[420 Girl]

Humboldt County - The City Council last week signed off on draft standards for medical marijuana, including far-reaching regulations governing cannabis dispensaries and home cultivation by Prop 215 patients. The standards attempt to eliminate illegal for-profit home cultivation as well.

The council meeting covered familiar ground, but this time included props – including actual cannabis.

The new standards limit home cultivation for Prop 215 patients to 50 square feet with 1,200 watts of lighting and a 10-foot height limit. Use of growth-stimulating gases is prohibited. Homegrown medical marijuana may not be sold, and a patient may only maintain one grow. Homes with grows must retain functional kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms and can’t stink up the neighborhood.

Those who require more than 50 square feet of cultivation for their medical needs may be granted a variance to grow in up to 100 square feet with extra fire safety measures in the form of greenboard firewalls.

No more than four medical marijuana cooperatives/collectives may operate in Arcata, and if one closes, the limit drops and stays at three. A cannabis center may not use more than 1,500 square feet or 25 percent of its floor space for growing.

The centers can’t buy from grow houses. They must develop detailed Operations Manuals documenting patients screening procedures and tracking data for cannabis acquisition and dispensation. They must develop energy conservation and waste recycling procedures. Annual performance reviews are required. A proposed limit of four dispensed ounces of cannabis per patient per month came under fire, with heavy criticism from patients, caregivers and clinicians.

Councilmember Harmony Groves had been in the forefront of questioning the four-ounce limit, which was intended to limit resale of dispensed marijuana onto the street market. Groves wondered why the City was halving the state Attorney General’s standard of eight dispensed ounces per month.

To help visualize the quantity, Police Chief Randy Mendosa had prepared sealed two plastic packages of seized marijuana in four- and eight-ounce quantities. Weighed out by the PD evidence technician, Mendosa had obtained legal clkearance from the District Attorney's office to make the demonstration.

As Mendosa passed the plump pot pouches up to the council dais for inspection, Councilmember Paul Pitino erupted in objections as to the point of the exercise.

“We all know what it looks like,” he said twice.

“‘We all’ may, but a lot of us may not,” responded Mayor Mark Wheetley.

Community Development Director Larry Oetker, who had requested the demonstration, agreed. “Just because we live in Humboldt County, everybody does not know what four ounces or eight ounces of marijuana looks like.”

“It just feels a little strange to me,” Pitino said. “A cubic inch of mercury is a pound,” he added helpfully.

Eventually, the four-ounce limit was dropped.

Some citizens wondered how the fancy new standards regarding grow houses will be enforced. Under the standards, citizens may complain to Community Development about suspected illegal grows, which will trigger code enforcement by the City via property inspections and, if a grow house is discovered, possible electrical power disconnection and nuisance abatement proceedings. Complaints will be kept confidential unless subpoenaed by a court in an ensuing criminal case.

The cannabis regs, Ordinance No. 1382, were approved for introduction and maybe adopted at the City Council’s Nov. 19 meeting.

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