GULLIXSON: Wake up and smell the pot

Is everybody catching a whiff of all this?

This is not what most of us thought we would be getting when state voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996. It was sold as a "compassionate" measure to ensure cancer patients and others would be able to keep up their appetites. But it's become a joke.

In some areas, it's easier to get a medicinal marijuana card than a library card. One 20-something Santa Rosan recently told me that all of his is friends have one. "They laugh about how easy they are to get," he said.

Under Sonoma County regulations, card-holding "patients" are not only allowed to have up to 3 pounds of marijuana but can grow 30 plants. But what's really being cultivated is an environment in which many people are growing for more than personal use, and neighbors and landlords are having to deal with the residue — snarling dogs, taped-up windows, home invasions and pungent backyards.

Supervisor Shirlee Zane told me how in early October she accompanied sheriff's deputies on a raid in a residential area off Stony Point Road just outside Santa Rosa limits. There, four residences with conjoined backyards were the center of a massive growing operation. Fourteen people were taken into custody and about 100 plants were confiscated. In addition, "there were bins full of bags of marijuana," said Zane. "There were pit bulls, video cameras, weapons" as well as knives and ammunition. "And there was also play equipment for children," she said.

"It was a really eye-opening experience," she said. "It made me even more convinced that we are headed in the wrong direction" concerning marijuana.

That's why, when supervisors meet on Feb. 7 to vote on a new marijuana ordinance, she wants tougher rules, such as a limit of seven medical marijuana dispensaries instead of the recommended nine. The county decided it needed to overhaul its regulations after it become clear the old rules weren't keeping pace with the North Coast's burgeoning new green business.

"There are people who absolutely benefit from medicinal marijuana for legitimate reasons," Zane said. "But it is also fair to say that the illegal, underground, black market (cultivation) of marijuana for recreation use is really thriving — especially in a down economy."

As for Whitt, "I never thought in my wildest dreams I would need legal representation," he said. But he did. As part of a settlement that was negotiated, the tenants walked away while Whitt was able to keep the deposit, although it covered only a fraction of the cost of repairs.

Whitt tried to be careful after that. He next rented to a older couple with a daughter and two grandchildren who lived with them. "But, believe it or not, they did the same thing," he said. When neighbors complained, he discovered they were growing outside and in the garage.

<NO1><NO>Now, he states very clearly in person and spells out in the rental contract — and encourages other landlords to do the same — that marijuana-growing is prohibited.

"You've got to call it out," Whitt said. "It's really horrendous what is happening."<NO1><NO>

It seems to me that more people like Whitt need to call out what is happening and push back. The idea of medicinal marijuana may be OK. But let's not let the North Coast go completely to pot.

Paul Gullixson is editorial director for The Press Democrat. Email him at paul.gullixson@pressdemocrat.com.