cannabisnews.com: Neighbors Concerned About Pot Growing





Neighbors Concerned About Pot Growing
Posted by CN Staff on November 29, 2002 at 14:23:37 PT
By Glenda Anderson, The Daily Journal
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal 
Marijuana shouldn't be allowed to be grown blatantly in residential neighborhoods, Burlington Drive residents said Wednesday. Burlington Drive was the scene of an armed robbery involving medical marijuana on Tuesday."We have enough problems in the neighborhood," said one woman, who, like most of the people interviewed, did not wish to be named. "I'm all for medical marijuana growing legally. But that's a little much," said another neighbor. "Do it some place other than suburbia."
He said the people who were robbed had about 75 plants growing in their backyard during the summer.The plants at one point reportedly towered over the fence and put off a pungent odor, attracting youth looking for a way to get stoned.Neighbors complained children were climbing their fences in an effort to get at the dope, but law enforcement could do nothing because the residents had medical marijuana cards, both as users and caregivers.However, Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force Commander Bob Nishiyama said he did warn the residents that growing the plants in the open was inviting trouble."Unfortunately, I was right," he said Wednesday.It's the value of marijuana that puts it at risk of theft it reportedly goes for an estimated $2,000 to $4,000 a plant, or pound."Money does grow on trees," Nishiyama said. And "if somebody sees the money poking over the fence, they're going to hop the fence and steal it."After another recent medical marijuana theft, at least one law enforcement official suggested the city might want to put some kind of restriction on growing marijuana in crowded areas.Ukiah City Manager Candace Horsley said the issue has not been discussed by City Council members.She said it might be a good idea to have an ordinance restricting marijuana gardens from a public safety standpoint, but it would be tricky coming up with one that did not result in the city being accused of unfairly, or illegally, preventing them from having their medicine.On the other hand, it might limit what one Burlington Drive resident thinks is a misuse of the medical marijuana laws. He said he believes the neighbors who were robbed were selling the marijuana they grew for profit, not for medical use.And they aren't the only ones doing that in the neighborhood, he said."Just follow your nose" in the summer, he said.Across the street, another neighbor agreed."I know too many people who suddenly have back ailments," he said.Kay Allensworth said it's not just the crime potential she's worried about, although the armed robbery has her concerned. She noted Frank Zeek School is just two blocks away and the neighborhood is populated with small children who should not be exposed to the drug."See all these little kids?" she said, pointing to a pair just outside her door.The people who were robbed Tuesday also reportedly have two young children.The masked, gun-wielding robbers reportedly made off with a bag of dried marijuana, a safe, pocket money and phones.There are an estimated 500 medical marijuana cardholders in Mendocino County.Source: Ukiah Daily Journal (CA)Author: Glenda Anderson, The Daily JournalPublished: Friday, November 29, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Ukiah Daily JournalContact: udj pacific.netWebsite: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmMedical Marijuana Confusing to Everyonehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13713.shtmlMedical Pot War Rages On http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13278.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on November 29, 2002 at 21:26:17 PT:
Let It Grow, It's Medicine and Always Has Been.
Prohibition kills, prohibition steals, prohibition rots your brain, your city, your state, your country. This is your brain on prohibition.
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Comment #3 posted by The C-I-R-C-L-E on November 29, 2002 at 19:36:58 PT
Unfortunately, this is the rule, not the exception
We here in California are seeing a viscious backlash to the MMJ law of 1996. All it took was having small-market newspapers that serve the vast non-urban areas, such as this one and my local paper, limit their cannabis reporting to police reports and booking sheets. They only time the average Joe reads about MMJ is when someone is busted for being questionable (or not so questionable in some cases). The perception has become one of automatic guilty-of-abuse-until-proven-innocent.There are many in CA that wonder if The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 were on the ballot today, would it pass again?
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Comment #2 posted by Naaps on November 29, 2002 at 19:08:04 PT
Not in My Neighborhood
There you are; sick in the neighborhood you’ve lived in for many years, always paying taxes and participating in the community, but now you’re stricken and ailing. Cannabis as medicine relieves some of the worst aspects of your pain. You jump through all the hoops, and get your indemnity medical marijuana card. Unfortunately, for you the city has already moved to prohibit growing your medicine despite all your years of community effort, you can’t do something the state allows... It is reminiscent of villagers of yore, coming at night with flaming torches and pitchforks, to drive away lepers…A longtime contributing member of the community must move away in order to cultivate required medicine. It is unfair and shortsighted to prevent the bona fide cardholders from cultivating, especially when it affect people with deep ties to the community.The article is stinted. At the heart, the legal growers were robbed of their medicine, yet one might conclude by the author’s prejudice that they deserved to be victimized. Nameless neighbors are interviewed, full of speculation. The cop says, I told them. Children at the local school are declared to be in danger. These people need a reality check. Sick people are victims of crime, and the community wants to put the boots to them. Disgraceful. Shameful.
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Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on November 29, 2002 at 18:35:50 PT
LTE
Sirs,  Contrary to the assertion in your article, money does not grow on trees. Before the laws against marijuana were enacted, it sold for less than $1 per ounce, and nobody who grew it in their yard had to worry about theft. Our current drug laws have inflated the price of cannabis to today's ridiculous levels, and provided a monopoly for criminals. Every drug bust just sends the prices up and makes those plants more valuable. If cannabis were available at a fair price to all adults in licenced and taxed shops, then patients who grow their own would no longer have to fear the theft of their medicine.  People who brew their own beer never have to worry about problems like these, right?
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