[420 Girl]

With the traditional April 20 start of the outdoor marijuana growing season approaching, Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman has issued a series of guidelines for his officers and for potential growers based on guidance from the California Attorney General.

Allman met Friday with a group of defense attorneys as part of his efforts to bring clarity to this season's marijuana growing rules.

Attorney General Edmond G. Brown Jr. issued an 11-page guideline in August intended to clarify the medical marijuana laws for both law enforcement and patients and caregivers. A copy of thie guideline is available from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department website: Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

In addition to the Attorney General's guideline, a November 2008 ruling by the California Supreme Court in People vs. Mentch, established "a defendant whose caregiving consisted principally of supplying marijuana and instructing on its use, and who otherwise only sporadically took some patients to medical appointments, cannot qualify as a primary caregiver under the Act."

Before the ruling, many large commercial growers believed they had a legitimate right to grow marijuana if they had copies of caregiver cards from patients in other parts of California to show law enforcement.

Still pending before the California Supreme Court is the case of People vs. Kelly, which questions whether the state Legislature had the ability to modify or clarify the wording of a proposition when it put marijuana possession limits in the Health and Safety Code.

Each medical marijuana patient may possess eight ounces of processed marijuana and may maintain up to six mature marijuana plants or 12 immature plants, under the Attorney General's guidelines. A qualified patient may possess more marijuana if needed for his/her medical treatment, based on a doctor's recommendation.

In addition to the AG's guidelines, Mendocino County has established a maximum of 25 plants on any taxable parcel and prohibits all marijuana cultivation within 1,000 feet of any school, church or youth facility.

Allman has established the following county marijuana enforcement objectives for 2009:

1. Commercial marijuana operations.

2. Marijuana operations that cause environmental damage.

3. Trespass cultivation.

4. Marijuana operations that illegally divert water.

5. Calls for service from citizens reporting marijuana nuisances.

6. Providing compliance assistance and checks for medical marijuana patients and caregivers.

Willits has a separate marijuana ordinance, limiting cultivation to inside a secure building and allowing no more than six plants on any parcel. Ukiah and Fort Bragg each have growing ordinances as well.

Allman also hopes to reintroduce a zip tie program, if authorized by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. This would allow medical marijuana patients and caregivers to register their plants for a fee.


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