City officials in Sacramento, California want to ban outdoor medical marijuana gardens, saying they are a magnet for crime.

The City Council voted Tuesday to draft an ordinance prohibiting outdoor marijuana grows.

Deputy Police Chief Dana Matthes says the outdoor gardens are leading to crime, including a recent incident in which a homeowner fired gunshots at intruders in his backyard crop.

The Sacramento Bee ( http://sacb.ee/WlHcea) says the council also voted to keep restrictions on medical marijuana dispensaries. The pot shops cannot operate within 1,000 feet of other dispensaries, 300 feet of residences and 600 feet of schools and parks.

Magnets for crime? Does this mean that all the banks and pharmacies and convenience stores are going to be closed in Sacramento as well? Anything that contains a product that people want to steal should be shutting down soon in the city.

Of course not, and these restrictions on grows and dispensaries are just as ridiculous. Yes, marijuana is more valuable than it should be because prohibition drives up prices, but patients shouldn’t be punished for that, the politicians who support prohibition should be. In the meantime there are such things as security systems, cameras and locked fences.

Outdoor grows do present an extra security problem because of their very openness, but locked greenhouses, barbed wire fences and other security measures are available to growers. When marijuana is legal it will be abundant and the price will drop precipitously. Then it will be like growing tomatoes or any other crop. Until then, there are other options besides a total ban.

- Joe Klare

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