Del Norte: Medical Marijuana

Pub Date: June 7, 2008
Pub Source: The Daily Triplicate

http://www.triplicate.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=9058

Medical marijuana
Published: June 7, 2008

Twelve years ago Jeanette Vitullo was hiking through the Santa Ana Mountain Range in
Orange County, six months pregnant with her first son.

As she and her husband, Dante Vitullo, reminisced about that time, they smiled at
one another, remembering her vitality.

"She was one tough woman," Dante said, glancing at his wife. "She still is."
Today, Jeanette says she struggles just to walk around her front yard and play with
her 3-year-old daughter, Faith, without getting winded and having her feet hurt.

About 10 years ago Jeanette started showing symptoms of lupus, an auto-immune
disease that turns a person's body upon itself, and developed rheumatoid arthritis.

Medical marijuana, she says, eases the pain and helps her live her life.

"It works wonders, it really does," Jeanette said. "Especially when you're chasing a
3-year-old around. It allows me to chase after her."

Both Jeanette and Dante—who broke his neck in a roll-over car accident in 2002—say
they rely on Del Norte County's current medical marijuana ordinance, which allows a
person to grow up to 99 plants in a 100-square-foot radius and be in possession of
up to a pound of processed weed.

On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors will consider lowering those numbers to
only allow medical marijuana patients and growers to have six mature plants or 12
immature plants, and be in possession of eight ounces or less of dried, processed
buds.

These limits, the Vitullos say, are not enough.

"Who do these supervisors think they are?" Dante said. "They want to beat on the
medical cannabis community."

For Dante and his wife, having enough medical marijuana comes down to economics and
safety. They don't grow anywhere near the maximum amount of plants allowed, but they
both said the proposed limits won't provide enough medicine for them.

Their plants are subject to the same hazards as any other crops, Dante said, such as
pests and mold.

"It's a gamble," he said.

If the plants don't produce, then Dante and Jeanette must find their medical
marijuana elsewhere, and that can be expensive and potentially
dangerous.

"What are we going to do, hit the streets?" Dante said.

Neither Dante or Jeanette want to buy marijuana from drug dealers because of the
safety concern, and going to a medical marijuana dispensary is just too expensive
because an ounce, they said, costs nearly $400.

"Growing is not cheap either, it just provides more," Dante said. If he and his wife
bought medical marijuana from a dispensary, they estimate it would cost nearly
$40,000 over the course of the year, which is more than four times what it would
cost for them to grow their own.

"The only one that's benefitting from this is the dispensary," Dante said.

Jeanette said pharmaceuticals are not an option for her.

"There's a lot of side effects that go along with the pharmaceuticals," she said.
"You're taking four different types of medication for one pill."

When Jeanette started taking pills to combat the effects of lupus, she said she
needed nearly a dozen medications, which became expensive and loaded her body with
chemicals.

"I don't want to be a walking zombie when I can use medical cannabis and get the
same effects from it," Jeanette said. "It's healthy and it's natural."

Jeanette replaced most of her pharmaceuticals with natural supplements, and uses
marijuana as a pain reliever, an anti-inflammatory and a nausea inhibitor. One of
her main uses is to build her appetite.

She's dropped nearly 60 pounds over the past couple years because she's had several
rounds of chemotherapy to fight the lupus. With medical marijuana she plans on
adding to her frail frame.

"She's kind of a miracle really," Dante said. "She's able to live a more productive
life.

In April, the Board of Supervisors first considered lowering pot limits in the
county to six plants and four ounces based on a recommendation from the Community
Action and Prevention Alliance (formerly the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug
Prevention Coalition), which is made up of law enforcement, social services and
health officials.

But due to backlash from the medical marijuana community, the realization that no
one who uses marijuana as medicine was consulted in the decision-making and the fact
that proposed guidelines went beyond the minimum numbers mandated by the state, the
supervisors decided to table the issue.

"Now it's coming off the table and the supervisors will vote on it," said District 5
Supervisor David Finigan. "The motion is just to bring us in line with state
standards and hopefully that's upheld."

Del Norte's current limits are some of the most liberal in California. Most counties
only allow six mature plants or 12 seedlings, and eight ounces of processed medical
marijuana.

Humboldt County has no limit on the number of plants that can be grown so long as
the canopy area does not exceed 100 square feet. It also sets the processed
possession limit at three pounds.

A recent ruling by the California 2nd District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles adds
a new wrinkle to the debate.

That court found that limits on medical marijuana possession and cultivation
unconstitutional, because the state law allowing the use of medical
marijuana—Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act (CUA) of 1996—was a voter
initiative and subsequent legislation—Senate Bill 420—that enacted limits was not
approved by voters.

"The legislature ... cannot amend an initiative, such as the the CUA, unless the
initiative grants the Legislature authority to do so," the opinion reads. "The CUA
does not grant the Legislature the authority to amend it without voter approval."

Finigan didn't seem too concerned with the Appeal Court ruling. Instead, he said, he
would rather side with the majority of counties in California and let the
legislature make the ultimate decision.

"I heard there was a court ruling that was going to cloud the issue," he said. "If
there's an issue ... then I would expect the legislature to act on behalf of the
(majority of) counties."

District 1 Supervisor Leslie McNamer, who originally asked to table the issue in
April, is a little more apprehensive about the ruling.

"If that states that it's unconstitutional, then how can we set anything?" she said.
"I think some of the board would just like to set it (the limits). I'm just a little
leery because of potential lawsuits."

Since the Board of Supervisors decided to delay making a decision on medical
marijuana limits, McNamer has worked closely with proponents of the current county
ordinance to find a median figure everyone could agree on. Most of these people, she
said, want to see the limits somewhere in the middle when it comes to cultivation.

"The medical marijuana community would rather see it set between 40 and 45 plants,"
McNamer said. "I think because that would meet the needs of the people that ingest
it ... It takes a lot more for people that ingest rather than smoke it."

The Board of Supervisors can still amend the limits at Tuesday's meeting, and if the
board adopts the ordinance, it will not take affect for 31 days.

Dante and Jeanette said they hope the supervisors reconsider the pending decision
because it will negatively impact medical marijuana patients and growers, such as
themselves, who are in compliance and not using the law to sell marijuana illegally.


"A few bad apples can't spoil it for the rest of us," Dante said. "Let's not pick on
the people like Jeanette and the people who need it ... I don't want to be a felon,
and she doesn't want to be a felon."

"It's breaking up innocent, happy homes that don't need to be messed with," Jeanette
said.
Reach Nicholas Grube at ngrube [at] triplicate.com.

If you go
•What: Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting
•When: 10 a.m. Tuesday
•Where: Flynn Administration Center, 981 H St.