Indian Wells, a city that has no issue spending over a quarter of a million dollars to fight a hedge but may pull its funds for park and recreation programs for the Valley’s young people, has passed an ordinance making growing your own weed – a thing you can do in California (at least until Trump’s awful attorney general pick screws it up) – as difficult as possible.
Thursday, the Indian Wells City Council passed an ordinance requiring a permit and a $141 fee to grow your own, which was legalized in November in California with the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. As the Desert Sun reports, obtaining a permit sounds like a giant pain in the ass:
In order to get the permit, residents are now required to allow a home inspection by city employees in order to determine that no more than the maximum six plants allowed under AUMA are being grown, there is adequate ventilation for the plants and cultivation is happening in a locked area, Assistant City Manager David Gassaway said. No residents spoke for or against the permit during a public hearing held Thursday and the council adopted the ordinance in a 4-1 vote with Councilman Ty Peabody abstaining.
While the law allows for “reasonable” regulations by cities when it comes to growing your own, experts like Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinksy, told the newspaper that Indian Wells’ ordinance is an overreach and Paul Armentano, deputy director for the Washington D.C.-based NORML Foundation, a nonprofit lobbying for reform in marijuana laws, say that the rules will most likely be fought in court.
“If individuals are engaging in legal behavior in their privacy of their own home, it does not seem appropriate to have to register with the city,” he said, adding that people who are home-brewing beer aren’t required to register with their municipality. “This seems awfully onerous.”
Indian Wells is not the only city struggling with the reality that growing marijuana is a thing that people can do now. Rancho Mirage recently passed a measure prohibiting marijuana plants from being seen from a sidewalk – so as not to upset the delicate flowers who live in the city.
