Forbes reports that valid holders of California Medical Marijuana Cards living in Laguna Woods Village retirement community are now being forced to grow their medicine offsite after the home owner’s association banned growing in community.
A recent article that was published by Forbes tells the saga of a 2-year old medical marijuana collective of senior citizens who live in the middle of the Laguna Woods Village retirement community in one of the most affluent and conservative areas of Southern California. Collective members are encouraged to grow medical marijuana from some 40 varieties of experimental designer-seeds, such as “Sour Tsunami,” which purportedly posses anti-inflammatory properties designed to better meet the medical needs of seniors.
The 150 seniors who belong to the collective (each of whom has a state issued California medical marijuana card) represent a tiny minority (less than 1% (0.8333%)) of the total 18,000 senior citizens living in Laguna Woods Village – one of the largest retirement communities in the country.
While the federal government poses a constant threat to the collective, the collective’s president says that their biggest problems come from the members of the volunteer board of the Golden Rain Foundation (GRF), which governs the retirement community and maintains all of the community property, facilities, and amenities within the 3 square-mile area of Laguna Woods Village.
Although community residents with California medical marijuana cards are still permitted to grow the state legal limit of 6 seedlings or mature marijuana plants per person in their private residence, GRF adopted a new policy last year banning cultivation of marijuana on all community property in Laguna Woods Village, including the community garden.
The vote empowered GRF’s Community Activities Committee's Garden Center Advisory Group to shut down the public pot-plots operated by resident members of the collective – forcing the collective’s resident-growers to rip out dozens of over-6-foot-high pot plants they had been growing on their 800-square-foot plot in the Laguna Woods Village community garden.
After several disastrous attempts to find an alternative growing site, one resident member of the collective has reportedly started an organic growing operation in two off-site greenhouses to supply the medical marijuana needed by collective members. Cost is on a sliding scale: members pay between $35 and $200 per ounce, depending on need and financial ability.
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