Community Corner

Would You Let Your Neighbors Grow Pot in the Yard?

A Concord home with state permission to grow marijuana in the backyard is troubling the neighbors, causing the city to consider banning outdoor grow operations. Would you allow it next door?

Imagine stepping out onto your back porch to take in some fresh air and being greeted by the smell of... skunk?

A few Concord residents are experiencing such a problem on a regular basis — and the cause isn't nocturnal creatures. It's a carefully cultivated form of local wildlife.

In other words: the neighbors are growing pot in the backyard.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As one resident told the city council in last week's meeting, the marijuana plants are visible through the back fence and causing a potent smell to drift through the neighborhood. The location of the residence has not been publicly released due to safety concerns. A group of neighbors are worried that the grow operation could attract crime and many are "afraid for their neighborhood." 

However, as the Contra Costa Times reports, the setup is perfectly legal under Proposition 215, allowing medical marijuana patients and caregivers to grow plants for medicinal use.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The City of Concord will now be looking at options for regulating and perhaps banning outdoor medical marijuana cultivation, at the request of Mayor Ron Leone.

Would you let the neighbors grow marijuana in the backyard? Should outdoor pot cultivation be banned in Concord? Share your thoughts in the comments.


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