☛ TS Trinidad police bust suspected pot grow
...James Cook, 28, of Trinidad was arrested Tuesday morning at his residence on the 800 block of Edwards Street on suspicion of cultivating marijuana and possessing marijuana for sale...
Just a few weeks ago ☛ TS Pot bust in Trinidad rental property
on the 500 block of East Street in Trinidad. Inside, police reportedly found 525 growing marijuana plants, 10 pounds of drying marijuana and $500 cash.
The renter, Catherine Wise, was not at the residence, Thrailkill said. On Friday afternoon Trinidad police reportedly requested a warrant for her arrest.
Thrailkill said there were “major modifications” done to the inside of the rental home to support the growing operation, which filled about three rooms in the house.
Nice to see Trinidad PD doing something about the pot problem.
ReplyDeleteThe important legal ruling is that coal plants must limit C02. Call me cynical, but… given the historical disregard for law by the current administration, I can’t see that the ruling will make much of a difference. A ruling is one thing and enforcement another. Basically, an arm of the Business Protection Agency, formerly the EPA, saying please don’t fire me, I have a mortgage and kids in private school. Obviously, the Naib is more hopeful…
ReplyDelete----------------------
williamgeorge
link building
"He likened the present situation to that of the meat industry prior to publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. That 1906 newspaper serial, later published as a book, exposed labor abuses and health hazards at slaughterhouses and spurred regulation and government oversight."
ReplyDeleteCouncil adopts cannabis standards – November 25, 2008
http://www.arcataeye.com/index.php?module=Pagesetter&tid=2&topic=3&func=viewpub&pid=1120&format=full
ARCATA – When the new medical marijuana land use standards go into effect Dec. 19, Arcata’s many cannabis patients will have simple, legal options for meeting their medicine needs. And neighborhoods blighted by grow houses will have options, too.
With a doctor’s recommendation, patients with a green thumb – or a caregiver with the knack – will be able to set up a home grow in up to 50 square feet. This might yield an ounce of cannabis per week – more than enough for most patients. Those with special needs may request more grow space.
Or, the patient can go downtown, where four non-profit cannabis centers – consituted as collectives or cooperatives per state guidelines – will sell them what they need. Terminal patients will likely be able to obtain cannabis at no cost.
And, in theory, the cannabis will flow in medically appropriate amounts to those in genuine need without surrendering whole houses, neighborhoods and prime downtown retail space to the marijuana industry.
The new standards apply only to areas of Arcata outside the Coastal Zone, which rings Humboldt Bay. A separate but identical ordinance covers those areas, but will not go into effect until approved by the Coastal Commission, which will take at least a year and probably longer.
Home grows
Home cannabis growers may use up to 50 square and 10 vertical feet to grow, with a maximum of 1,200 watts of lighting. No gases such as carbon dioxide or butane may be used.
The resulting cannabis can’t be sold, the growing can’t be detectable from outside the home and the home must be occupied as a residence.
If someone complains in writing to the City about impacts from a suspected grow house, the City can act to inspect the grow. Should Land Use Code violations be found, the City can take a number of actions, from warnings to cancellation of occupancy permits to nuisance abatement proceedings.
Criteria which could form the basis of a complaint range from specific to undefined. As listed in the ordinance, disallowed adverse impacts include dust, glare, heat, noise, noxious gases, odor, smoke, traffic, vibration – even “other impacts.”
That category might include a frequent complaint by those who live near blocks of sealed grow houses where the occupants and their associates come and go incognito and don’t participate in the neighborhood – the simple loss of neighborly community.
Any neighbor complaints will remain confidential unless subpoenaed as part of some subsequent litigation. City officials believe that notice of a pending compliance inspection will compel felony cannabis growers to retire their illegal operations.
Cooperatives and collectives
Medical cannabis cooperatives and collectives are capped at the existing four, though if one closes the cap drops to three and if another closes, the limit becomes two.
The centers may grow cannabis on site in up to 25 percent of their floor space or 1,500 square feet and 10 vertical feet maximum. Grows must include fire safety, humidity and odor control measures.
Cannabis centers may only locate in specific zones with a stringent Conditional Use Permit, with “special consideration” for those within 300 feet of a residential area and within 500 feet of a park, playground, day care or school.
The centers must develop and submit to the City detailed Operations Manuals which specify staff and patient screening procedures, hours of operation, security measures, energy offsets and chemical use and storage.
Cannabis inventory grown on site or obtained from members must be tracked and reported. The centers must submit to annual performance reviews.
The 50-foot limit
Medical cannabis advocates and concerned councilmembers discussed at length the 50-foot residential grow limit and the problem with including required support equipment and processing area in that space.
Personnel from Humboldt Medical Supply placed a five-by-10-foot tray before the council dias, then placed equipment and supplies into it in a graphic display of the limitations such a requirement would place on effective growing space.
Ultimately, the council approved the ordinance with a verbal stipulation that the 50 square feet be reserved for cultivation, and not include other items.
A review of the new ordinance and possible adjustments may be made in six months.
Cautious approval
Stakeholders – grow house neighbors and cannabis center operators –offered qualified approval to the new standards.
Eric Heimstadt, director of Humboldt Medical Supply, called it a “real good ordinance” and said he was looking forward to its going into effect Dec. 19. “I think it ought to be adopted statewide,” Heimstadt said.
Alone among local cannabis center operators, Heimstadt has consistently lobbied for regulation to bring order to the Wild West cannabis industry. He likened the present situation to that of the meat industry prior to publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. That 1906 newspaper serial, later published as a book, exposed labor abuses and health hazards at slaughterhouses and spurred regulation and government oversight.
Heimstadt said fears about space limits on grow areas were a bit of a canard, since the 1,200 watt lighting cap was the real limiting factor. “Size doesn’t matter,” he quipped.
Heimstadt said he had conducted experiments proving that the 1,200 watts will yield as much usable medicine in a six to nine square foot space as 50 square feet.
Most cannabis patients, he said, get by on about a gram a day of medicine, or about an ounce per month, which is easily obtained with the allowable space and wattage in the new ordinance.
Heimstadt said HMS' lawsuit against the City will remain on the books until the new land use standards go into effect and on-site cannabis cultivation is clearly legal under City law.
Robin Hashem, who spearheaded the informal “Nip It In The Bud” movement which lobbied the City Council and Planning Commission for cannabis regulation, especially with regard to grow houses, reflected on the outcome.
“The whole process of creating the medical cannabis standard was very long, arduous and deliberative, with extensive input from a wide variety of the public, especially the dispensaries,” Hashem said. “Even so, it is just the first step in ensuring valid 215 patients have safe access and, just as important in my view, to make sure that houses in Arcata are for people to live in, not for commercial grows that feed an illicit market. Better enforcement will be key. I think what happened at the Fisher’s house on Terrace Avenue [Eye, Nov. 11] is just the latest example that shows how people are still abusing the spirit of 215 for profit and taking advantage of Arcata’s good nature and perhaps laxity in enforcement. Hopefully, this medical cannabis standard will begin to rein in the excess, while still protecting chronically ill patients who benefit from medical cannabis. Like I said, it’s a first step.”
DT
Thanks, DT, I'll put up a link to that story... with links to the rest of Kevin's coverage.
ReplyDeleteArcata Eye - Council adopts cannabis standards – November 25, 2008
See new post, above.
ReplyDeleteCloser to home