[420 Girl]

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors next week could approve a group of ordinances regulating growers and dispensaries of medical marijuana as well as those who smoke the drug for medical purposes.

At least one dispensary operator said some portions of the ordinances go too far, including restrictions on where people can smoke medicinal marijuana and how many of the plants can be grown and stored. But those concerns may be moot since the ordinances — even if passed — may never be enforced.

On Oct. 19, the U.S. Attorney General's Office issued a memorandum telling federal law enforcement in states with medical marijuana laws — California included — to focus on "significant traffickers" of illegal drugs and not "on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." That essentially meant the federal government should leave medical marijuana users alone as long as they comply with their state laws.

The Tulare County ordinances include a provision that growing, cultivating, possessing, consuming and distributing medical marijuana must be done in compliance with federal and state law. California's Compassionate Use Act, which took effect in 1996, allows people to legally grow, buy, distribute and ingest marijuana as a treatment for medical conditions.

The county's ordinances would take effect only if the federal law on medical marijuana changes to parallel California's laws, Supervisor Steve Worthley said. Tulare County officials said they created the proposed ordinances so that if the federal law changes, regulations on medical marijuana already would be in place.

On Tuesday, the four supervisors present — Allen Ishida was on vacation — unanimously approved a reading of the ordinances and suggested some minor changes of wording. A second reading is scheduled for Tuesday's meeting, at which time the supervisors could vote to approve the ordinances.

Among their provisions:

Dispensaries would have to obtain business licenses in unincorporated parts of the county. Part of that licensing would involve background checks of dispensary operators.

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