Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors discussed regulating medical marijuana last week, and will prepare a temporary ban on growing operations while an ad hoc committee looks at different laws around the state.

Undersheriff Jim Wegner recommended using a “canopy” instead of numbers to limit marijuana growing. Supervisor Brian Oneto asked if the canopy would limit acreage.

Wegner said it was his opinion, for example, to limit it to 100 square feet. They “could still get 100 plants in there, but they are not going to get that tall.” He urged supervisors to use legal means of regulating, because with the Compassionate Use Act, you “cannot stop grows.”

Louis Boitano said they can limit setbacks, and number of people you can have on the property, and farm workers. He said there is also sanitation. County Counsel Greg Gillott said setbacks, land use, and nuisance issues can be address in a county ordinance.

Supervisor Chairman John Plasse asked if they could limit the growing of medical marijuana to Amador County residents. Gillott said Trinity County’s interim ordinance limited the growing to be done by property owners or “caregivers,” living on the property.

Supervisor Ted Novelli asked Wegner if he had seen any regulations he liked. Wegner he had not read all of them. “There was some attractiveness to being short and brief,” but he liked bits and pieces of a lot of them. He thought it would best serve the community to take a look at everything out there.

Gillott said the board has the authority in government code to adopt an urgency ordinance that can go into effect right away. He said Trinity and Fresno counties used urgency ordinances to ban all outdoor cultivation. Trinity allowed it in a prescribed way.

County Planning Department Director Susan Grijalva said there are limitations to the urgency. They have four months to go through a hearing process to have an official ban ordinance go into place. Plasse said the urgency would create a reason to enforce it now, and then spend time to look at the local ordinance. Boitano said the board did the same when it banned medical pot dispensaries in urgency.

Gillott said they could face litigation with a ban, but they could tie it to the caregiver. He said Tehama County’s ordinance was upheld at the trial court level with a similar approach, and it was pretty similar to Butte County’s ordinance.

Supervisor Ted Novelli said they should “look at something that has been adopted and that already works,” and use it for the temporary ban “until we come up with our own.”

Gillott said they should probably look at several ordinances, and take what’s best for the county.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.