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Berkeley council to debate medicinal pot plant limit
The Argus Online | Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | By Kristin Bender, STAFF WRITER

BERKELEY -- Medical-cannabis users and advocates are lobbying city leaders to increase Berkeley's indoor marijuana plant limit from 10 to 72, the amount allowed in Oakland.

Advocates say residents with cancer, AIDS, chronic pain, anorexia, glaucoma, migraine headaches and other severe illnesses need more than 10 indoor plants to cultivate marijuana for medical treatment.

Berkeley allows 10 indoor and outdoor plants under a March 2001 ordinance brokered under political compromise. The Berkeley City Council will consider an increase proposal today.

"It's not unreasonable to have 72 (plants)," said Mayor Tom Bates. "What people have told me is that this is what is needed and necessary, and it's worked out well for Oakland. I am supportive of 72 plants, even though it sounds like a ton. I think the people in Berkeley overwhelmingly support (medical cannabis)."


California voters legalized medical cannabis in 1996, although the federal government still considers it an illegal drug with no medical purpose and continues to prosecute those who distribute it. Proposition 215 was supported by more than half of state voters and garnered 86 percent of the vote in Berkeley.

That support, advocates said, goes to show that sick patients should be allowed to have more than 10 plants in order to alleviate pain.

One marijuana plant can yield anywhere from 5 grams to 1 ounce, depending on its size, maturity and quality, said Don Duncan, director of the Berkeley Patients Group, one of the city's four cannabis clubs that dispense marijuana as pain medicine. Others say one plant can yield up to four ounces.

[zombienote: American Law Enforcement, and especially the DEA, loves to claim each plant - each SEED - represents one POUND of the heinous herb.]

Patients vary in their use of medical cannabis. Someone with glaucoma might use a gram a week to relieve pressure in the eyeball, whereas a cancer patient with nausea could use an ounce or more weekly, Duncan said.

"Ten plants really is not enough," said Charlie Pappas, a quadriplegic who used a wheelchair following a gunshot wound in 1973.

Pappas, 56, nicknamed "Bronco" because he suffers from chronic spasticity, said he tried a bevy of anti-spasm drugs, but they left him feeling moody and anxious. Pappas said medical cannabis "loosens" him up enough to use the control on his motorized wheelchair with his fingers.

Berkeley also allows qualified patients with a recommendation from a doctor to keep 11/2 pounds of dry cannabis.

Oakland allows medical cannabis patients to keep 32 square feet of growing area with no more than 72 small plants, plus 3 pounds of dry cannabis. Oakland patients can also keep 20 outdoor plants.

Berkeley police officials have declined to take a position on the potential to increase indoor pot plants until after the City Council considers the item tonight.

However, for decades, the department has made enforcement of laws against possession, use and cultivation of marijuana the lowest priority. But officials said that does not apply to juveniles or those who possess marijuana for sale or distribution.

The Drug Enforcement Agency takes a different stance.

"I find it incredible that a person would need 72 plants to grow marijuana for himself or herself," said DEA Special Agent Richard Meyer. "There is something wrong there. Under federal law, marijuana is an illegal substance."

While the DEA targets large-scale distributors and not small users, they do not condone the use of medical cannabis, Meyer said.

[zombienote: Meyers is is a textbook, foamy-mouthed devotee of Evangelical Reefer Madness. He cannot be unaware of the vast medical applications of cannabis, so it is the case he is devoted to the lying and mean-spiritedness of reefer madness. It's a lifestyle choice. It's too bad the newspaper wanted to include his views, which is only giving the Federal Government more free propaganda time.

He is, no doubt, trying to figure out how to violate the recent court ruling forbidding the Federal Government - the DEA - from raiding and assaulting these very people.]

The California Medical Association supports the use of medical cannabis in the case of medical necessity.

"If someone is sick, they should get medicine that is proven to be safe and effective, and that is not the case with marijuana," Meyer said. "I think the council is misguided in (considering) raising the limit to such a large limit."

If the limit is not raised, people will continue breaking the law, advocates said.

"We want (patients) obeying the law and that's why we need reasonable limits," Duncan said.

What's more, advocates claim growing plants indoors is challenging because of insects, mold, mildew and artificial light.

"I do not have a green thumb. If someone told me I could only have 10 plants, I would probably kill nine of them," said City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who is proposing the increase.

Worthington is also proposing a "peer review committee" that would require the medical cannabis collectives and dispensaries to designate at least two representatives to serve on the review committee.

The committee would meet monthly to oversee the operation of collectives and dispensaries and ensure compliance with operational and safety standards.

In addition to the council's consideration of plant increases tonight, James Blair with the Cannabis Buyers Cooperative of Berkeley has submitted paperwork to the city to begin circulating a petition to put an initiative on the November ballot to make changes to the municipal code that governs medical marijuana use.


[zombienote: More stupidity that for which we have Reefer Madness - and its foamy-mouthed supporters like DEA Agent Meyers - to thank.

There is no point in the world of limiting people to "X" number of plants. None.

Plants die, some do well, some just don't and most people are NOT sophisticated growers like Pakalolo boy.

Most people will want to grow a mess of plants and put a bunch in the freezer...hello?

It's not "trafficking", the myth that law enforcement has propagated that any marijuana over enough to roll a scrawny joint is bulk mary-ju-wanna for sale to infants.

People want to vaporize and cook with herb and that uses a lot more than a one-hit bong. They need to have a bunch available - otherwise it is back to the black market.

Additionally, people need to NOT RUN OUT.

Plant limits are stupid. Supporting plant limits is..well... you know.]

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BigFatBOWLing

Yes limits suck, but just remmeber, if this gets raised, its just another chink in the armour of the feds... every single case matters.
I would rather see it start as 10 plants, the law gets pased, 72 plants, law passed, unlimited plants, law passed, legalization, law passed.
As opposed to...
Legalization, Denied, Legalization, Denied, Legalization, Denied etc etc

It sucks so many lifes get screwed up cause of the law, but they are definitally helping the cause. Its all a matter of time, thank god for the states having power and not just the feds.. God bless america...