An attempt to sucker-punch home growers

On Nov. 6, 2012, 55 percent of the voters in Boulder County voted for Proposition 64, an amendment to the Colorado Constitution to legalize the recreational use of marijuana and regulate its production and sale like alcohol.

In Boulder County, Proposition 64 passed with 66.1 percent of the vote. The vote count on Proposition 64 in Boulder County was 111,926 in favor vs. 57,317 opposed, or nearly 2 to 1 in favor.
The official name of Proposition 64 was The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012, and the text of the act explicitly states that the people of Colorado “find and declare that Marijuana should be regulated in a manner similar to alcohol.”

Given those sorts of margins of approval, you would think the elected and appointed officials of Boulder County would say, “The people have spoken,” and get on with the business of regulating marijuana like, you know, alcohol.

But you would be wrong, that’s for sure.

Judging from some recent proposed changes in Boulder County’s regulations governing the growing of marijuana for personal use, the county’s busy-bodies seem to think they are supposed to regulate marijuana home growers more like hazmat site operators, than home-brewers.

Yesterday the County Planning Commission was due to consider regulatory changes that would, among other things, limit home growing for personal use in the unincorporated areas of Boulder County to single family detached dwelling units. People living in duplexes, condominiums or apartment units would not be allowed to grow pot in their homes.

In other words, it would be a violation of Boulder County land use regulations to grow a single pot plant under a desk lamp in an owner-occupied condo, or in an apartment even if the landlord allowed it.

The regulations would also limit the number of pot plants that could be grown indoors on a single family residential parcel to six, regardless of how many adults might be living on the property.

But Proposition 64 allows an adult over the age of 21 to grow six plants for his or her personal use, provided the growing takes place in an enclosed, locked space and not in public view. As I read Prop 64, the six plant limit is the number of plants an individual can grow, not the number of plants that can be grown in a single home, although a number of jurisdictions seem to be interpreting it to apply to a single home.

In other words, a married couple (i.e. two adults) living in a single-family home in unincorporated Boulder County would only be allowed to grow six plants between them instead of six each. Think of it as a marriage penalty. Think of it also as an attempt to water down an individual right supposedly protected by the Colorado constitution.

Still other restrictions would specify that pot growing “must not result in noise or vibration, light, odor, dust, smoke, particulate or other air pollution noticeable at or beyond the property line.” In other words, you can stink up your neighborhood with your cooking or your dryer sheets, but for anything emanating from your pot grow, its zero tolerance.

So why is the County trying to slap new restrictions on home growing of marijuana? Because of “complaints” about odors in multi-family housing and fears of electrical fires attributed to residential marijuana grows’ overloaded electrical systems, according to a story in the Camera and Times-Call.
Hogwash.

As far as I know there are no county land use regulations restricting the indoor home growing of tomatoes, avocados, oregano, orchids, petunias, venus fly traps or poison ivy — or any other plant except marijuana, regardless of how smelly it is or the state of a home’s electrical system.

Which is why I suspect the new regulations represent a cynical attempt at incremental re-criminalization of marijuana rather than any real concern about public health, safety and welfare.