Mono narcotic agents have made a third arrest related to growing and selling marijuana in Mammoth Lakes. Two of the people arrested had medical marijuana cards.

One of the alleged growers arrested last week did have a medical marijuana recommendation. Thursday, February 4th, MONET agents arrested 18-year-old Neil Herman, for allegedly selling marijuana out of his dorm room at the community college. Like the 20-year-old man arrested last week, officers say that Herman had a medical marijuana recommendation.

The law says that a person with a medical marijuana card can have six mature plants and twelve immature plants, but Mono Narcotics Agent Paul Robles explained that a doctor can recommend that a patient have more.

With the prevalence of medical marijuana these days, it may seem tricky to figure out whats legal and what is not, but the law is actually pretty simple to understand. While a person with a valid doctor’s recommendation can possess and grow certain amounts of marijuana, all sales are illegal. You can have a valid recommendation, but as soon as you start selling, the person is breaking the law, Robles explained. Its not even legal for a person with a valid medical card to sell to another person with a medical card. Its 100% illegal to sell marijuana, he says.

These cases may be a headache for officers, but Robles says, As long as people are selling it, they are still in violation of the law.

Sold as the compassionate use of marijuana when voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, Robles says that officers are not seeing, people with grave illnesses. He says that in all the marijuana cases that he has seen in recent years he has, not run across one person who has had a medical marijuana recommendation who is not between the ages of 19 and about 25.

Whether these people have real illnesses or not the valid recommendations do carry some weight. Robles says that its common for officers in Mono County to see marijuana possession and small grows by people with recommendations, but, he says, we are leaving them alone.

 

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