LAKEPORT – Lakeport's police chief is proposing a total ban on growing medical marijuana within the city limits.
Chief Kevin Burke drafted an ordinance banning medicinal marijuana growing that went before the city council for its first consideration on Tuesday.
Mayor Roy Parmentier first suggested such an ordinance at the council's Nov. 7 meeting, saying he wanted to address issues that went along with marijuana cultivation, such as odor and public safety. The topic again arose at the Dec. 5 meeting, where it was scheduled for a future discussion.
Richard Knoll, the city's acting city manager as well as its community development director, brought a previous draft of the ordinance to the council's Jan. 9 meeting.
That ordinance, Knoll reported, was patterned after one adopted by the City of Ukiah, which required that all medical marijuana cultivation take place inside a fully enclosed and secure structure subject to a permit issued by the city's Planning Commission.
However, Knoll had a variety of concerns about the city attempting to regulate medical marijuana use, which Knoll said was not “entirely a local land use issue,” but rather a “statewide public health issue.”
The initial ordinance would have put the responsibility for enforcement with the CDD staff, which Knoll said raised safety concerns.
Knoll suggested that it was more a law enforcement issue. He noted in his report for the council's Jan. 9 meeting, “I am not sure the City of Lakeport should be in the business of issuing permits for the growing of marijuana which apparently is a violation of Federal Law.”
Burke also had concerns about the ordinance, which he completely redrafted.
In essence, the new ordinance makes growing medical marijuana illegal in Lakeport's city limits.
In a Thursday interview Burke explained that he has numerous concerns about marijuana cultivation and what comes with it.
He gave one startling example.
This past October, he said, a man growing marijuana in one of the city's residential neighborhoods found a suspect had climbed his fence and come into his yard in an attempt to steal his marijuana.
The grower discharged his shotgun, and the subject fled, said Burke. Lakeport Police responded to the call and investigated the incident, and no subject was found.
Burke called that incident a “wake up call.” Not only did he have frightened citizens, but his own concerns were growing about how marijuana cultivation could affect residents' safety.
The Ukiah ordinance, he said, is essentially a minor use permit issued by the city to allow marijuana growing.
Burke said he didn't believe the city should be issuing permits for an activity that is illegal under federal law.
“My ultimate conclusion was that it's really in the best interests of the city of Lakeport and the people who live here to not allow this crop to be grown in a city setting,” he said, adding that it's more appropriate for a rural area.
The strong odors that come from the plants during the growing season are a problem in a city setting, said Burke, and affect quality of life for other residents.
There are also the dangers associated with it, he said, pointing to October's attempted break-in.
He also pointed to the December 2005 shootings in Clearlake Park, where three men allegedly attempted to break into the home of Shannon Edmonds, who said he grew medical marijuana for his personal use.
Edmonds shot two of the men, Rashad Williams and Christian Foster, to death. The third man, Renato Hughes Jr., now faces trial for the deaths of Williams and Foster under a law that holds felony perpetrators guilty for the deaths of accomplices in certain cases.
“That,” said Burke, “is a classic example of the worst-case scenario when this situation goes bad.
“We don't want to wait for something like that to happen in Lakeport,” he added.
While California's Proposition 215 made medical marijuana legal, as Burke pointed out, it is not legal according to federal law.
That, he said, makes for a very awkward situation for law enforcement.
It's no secret in law enforcement that the concept of medical marijuana is badly abused, Burke said. “It puts police departments in a very unusual situation.”
The solution Burke came to, he said, is not to allow it at all. “It's not territory that the city should get into.”
Burke's ordinance drew unanimous approval from the council Feb. 6, who voted to set it for a public hearing at the council's March 6 meeting.
Many cities around the state have passed ordinances against medical marijuana dispensaries, although few of those ordinances appears to look solely at the growing issues. In some cases, the bans apply only to dispensaries while allowing small private marijuana gardens.
A report conducted by the El Cerrito Police Department late last year on the dispensary issue found that 43 California cities have banned dispensaries and another 71 cities have moratoriums on them, according to a story published in the Simi Valley Acorn.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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