City of Sonora Bans Marijuana Collectives, still Open in Calaveras

In a 4-1 vote, the Sonora City Council implemented a total ban on marijuana collectives. The one nay vote belonged to Councilmember Hank Russel.

The ban is to start immediately within the city limits. Unicorporated areas are not affected by this decision, yet Tuolumne County officials are said to be drafting an ordinance regulating collectives that may be put before the voters later this year.

Calaveras County has no such ban.


The only currently operating Collective in Calaveras County is Forgotten Knowledge Collective in Valley Springs, a non-profit medical marijuana collective, owned and operated by Developer Guy Myers since July 2010.

“The word ‘Collective’ defined in the California Health & Safety Code 11362.775, outlines a single brief provision giving qualified patients and primary caregivers- who associate "collectively or cooperatively" in not-for-profit operations - the right to cultivate medical marijuana to meet their collective medicinal needs,” Said Private Investigator John Blackburn.    (Collectives and cooperatives are the only recognized groups under the law [H/S/ §11362.77]).)

In order to benefit from the existence of a cooperative or a collective one must possess an ID card. All counties in California are required to participate in the identification card program by providing applications to those wishing to participate; processing completed applications; following implementation protocols; and issuing DPH identification cards to approved applicants and designated primary caregivers (H/S §11362.71(b)).

However, a medical marijuana ID card, issued by the Health Department with a prescription from a licensed care provider, is not necessarily a ‘get out of jail free’ card. The Supreme Court has in the past determined the Medical Marijuana Program Act does not afford qualified medical marijuana patients complete immunity from arrest because of their status as patients.

The County code, adopted in 2005, does not distinguish between dispensaries and collectives, which have different meanings and different guidelines, and puts the planning commissioner in charge of enforcement of the code.