Marijuana Hearings in Butte County – Pot Could be #1 Cash Crop

by Jack Lee

UPDATE:  OROVILLE — In an entirely unexpected move, the Board of Supervisors preliminarily passed amendments to Butte County’s marijuana cultivation ordinance Tuesday that drastically tighten restrictions on growers.

On a motion by Chico Supervisor Maureen Kirk, the board unanimously voted to limit marijuana gardens not by the number of plants but by square-footage.

 Jan 15 – Today marked a close to the hearings on Butte County’s next marijuana ordinance. It was a packed house too, with a lot of citizens offering their opinions as well as professional opinions from law enforcement and the medical field.

 Supervisor Larry Wahl noted that lacking guidance from either the feds or the State, the county is left to their own devices to figure out what is best for our area.

 The supervisors envisioned seeking out take the best parts of their past marijuana ordinance, then take the best parts from other county pot ordinances within this state in order to make a complete ordinance. They want to seek a reasonable compromise between those folks who would just as soon see marijuana legalized, to those who want it illegal or for the compassionate use of medical marijuana , under controlled circumstances.

 The testimony today was generally very sensible, but none was more [enlightening] than the Butte County Sheriff’s drug enforcement unit. They said in 2013, over 3,000 grow sites were identified in Butte county by aerial surveillance. Most of these were in very remote forest areas or semi-rural areas, but some were also right in city limits.

 They were overwhelmed by the sheer number of grow sites, so they focused on just 69 sites to raid for the year. These were large grows and they were easily accessed. Of those 69 grow sites, 66 were determined to be operating well outside the rules of Prop 215, thus totally illegal.

 (Note my assistant posing to show the relative size of some plants) Some sites were run by out of state people and some by Mexican cartel members. Few were operated by long time residents.

 Apparently Northern California marijuana has a reputation for high THC content (that provides the high) and as a result a pound that could sell here for up to $1700 could bring over $7000 on the east coast. A modest sized marijuana plant typically yields 1-1.5 pounds of dried product. Under the old Butte County ordinance of 99 plants maximum, that translates to a dollar value of about $875,000 if the product were sold for it’s max retail price. Or at the very minimum, it would be worth around $100,000

Now keep in mind, these are not big grow sites. We’re talking about 99 plants that could cover an area about the size of a building lot or even less!

 The BCSO agents said the yield of usable marijuana per square foot of ground depended on many factors, such as water, fertilizer, cultivation methods, type of marijuana and of course the weather. The point being… any ordinance that relies solely on square footage to produce medical marijuana could be subject to wildly divergent crop yields and this could be exploited by a criminal element. So, the size of the ground is a factor, but it also has to be combined with other factors as noted above.

 As to the type of marijuana, one plant might yield a pound on maturity, while others could yield 10 to 12 pounds and this is… dried and processed marijuana! Just putting a number on it, say no more than 99 plants at any one grow site is a bad idea. That site is going to produce far more marijuana than anyone with a medical condition could ever use, even if they smoked one joint after another, both day and night, 7 days a week and never slept the entire year – they would only consume about 3.2 pounds, yet that site could yield upwards of 900 lbs!

 When it came to hearing from people in the audience, almost to a person, they wanted the county to adopt compassionate use ordinance, but they wanted to restrict it to something less than 5 or 6 plants. But, this assumes the ill person must grow it to have it and that just isn’t the case. Medical marijuana is and has been available for patients, if needed. The need to liberalize an ordinance just for compassionate use growing is not completely justifiable. Sure, it only helps those who might want to save money by growing their own, but otherwise the pot is available if needed by prescription. And for the purpose of growing, it was pointed out that 5-6 plants are more than enough for any one user. Anything beyond that is really growing for profit.

 A host of people told stories about marijuana smells from neighbors stinking up their house. They also complained that growing it in a neighborhood often leads to kids getting their hands on it. A lady from Chico reported her husband is a doctor and has been seeing more and more patients smoking pot during their pregnancy and this could lead to future medical problems of a very costly nature. Others complained that it’s just one more thing that has people sliding through life, unmotivated, not learning, not growing…just being a drain on society. They say marijuana use will ruin the collective character of every place that legalizes it.

 I estimated that at least 90% of the speakers at the meeting were for tightening up the county marijuana ordinance.

 Well, now it’s in the hands of the supervisors and we’ll just have to wait and see. . .