[420 Girl]

Five medical marijuana patients are suing the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Tom Allman.

The suit, filed Friday morning in the Mendocino County Superior Court, claims the county's marijuana cultivation ordinance is unconstitutional because it limits cultivation inn ways state law, outlined in Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, and in Senate Bill 420, does not.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop the county from enforcing its marijuana cultivation ordinance, codified as Mendocino County Code 9.31. It also seeks attorney's fees on behalf of five marijuana patients who say 9.31 violates their rights under state law.

SB 420 allows a patient to have six mature plants or 12 immature plants, or the amount a doctor recommends. The marijuana cultivation ordinance says no more than 25 plants can be grown on a parcel, or it's considered a nuisance.

"I believe strongly that this 9.31 ... is really a wish list of how the Board of Supervisors would like the law to work, but that's simply not how the law really works. The law, and the state, sent a clear message through the legislature that if counties and board(s) of supervisors seek to exceed those limits, they can do that. But they simply cannot decide that they want to limit those below that threshold," attorney Edie Lerman said.

A hearing date to determine whether a preliminary injunction will be granted was set for Oct. 9 at 9:30 a.m. in the Ukiah courthouse. If granted, the
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injunction would be in place until a determination can be made about whether a permanent injunction would be granted.

At 1 p.m., Sheriff Allman said he hadn't yet seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it until he had looked at it and spoken to County Counsel Jeanine Nadel about it.

Nadel said at 1:30 p.m. that she hadn't seen the lawsuit yet, either, and added that it isn't her practice to comment on litigation matters.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...y-sheriff.html