San Benito County supervisors are considering an ordinance to ban outdoor growth of marijuana in unincorporated areas and restrict indoor growth to 12 plants.
Supervisors are set to weigh the ordinance, a result of subcommittee talks by Supervisors Margie Barrios and Anthony Botelho, at their 9 a.m. Tuesday meeting at the County Administration Building, 481 Fourth St. It would essentially move the county further from the state’s direction on marijuana legalization as statewide voters in 2016 could consider a measure to legalize it for recreational use on top of the currently allowed medical use, permitted for nearly two decades.
San Benito County’s proposed ordinance, partly in response to a former dispensary along Highway 25 that continues to grow and spread a pungent smell across the neighboring road, would ban outdoor cultivation altogether. The law would include a two-year amortization period for existing cultivation sites that can prove they have been growing.
The county would join another one in recently taking a bold step against growers. San Joaquin County in May became the first in California to outlaw all marijuana cultivation in unincorporated areas, according to the Stockton Record.
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