California, Nevada City

[palmspringsbum]

Pot stash found in home with eight kids


<span class=postbigbold>Children taken into protective custody</span>


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<table class=posttable align=right width=180><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg src=bin/geary_milo.jpg title="Milo Geary"></td></tr></table>
By Robyn Moormeister, robynm@theunion.com
The Union
January 20, 2007

Eight children are in the custody of Child Protective Services after police searched a Nevada City home and found the kids' parents were smoking and growing pot in the house.

The officers reportedly found 20 marijuana plants, plus plants growing in a 14-year-old girl's bedroom closet, during the search late Thursday. Police said the girl's clothes were on the closet floor, apparently making room for the plants.

Officers from the Nevada County Sheriff's Office, the Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force, the Nevada County Probation Department, the Grass Valley Police Department and the Nevada City Police Department searched the home on the 200 block of South Pine Street as part of the probation terms of a man who lives there, Milo Geary, 27.

Geary is on probation for a drug-related offense, Nevada County Sheriff's Capt. Ron Smith said.

Geary's two children were living with him in the two-story home, along with residents Peter Silverman, 39, and Carol Silverman, 48, and their children. The children ranged in age from 3-17.

<table class=posttable align=right widht=180><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg title="Carol Silverman" src=bin/silverman_carol.jpg></tr></td></table>The Silvermans reportedly tried to push the officers back as they entered the home, according to Nevada County Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force Sgt. Chris Sharp.

Carol Silverman confronted a probation officer and began shoving him out of the way, and as an officer tried to restrain her, her husband got involved in the scuffle, Sharp said.

"A significant amount of marijuana was located in close proximity to the children," he said. "They had access to it and they had been breathing marijuana the parents smoked throughout the house."

Several of the kids told investigators the marijuana smoke bothered them, he said.

The Silvermans were arrested on suspicion of child endangerment and obstructing an officer, and Geary was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment and violation of probation.

<table class=posttable align=left width=180><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg title="Peter Silverman" src=bin/silverman_peter.jpg></td></tr></table>The children were taken into custody by Child Protective Services. They were treated at the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital emergency room using a pre-established medical protocol for drug endangered children (DEC), Sharp said, which included treatment for THC ingestion. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the main psychoactive substance found in marijuana plants.

Sharp said the adults in the home had prescriptions for medical marijuana.

"A prescription doesn't give you the right to break the law and subject other people to it," Sharp said.

Smith said 11 drug endangered children were taken into protective custody in Nevada County in 2006.

"This one incident puts us at eight for this year," he said.

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To contact Staff Writer Robyn Moormeister, e-mail robynm@ theuinion.com or call 477-4236

[palmspringsbum]

Medical marijuana: Nevada City to consider moratorium in dispensaries

<span class=postbigbold>Might not need full extension for pot shops, Nevada City mayor says</span>

By David Mirhadi
Sun News Service | 30 Jun 09

NEVADA CITY, Calif. — The Nevada City Council will consider extending a moratorium on the opening of medical marijuana dispensaries in town, but the mayor believes the city might not need the full 10 months before crafting an ordinance allowing such shops.

“I think we can fashion a workable ordinance in a shorter period of time,” Mayor Barbara Coffman said Monday.

The meeting is at 6:30 tonight at Nevada City Hall.

In May, Nevada City City Council members unanimously passed a 45-day emergency ordinance barring the dispensaries from opening in town so they could research the issue.

The 45-day moratorium was passed just after Grass Valley passed a similar measure. The Grass Valley City Council followed up the emergency ordinance with a vote earlier this month to extend the moratorium a full 10 months and 15 days, the maximum amount of time allowed by law to keep such an ordinance in place under terms of Proposition 215.

Prop. 215 was ratified by voters in 1996.

It allows caregivers and medical providers to sell marijuana for medical treatment to people with a doctor's recommendation.

While it is legal in California for those with a prescription, the use or possession of marijuana is a crime under federal law.

While members of the Nevada City City Council have previously said they were not opposed to opening a medical marijuana dispensary in town, they did express a preference for crafting an ordinance tailored for the city's use.

“I think (city management) will have to provide more information as to how this could be harmful for our town,” Coffman said. “I'm going to listen to what's being provided to us.”

Nevada City resident Harry Bennett applied in April for a business license to open a marijuana dispensary. He has indicated he'd like to open a store on Uren Street.

Bennett did not return a call for comment Monday afternoon.

The nearest medical marijuana dispensary operates in Colfax, and the city has received few complaints since it opened about five years ago.

Grass Valley Mayor Lisa Swarthout said the moratorium that was extended in Grass Valley was done to give law enforcement time to put together an ordinance.

Coffman on Monday said the Nevada City City Council is not explicitly opposed to the opening of a medical marijuana dispensary, a sentiment shared by other members of the council when the issue was first discussed by members at a meeting in May.

“I don't think the council would support a total ban on these,” she said.