[420 Girl]

The county's ongoing effort to regulate medical marijuana drew 19 speakers Monday who expressed fears, opposition, support and ideas about future countywide policy.

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors' Health and Human Services Committee was tasked in the spring with reviewing the county's marijuana cultivation ordinance, codified as Mendocino County Code 9.31.

Many attendees spoke on behalf of medical marijuana patients, saying the county's use of its nuisance abatement procedures to enforce 9.31 was offensive and wrong.

Speakers also asked the committee to consider the rights of property owners who don't want to see or smell marijuana growing on neighboring lots, and who are concerned about criminal activity the gardens may draw.

Third-party verification of nuisance complaints was suggested as a way to buffer medical marijuana patients from criminal or civil penalties, and County Counsel Jeanine Nadel said she wanted to explore the idea.

At the committee's urging, Nadel will also prepare a report about the cases in which 9.31 was enforced using the county's nuisance abatement procedures.

The county's attempt to regulate medical marijuana cultivation will continue for another two monthly meetings of the Health and Human Services Committee.

On Friday a group of medical marijuna patients sued the county claiming the county's medical marijuana ordinance 9.31 is unconstitutional becasue it attempts to set limits on pot growing under the state medical marijuna law, Prop. 215.

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