It was a call that Manteca Police Sgt. Chris Mraz had gotten before: Please come take my marijuana plants.

Manteca residents volunteering to turn over cannabis plants they have legally under medical marijuana laws doesn’t happen every day but neither is it rare.

The caller in this case lives in the South Park neighborhood just south of downtown. The call came after intruders again broke into his backyard to steal the plants.

The homeowner was legally growing marijuana on behalf of two friends that had legal medical marijuana cards but were unable to raise plants. The man had grown weary of break-ins and was concerned about his family’s safety.

“He had enough,” Mraz said.

The crime that has prompted some to turn marijuana being grown legally over to police was one of the reasons that the Manteca City Council decided to end five years of allowing pot to be grown within the city limits for medical marijuana uses. When Feb. 18 rolls around, it will no longer be legal to grow marijuana in Manteca even if you have a medicinal pot card. Those with the cards, however, will be able to still use marijuana. 

They won’t, however, be able to use a service to deliver marijuana to them from legal medical marijuana dispensaries in their cities. They can pick it up themselves or have a caretaker do it for them.

Those who think they can get around the caretaker requirement by declaring a medical marijuana service that is illegal everywhere in California currently to pick it up instead are in for a surprise.

Mraz said the law’s language is explicit.

“Caretakers have to feed you, take care of you,” Mraz said. 

At the last City Council meeting a representative of such a delivery service as well as others talked about how essential it is to those with valid medicinal marijuana card that can’t travel out of Manteca to dispensaries and perhaps have concerns about being seen going into such a business. One example was a teacher needing marijuana for pain as prescribed by a doctor but didn’t want to be seen publically buying pot.

“They are called drug dealers,” Mraz said of those that run marijuana delivery services.

Come March 1, however, the state will make such delivery services legal unless local jurisdictions take steps like Manteca did to continue to outlaw them.

Manteca’s decision mirrors that of San Joaquin County as well as the cities of Stockton, Ripon, and Lathrop.

Police Chief Nick Obligacion noted burglary calls from card holders that have had their homes outbuildings broken into and marijuana plants stolen isn’t uncommon.

At least two medicinal marijuana growers contacted by the Bulletin have confirmed they have had break-ins of their garages or yards to access contained areas where marijuana plants were being grown. 

Both said they plan to comply with the new Manteca law going into effect in 35 days that outlaws the growing of marijuana.

Manteca Police indicated the city has had three gun deaths that were directly connected with the illegal use of marijuana over the past four years. That’s in addition to dealing with illegal large grow houses supplying the Bay Area medicinal marijuana dispensary market. Last year alone Manteca Police seized 7,800 pounds of marijuana.