaps a nice bed of tall growing flowering onions between the upwind cannabis and the downwind neighbor. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by siege on October 22, 2005 at 06:49:41 PT |
| Think about what youre doing! Somebodys coming in from the outside telling us how local government ought to relate to its own citizens! (Then how is it that you let the Fed. prohibitionists come and do the same to your town). and put more burden on the
citizens. in being caged and there homes taken away and there family's torn a part, or is this what you respect! taking the childern away from there parents and put that burden on the community. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by potpal on October 22, 2005 at 06:16:04 PT |
| Irks me that they'll (prohibitionists) jump to 'believe' that someone can actually get a migraine from the scent of cannabis yet fail to 'believe' the countless patients that claim mmj relieves their pain and suffering. And this said, institute a law immediately without debate to avoid such an occurance for this one person. Seems that the dark side likes the word 'pollution', as if a plant's scent can have a detrimental effect on the environment. The real pollution here is the air that prohibitionists exhale when they open their mouths. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by cloud7 on October 22, 2005 at 06:07:08 PT |
| This is a great way to ensure that those people with the least means will not be able to grow their own medicine or obtain it at a minimal cost. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by Toker00 on October 22, 2005 at 05:18:36 PT |
| Why do they drill down into the depths and withdraw the darkness? Don't they know that by bringing it up here, they are creating darkness where there is light? It's down there for a reason. So it won't hurt us up here. But THEY have brought it up here. It has been hurting US, since. We live up here where there is light, not down there where it is dark. Why did they bring the darkness into the light? We must return the darkness to it's depths. We must focus instead on reaching for the light, since that is where we live. Cannabis grows well in the light. Cannabis is up here where we live, we won't have to drill down into the darkness anymore. And cannabis will not hurt us up here. I just love the smell of cannabis in the morning! Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Toker00 on October 22, 2005 at 04:48:25 PT |
| This is how brainwashed prohibitionists are, even in the light of day. They believe that prohibition will make people who want to do drugs, drug free. And they believe that the drug laws keep people who don't want to do drugs, drug free. They believe that just because there is a law on the book that says you can't, it means you can't. THIS IS SO STUPID. Right now, even with all the laws prohibiting illegal drug use, any person who wants to take drugs, any drugs, legal or not, can, and easily. You are even encouraged to take the legal ones. So, these laws are doing what? Destroying the lives of those who get caught breaking them. Do the laws do what they were intended to do? Keep people drug free? Not no, but HELL no! Prohibiting something only enhances it's appeal. These laws only encourage drug use. Prohibition must be replaced with education and acceptance of drug use, with treatment for drug abuse. I think drugs abuse people more than people abuse drugs. This is why I differenciate between drugs (man-made concoctions) and natural medicine. You may possibly abuse cannabis by succombing to it's relaxing properties and neglecting what you need to be doing, but cannabis (natural) does not abuse you. Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by mayan on October 22, 2005 at 03:11:47 PT |
| The ordinance in question, which adds the new chapter, Marijuana Cultivation to the Willits Municipal Code, outlaws outdoor growing as a nuisance contributing to unpleasant odors, air pollution affecting community health, and an increased risk of violent crime. Unpleasant odors? Like from the factories,trucks,sewers and power plants? Air pollution affecting community health? Like the sources of the above mentioned odors? An increased risk of violent crime? Like the risk created from a policy that has made cannabis to be worth it's weight in gold and a lucrative commodity for black market bandits? This world is upside down and the emperor still hasn't figured out he's butt naked! A pleasant,fragrant flower should be the least of our worries. C'mon. Let's be real. [ Post Comment ] |
| Post Comment |  |
 |  |