Sacramento Council moves to ban backyard pot grows | News

SACRAMENTO, CA - The Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday night to begin the process of banning the outdoor growing of marijuana.

The council heard from residents who said they are worried about crime and violence when people try to rip off neighbor's pot plants.

"There's been pit bulls defending marijuana, there's been a whole lot of horrible language," one woman told the council.

"I cannot even breathe when that stuff is being grown or harvested, it is absolutely terrible," another resident said.

Opponents of a ban said they felt marijuana was being singled out unfairly.

"Should we outlaw laptops as 'attractive nuisances,' should we outlaw bicycles or debit and credit cards?" marijuana activist Kimberly Cargile said. "These are the things that are mostly stolen out of homes."

Another opponent of a ban warned moving grows indoors could be a safety risk to residents and their neighbors.

"It is so dangerous because you got all these lights, all these plugs, everything that could start a fire," another woman told the council.

At the end of nearly two hours of testimony the council voted 8 to 1 to direct city staff to begin drafting an ordinance that would ban backyard grows.

The only vote against the ban came from city councilman Steve Cohn.

"Thousands of patients are affected in the City of Sacramento; poor patients, sick patients, who cannot afford to go to collectives or who cannot afford to set up grow rooms in their house, who are not able-bodied," Cargile said.