Council Passes Marijuana Ordinance

Most of us believe that government should not needlessly invade our private lives. We worry about the “nanny state” unduly interfering in our daily lives. We accept some restrictions on our liberties, such as the need to register guns and to require that they be locked to prevent accidental deaths, or the need to regulate where alcohol can be purchased, or used (e.g., DUI laws), etc.

The City Council just passed a draconian law that not merely seeks to regulate marijuana use, but to restrict it as much as legally possible. This new ordinance comes as a knee-jerk reaction to the passage of Prop 64 which loosened the laws governing marijuana use in the State. Though regulation of marijuana is a necessary step, some of the regulations adopted by our city are truly invasions of our private lives, with no real rationale. For example the City will require people who have the legal right to grow marijuana for their own personal use to limit their activities to a locked closet. The State law allows up to 6 plants to be grown, with a few restrictions on how you grow them, yet the staff report and the council decision is to “adopt an ordinance banning or regulating all marijuana uses to the fullest extent allowed under State law.” Here is the language –

“Limited home cultivation is only permitted in a dedicated cultivation area. The cultivation area must be used exclusively for limited home cultivation; it may not be used for sleeping, cooking, eating, bathing, or any other residential activity. If the cultivation area is in the private residence itself, it must be physically separated from the residential areas of the residence, such as in a separate room or closet with a lockable door. …”

The reason given by staff, and adopted by Council members Hamilton, Voigts, and Robinson, is the danger to children from consuming marijuana. Apparently, along with the Police Chief, my three colleagues believe that children will sneak into an unlocked cultivation area and snatch a plant, munch on the leaves, and maybe even chew down on the stems. If only children did this we’d have few problems getting them to eat their vegetables.

The fact is that very few child poisoning incidents involve eating plants. In 2004 it was 4% (Click here) for children under the age of 6, and in 2014 it was 2.6% (Click here), which was the lowest identified cause. The most common causes of child poisoning were cosmetics (14%), medicines (11.5%), cleaning material (11%), analgesics (9.3%), toys (6.7%), and pesticides (3.3%). Almost all children eating plants are very young children who eat just about anything within reach.

It is true that children ingest marijuana and do get sick, but all the research I’m aware of concerns children eating edibles like cookies, candy, and brownies (Click here, here, and here). As a result, Colorado passed the “gummy bear law” to require edibles come in child proof packaging. But as far as I can tell, no child has been admitted to a hospital because he ate a marijuana plant.

What might happen if someone eats raw marijuana? THC, the psychoactive ingredient, is created from THCA by a variety of methods, most commonly cooking or smoking. (Click here) Some people do eat raw marijuana for nutritional benefits (Click here and here) but they don’t get high. So even if a child ate the raw plant, there are no known dire consequences.

Nonetheless, we created an ordinance that restricts growing marijuana to a locked closet, in the mistaken belief that we are protecting children. Now if the staff and the Police Chief and the Council are really interested in protecting children, I am anticipating some new ordinances in the near future.

Locking up our medicine cabinet? Every 8 minutes a child is rushed to an ER for medicine poisoning (Click here). That’s about 165 kids per day and 60,000 kids every year (Click here). Between 1979 and 2006 poisoning deaths linked to accidental medication ingestion nearly doubled. So why isn’t the City looking into our medicine cabinets? The dangers of children being harmed by accidental ingestion of medication are well documented, yet we are ignoring this real problem and legislating that people grow marijuana in a locked closet without a single case of poisoning by eating raw marijuana.

Locking up our alcohol? Children who steal their parents’ alcohol are at risk of brain and liver damage, accidents and violent behavior (Click here). The Surgeon General estimates that there are 11 million underage drinkers in the U.S. (Click here). So why isn’t the City looking into how we store our alcohol? We know that children are harmed because their parent’s alcohol is not locked up, yet we ignore this real problem and instead focus on the imaginary possibility that a child would eat a marijuana plant.

I don’t know what’s going on here?

Every year we approve more and more stores selling alcohol when we know the effects of alcohol on crime, especially violent crime. We know the carnage drunk drivers cause. We pay no attention to where and how people get their alcohol, where they store it, and how child proof they keep it. We allow alcohol to be delivered to people’s homes with no restrictions. Yet in the case of marijuana we apply the most restrictive policies we can possibly enact. We don’t allow it to be delivered, and we require that anyone who wants to grow it do so in a locked closet.

When governments look into our private lives and try to control every aspect we are in clear danger of losing our rights. If government decides they need to do this for the public good, then this standard certainly should be applied equally. Singling out marijuana for such draconian limitations seems to be going too far in government’s reach.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be in January at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.