City considers ban on personal medical marijuana cultivation 

Andrea Horn from Cencal Meds said people who oppose the use of marijuana and would support a ban on it, “don’t know how much it benefits people.” She said the dispensary her husband runs treats patients who have ailments that can be alleviated with the product that they distribute. One of the most popular and therapeutic products they carry, CBD oil, has only trace amounts of THC, she said. “It doesn’t make you high,” she said. “It’s not abuse when you are using it to heal.”

Horn said she felt it was unjust for people who have never known someone who has an ailment that marijuana can help or that have an ailment themselves to make decisions for other people who rely on it for pain management, seizures, sleep issues, cancer, and other issues.

Ernest Hall, owner of Green Dubs Garden of Paso Robles, said, “A ban wouldn’t be good, because then people will do it illegally.” Hall was in favor of regulation, suggesting the city limit the number of plants to six. Hall said the city regulating medical marijuana would make the process for patients who use the plant as medicine to obtain it legally. He suggested a permitting process and taxation to increase city funding. Hall said the majority of his patients are seniors, who have never smoked before, who are looking for pain management. “We have had no problems, no robberies…but we did have an 80-year-old lady with stage four cancer become cancer-free.”

Hall also said banning cultivation within the city would force distributors such as himself to look outside the local community for their product. “I try to keep things local,” he said, in an effort to promote the local economy. Many of his growers, he said, have been growing the plant for 10, 20 years, and it has become a family business. “People rely on it to feed their families…It’s just like the wine industry here, but different.”

Hall said many who may be suffering from ailments treatable by medical marijuana can sometimes not afford to purchase the finished medicine. One plant, he said, can provide a patient with up to $1,600 worth of product, which in many cases is enough to last them a year or more.

Marijuana does remain federally illegal, and opponents say allowing the cultivation of marijuana within cities increases crime rates. Police Chief Robert Burton said he was looking into any connection between the legalization of mobile marijuana dispensaries last year and an increase in crime within the city.

In the staff report that will go before the planning commission, Community Development Director Warren Frace cites a section of city code that says, “there is evidence of an increased incidence of crime-related secondary impacts in locations associated with medical marijuana dispensaries and marijuana cultivation.” It also states, “The city has experienced complaints from residents whose neighbors grow medical marijuana on their property.” Frace said he would look into the information but was also unavailable to provide immediate specifics of complaints or citations.

If the city were to decide to regulate cultivation, the city attorney and police department recommend that indoor cultivation only permit up to a maximum cultivation area of 50 square feet, and no more than 10 individual plants.

City staff is recommending the planning commission forward both options to the city council, rather than choosing one between the two. The commission meets in City Council Chambers at 1000 Spring St., Paso Robles, CA at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 22.