PROP. 215 DOES NOT MEAN THAT ANYTHING GOES

It wasn't so long ago that medical-marijuana growers were outlaws.
Now some think they're simply above the law.

In his dispute with city code-enforcement officials over his backyard
marijuana farm, James Benno, an outspoken local medical-marijuana
activist, argues that because California voters approved Proposition
215 legalizing marijuana for medical use, the city's zoning ordinance
limiting the scale of pot gardens in residential areas tramples on
his rights and is illegal.

Um, yeah. The thing is, the California courts and Legislature say otherwise.

We respect the rights of bona-fide medical users to grow and use
marijuana as the law allows, but just because something is legal and
even useful to society doesn't make it appropriate in a city's
residential neighborhoods.

Raising pigs is an honorable way to make a living. Nobody would
welcome a hog farm in the next-door neighbor's backyard.

The pick-and-pull salvage yard might be the best place to get a part
for that old Ford. If one opened across the street from a suburban
home, it wouldn't lift the property values.

Some growers proclaim, "It's just a plant!" Right. How many
home-invasion robberies do those prize tea roses provoke? How many
Japanese maples tempt teenagers to hop the fence to swipe a few buds?
How many tomatoes give off a potent funk that drives neighbors
indoors during the harvest season?

The city of Redding was entirely within its authority to put
reasonable rules on marijuana growing, and the rules it enacted
aren't even particularly strict. Some Northern California cities bar
outdoor cultivation altogether.

Redding's a smallish city with a spread-out feel, but it's still a
city - where the things we do affect our neighbors. Those who need
more space and privacy have no shortage of places to find it in the
rural north state.

And the city's code-enforcement staff shouldn't hesitate to deal with
complaints about out-of-control gardens that offend growers'
neighbors. The neighbors have rights too.