LAKEPORT — A Lake County judge listened to oral arguments Wednesday during the latest hearing in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the county”s interim marijuana cultivation ordinance.
Judge David W. Herrick took the plaintiffs” request for a preliminary injunction under submission and said he intended to rule orally Friday afternoon at the Lake County Courthouse.
The ordinance created “an atmosphere of fear in the county of Lake for medical marijuana patients,” attorney Joseph Elford argued Wednesday.
Elford represents the plaintiffs, Don Merrill and three people known in the case as “Doe” because they feared retribution if they shared their real identity.
They sued the county and Sheriff Frank Rivero after the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) adopted a temporary law July 9 that limited the number of marijuana plants allowed for outdoor cultivation and banned commercial growing as well as growing on vacant lands.
The constraints depend partly on parcel size, with a maximum of six plants on land smaller than half an acre allowed outside on the lower end of the scale and as many as 48 plants on parcels larger than 40 acres allowed on the upper end.
Robert Bridges, senior deputy county counsel, argued the ordinance was “reasonable regulation” and the plaintiffs” case lacked merit.
Bridges said the law didn”t prevent people from having the number of plants they needed just where they could cultivate, contending people who needed more plants than allowed outside on their parcel could grow indoors or outdoors at another site.
“The plaintiffs just need to be a little creative we”re not stopping anybody,” he said.
Elford argued not everybody had the resources to grow inside or away from their homes. He added that it was “a little late in the day for them to be creative” because it”s late in the growing season.
Elford asked the court to grant a preliminary injunction for the plaintiffs and other “similarly situated” medical marijuana users in the county.
At the beginning of the hearing, Herrick said he had not reviewed all of the briefs and other documents filed by the parties, in part because he returned to work this week after having surgery.
He considered oral arguments for about an hour and a half Wednesday afternoon and tentatively scheduled his ruling for Friday at 3 p.m.
