Mendocino's medical marijuana limit is highest in the state

Fifty of California's counties conform to the state limit of 6 mature plants per medical marijuana patient. Eight counties have exercised local option to increase that limit, and Mendocino County has the highest limit of all with 25 plants and no canopy restriction.

Although a handful of other counties, like Humboldt and Sonoma, allow a higher number of plants, they additionally impose a canopy limit of 100 square feet on the total space the plants can occupy. This restricts the real amount of marijuana that can be grown.

The 100-square feet canopy limit, meaning all the plants have to fit in a 10 foot x 10 foot space, is far more restrictive than Mendocino County's rule of 25 plants. If 25 plants are grown in good conditions outdoors, they can easily occupy 400 or 500 square feet and yield a large crop to be sold on the underground market.

Measure B will adopt the statewide rule for Mendocino County to help prevent Mendocino from continuing to be a magnet for destructive commercial marijuana production.

In addition to allowing 6 mature plants per patient, the state rule allows 12 immature plants and possession of 1/2 pound of dried marijuana. Greater amounts are allowed if a doctor certifies that a legitimate medical patient needs more. That means that the state rule won't deny any real patient what they need, but it helps discourage the fraudulent use of the medical marijuana program as a cover for purely commercial production.

To see the county-by-county information, visit either of these pro-marijuana websites:

http://www.safeaccessnow.net/countyguidelines.htm

http://www.canorml.org/prop/local215policies.html

UPDATE:

How Measure G was used to pressure Board of Supervisors

First, a correction. Our previous post a few minutes ago cited the www.safeaccessnow.net/countyguidelines.htm website as a source for the county-by-county list of medical marijuana limits. But that site hasn't yet updated itself to show the change in Mendocino County's limit that was enacted by the Board of Supervisors on August 7, 2007.

That's when a divided Board voted to adopt 25 plants without any canopy restriction. [The http://www.canorml.org/prop/local215policies.html site correctly notes this change].

And there's a story behind the Board's action on August 7. The "no-limits" marijuana lobby was present in force and demanded 25 plants because Measure G, the initiative from the year 2000, told law enforcement not to prosecute anyone who stayed below that number. Strictly speaking, Measure G wasn't supposed to have anything to do with medical marijuana, but the "no-limits" lobby invokes Measure G whenever it's convenient and it worked on a majority of the Supervisors. Criminal defense attorneys also try to use Measure G whenever there is a marijuana case of any size, as District Attorney Meredith Lintott noted in her recent statement endorsing Measure B.

Growers have been collecting dozens of medical marijuana "caregiver" cards, real or phony, and using them as a shield for commercial operations of 25 plants per card, totaling in some cases more than 400 plants.

Measure B will repeal Measure G and adopt the state guideline for medical marijuana, so Mendocino County is back in line with the rest of the state and will no longer be a magnet for people who want to hijack the compassionate medical marijuana program as a cover for abusive commercial marijuana operations.

For more information on Measure B, visit www.YesOnBCoalition.org