Elections Office releases update on vote count

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

Article Last Updated: 06/13/2008 08:17:28 AM PDT

The Daily Journal

As voters wait to learn the final outcome of the June 3 election, the Elections Office is working to complete the vote canvass.

According to an update Thursday from Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder Susan Ranochak, elections officials have received numerous phone calls since the end of voting on June 3, wondering when the vote will be certified.

According to the statement from Ranochak, signatures from mail-in ballots have been reconciled with voter registrations, the vote-by-mail ballots turned in on Election Day have been counted, and officials have completed their 1 percent manual tally of ballots.

Starting Wednesday, officials began reviewing the more than 400 provisional ballots, a task that was expected to continue through today.

Ranochak said that once the provisional ballots are "reviewed, we have to re-make them to the voter's proper precinct. We can then finish the required steps ...to balance our ballot count, which can take a few days.

"We can then count the ballots through our voting system and release our results."

In previous years, the canvass has been completed in three weeks, Ranochak said, "which is what we are aiming for" in this election. "This is a process we have to complete with each election," she said, "whether it is for countywide or statewide races. This is a normal process."

The Elections Office has up to 28 days to complete the canvass.

There has been increased interest in this election because of MeasureB, which, if passed, would repeal Measure G, the county's personal use marijuana ordinance, and set medical marijuana limits at the state limits.

On Election Night, Measure B appeared to be passing with 52.15 percent, or 8,493 voters, voting yes, and 47.85 percent, or 7,792, voting no.

The next day, the Elections Office announced that more than 10,000 mail-in ballots that were returned on Election Day remained to be counted, as well as more than 400 provisional ballots, leading some opponents of Measure B to predict the unofficial election results would be overturned once all the remaining ballots were counted.

Man shot, marijuana plants seized near Iron Peak subdivision

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

Article Last Updated: 06/10/2008 10:59:36 AM PDT

The Daily Journal

At around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, the Mendocino County Sheriff Dispatch received a call from the Iron Peak subdivision about a shooting that had taken place in a wooded area.

The victim, Roy Joseph Wentz Jr., 44, of Laytonville was reported to be shot in the arm and in need of medical treatment. Fire rescue responded and learned that Wentz had been shot in the arm and was flown to Santa Rosa Memorial hospital due to the extent of injuries, according to a statement issued by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department.

During the investigation, it was discovered the victim had been visiting friends in the area and had gone for a walk. He was returned a short while later by a unidentified subject who advised he had found the victim shot. His friends then summoned help and took him to meet rescue personnel.

A search of the area was conducted by responding deputies and a possible crime scene was discovered. From this scene, evidence of the shooting and 150 marijuana plants were recovered and seized.

Wentz was at last report in and out of surgery and the case remains under investigation.

MCSO detectives are interested in speaking with the unknown person who brought the victim to his friends. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Detectives at 463-4411.

Official and others react to initial reports of B's passage

Officials and others react to initial reports of B's passage

By BEN BROWN The Daily Journal

Article Last Updated: 06/05/2008 08:19:05 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

A U.S. Forest Service employee came upon this... (submitted by the Bureau of Land Management)

As the dust settles on a long and divisive campaign with unofficial results showing an apparent win for Measure B, both supporters and opponents feel the measure will help make the county a better place.

Measure B, which would repeal Measure G and set medical marijuana limits at six mature or 12 immature plants and eight ounces of dried marijuana, appeared to be passing early Wednesday morning with approximately 52 percent of the vote.

"The ability to obtain convictions on commercial growers will increase substantially," said Mendocino County District Attorney Meredith Lintott.

Ukiah Police Chief Chris Dewey said the apparent passage of Measure B will create a "consistent enforcement standard" in the county.

Lintott said she believed the new consistency in medical marijuana laws and the repeal of Measure G would create a "deterrence effect" that would keep people from coming to Mendocino County specifically to grow marijuana.

"The word will get out that Mendocino is not the place to grow marijuana," she said.

"We're hoping the people will self-regulate," Dewey said.

During the campaign, one of the primary arguments of the No on B Campaign is that it would make every medical marijuana patient growing seven or more plants a felon.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said that is not the case.

"Legitimate medical marijuana will be respected," he said.

"The people who need to be concerned are the people who have been hiding behind Measure G and abusing the system," Allman said.

Similarly, Lintott said her office would concentrate on prosecuting large commercial marijuana growers and not legitimate medical marijuana gardens that are out of compliance by a few plants.

"I've never been one to care about the number of plants," she said. "I'm interested in the totality of the circumstances and whether or not it is a commercial grow."

Dane Wilkins, director of the Mendocino County chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the apparent narrow margin of victory for Measure B should serve as a message to the community that there are a lot of people in the county who support the rights of medical marijuana users.

According to unofficial election results, 16,285 people voted on Measure B, with 8,493 voting for the measure and 7,792 voting against. There are still 439 provisional ballots to be counted.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the Elections Office issued a press release stating that in addition to the 439 provisional ballots, there are more than 10,000 mail-in ballots that were dropped off at polling places on Election Day and have not yet been counted (see accompanying article.)

Before the announcement of the still-to-be-counted ballots, Wilkins had said he hoped the close result would foster communication between the two groups.

"It's a good starting point to having a dialogue with the other side," he said.

Representatives from the California NORML office were more critical of the results. Dale Gieringer of NORML said the passage of the measure did not have the force and effect its supporters believe.

"The passage of Measure B settles nothing," he said. "Its major enforcement provision is invalid and it contains nothing that addresses the real problems of large-scale criminal cultivation. The county needs to go back to the drawing board."

Gieringer was referring to the California Appellate Court decision in People v. Kelly in which the court found that the medical marijuana limits of six mature or 12 immature plants and eight ounces of marijuana are unconstitutional because the Legislature cannot make changes to a voter initiative without the voters' approval.

Senate Bill 420 set the state limits, putting a cap on voter approved Proposition 215, which legalized medical marijuana but did not set a limit on the amount of medical marijuana a patient could possess.

Gieringer also criticized the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors for placing Measure B on the primary ballot, which he said traditionally has lower voter turnout and attracts older and more conservative voters.

All current election results are unofficial. Final results will not be available until the canvass is complete, which can take up to 28 days.

Ben Brown can be reached at udjbb@pacific.net.

BREAKING NEWS: Voters say yes' on B: Marijuana reform measure approved

By BEN BROWN/The Daily Journal

Article Last Updated: 06/04/2008 12:56:13 AM PDT

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After six months of forums, discussions, political mailers and vigorous, and sometimes vociferous, debate, Mendocino County voters finally had the opportunity to say their piece on the future of the county's marijuana policy.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting at 12:35 a.m. Wednesday, Measure B was winning 52.15 percent to 47.85 percent. The Elections Office recorded a 34.94 percent turnout for the election and counted 16,436 ballots.

Provisional ballots remain to be counted.

"We're very confident that we're going to win," Ross Liberty, spokesman for the Yes on B Coalition, said earlier in the evening.

Measure B repeals Measure G, the county's personal use marijuana law, and sets medical marijuana possession limits in Mendocino County at the state limits of six mature or 12 immature plants and eight ounces of dried marijuana.

Measure G was passed by county voters in 2000 and instructed law enforcement to make the prosecution of possession of 25 marijuana plants or fewer the lowest possible priority.

No on B campaign spokeswoman Laura Hamburg said early in the evening that she was optimistic and excited about the results despite the fact that initial reports showed Measure B passing by a margin of more than 10 percent of the vote.

"The early results are always brutal," she said. "It's the most conservative group."

While the measure appeared to be passing from the earliest returns, Liberty said he was disappointed with the margin. Liberty said a poll conducted before Measure B was put on the ballot showed it passing with 65 percent of the vote.

"It's important to win," he said.

"We will all have done a great disservice to this county if we lose," Liberty said.

As the evening wore on, Yes on B maintained its almost 11 percent lead, though it eventually narrowed to around 5 percent.

Hamburg said no matter what the results of the election were, it would be counted as a victory by No on B because the campaign had created a dialogue about marijuana in Mendocino County.

"What happens tonight is just one slice of it," she said.

Liberty acknowledged that the fight over Measure B had been a divisive campaign and that a dialogue between the groups would be good.

"We have more common ground than we tended to acknowledge during the campaign," he said.

Hamburg said representatives of both campaigns as well as public health and other county entities would be meeting soon to discuss what can be done to deal with the crime and environmental degradation that often surrounds illegal marijuana grows.

"The whole county says no to that," she said.

All results from election night are unofficial. The definitive results will not be released until a canvas of the votes is completed, which could take up to 28 days.

Ben Brown can be reached at udjbb@pacific.net.

Mendocino voters repeal lenient pot policy

Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

(06-03) 22:44 PDT -- Mendocino County relinquished its crown as the nation's epicenter of pot leniency Tuesday, with voters decisively approving a hotly contested measure to limit residents to six plants apiece under the state's medicinal pot law.

With 85.5 percent of precincts reporting, Measure B had already locked up an unbeatable 55.5 percent of the vote. The measure - which repealed an initiative approved by county voters eight years ago allowing residents to grow as many as 25 pot plants for personal use - needed majority approval to pass.

Other jurisdictions in the United States allow more plants, but they are generally confined to a specific space and must be used medically. Under the eight-year-old Mendocino regulations, the 25 allowable plants can grow as large and thick as possible, and be used as the owner wishes.

When the county's regulations passed as Measure G in 2000, proponents said the rules would simply codify what had been happening for decades in the county - massive pot growth that made Mendocino part of Northern California's renowned "Emerald Triangle."

The generous standards made it easier for people to grow pot to be used as pain-relief medicine, advocates say. But many residents and law enforcement officials complain that the standards were abused by people growing hundreds of plants at home for commercial sale.

Under federal law, possession of marijuana is illegal in any amount. California's Prop. 215, approved by voters in 1996, allows marijuana for medicinal use and the state gives local government authority to regulate use.

Measure B Mendocino
88.5% of precincts reporting
	Vote	%
Yes	5,215	55.5
No	4,178	44.4

E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Charges urged in felling of trees for pot garden

Authorities say man chain-sawed 30 fir trees to bring more light to plants

By Glenda Anderson
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 8:28 a.m.

A Willits-area man could face criminal charges for allegedly destroying 37 fir trees, some more than 100 years old and on public property, to provide more light for a medicinal marijuana garden.

"It looked like a bomb went off in the forest," said Mike Chapman, manager of the Brooktrails Community Services District, which oversees the forested Brooktrails subdivision adjacent to and just north of Willits.

Mendocino County District Attorney Meredith Lintott's office has asked for further investigation, but Lintott said Monday she recommends charges be filed against Peter Evan Godt, 32, for the damage.

Godt could not be reached for comment Monday.

Sheriff's officials said authorities called to Brooktrails in April found Godt using a chain saw to cut down the trees.

Godt, who holds a prescription for the medical marijuana he grows, said he was thinning the forest so a pot garden could get more sunlight, said Lt. Rusty Noe.

"It's a perfect case of entitlement," Noe said, noting that most of the trees were not on Godt's property.

Noe said that sense of entitlement has led to a backlash against marijuana growers in the county and to Measure B, an initiative on today's ballot seeking to limit the amount of marijuana individuals are allowed to grow.

About 15 of the downed trees were on Brooktrails' 2,600-acre public greenbelt, Chapman said. Ten were on a neighbor's land, and the remainder are believed to have been on Godt's property, he said.

Godt's fenced garden area also was in the public greenbelt, Chapman said.

Officials say Godt cut down about 30 trees, and those trees knocked down seven others as they fell.

Foresters continue to evaluate the extent of the damage, Chapman said.

Brooktrails board members and residents are outraged, he said.

"It's pretty blatant. This is the worst case of public vandalism I've ever seen," Chapman said.

Brooktrails is classified as a park, and none of its 4,000 residents is allowed to cut any tree over 6 inches in diameter without permission, he said.

The board does not allow large trees to be cut, Chapman said.

"We're trying to preserve our park," he said.

Chapman also said the downed trees, scheduled to be removed next week, pose a fire threat.

Godt told authorities he planned to burn the trees he'd cut, Noe said.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473

or glenda.anderson@

pressdemocrat.com.

California County May Scrap Pro-Pot Law Amid Furor Over Crime

By Ryan Flinn

June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Dr. William Courtney says he has prescribed marijuana to more than 2,000 patients in Mendocino County, California, taking advantage of a measure passed eight years ago to decriminalize pot and allow the possession of as many as 25 plants.

Residents of the county 140 miles north of San Francisco may make it harder for Courtney to continue the treatment. Today they vote on a plan to make recreational use of pot illegal again and to limit the number of plants allowed for medicinal purposes to six per person.

Measure B, as the proposal is known, ``would be an incredible step backward for the county,'' said Courtney, 55, who has an office in the town of Mendocino. ``Every one of my patients will be entrapped by Measure B -- as soon as they harvest, each one will become a felon.''

Medical benefits aside, supporters of the proposal say the rural county of 88,000 residents erred when it became the first in the U.S. to legalize pot with its 2000 ordinance, called Measure G. They say it has spawned crime, drug cartels and teenage pot use, and scared off developers.

``The fact that we passed Measure G makes us stand out like a sore thumb,'' said Dave Bengston, commissioner of Mendocino's Agriculture Department. ``It's a failed experiment, and I think it's time to reverse it.''

Mendocino County, which encompasses 3,510 square miles of coastal mountains, redwood forests and beaches, epitomized the pot-friendly environment of northern California with Measure G, which went well beyond a state program allowing pot for medicinal purposes.

Character and Culture

``The character and culture of Mendocino is at a crossroads,'' said Laura Hamburg, spokeswoman for No on Measure B, a group that opposes the restrictions. ``Some say we need to bleach our culture so we can lure big development and get those $8- to $10-an-hour jobs.''

Hamburg, 44, said she grew pot for a medical collective until her property was raided and she was arrested for having 39 plants. The charges were later dropped, she said.

The law put the county at odds with the federal government, which doesn't recognize the state's approval of marijuana as medicine or Mendocino County's allowance of personal use. Authorities stage periodic raids of growers.

Government agencies eradicated more pot plants from the Mendocino National Forest in 2006 than anywhere else in the country, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center, a component of the U.S. Justice Department, in a February 2007 report on domestic cannabis cultivation.

Aggressive Growers

The county itself destroyed a record 334,000 marijuana plants last year, a 50 percent increase from 2006. The number of marijuana felony arrests in the county rose to 173, the most in a decade, in 2006, according to the most recent data available from California's Criminal Justice Statistics Center in Sacramento.

Growers, particularly Mexican drug-traffickers in California and Washington, are becoming more aggressive in protecting cultivation sites, leading to an increase in the number of armed encounters between law enforcement and guards protecting the crops, the National Drug Intelligence Center said in the 2007 assessment.

Critics of the proposal argue that it will open the door to crackdowns on so-called Mom and Pop growers.

``Measure B will place our lives in danger as law enforcement will enter homes, and spend their efforts to find any amount of plants over six,'' said a hand-scrawled, anti- Measure B flyer at Twist, an organic and hemp clothing store on Main Street in Mendocino. ``Please don't let the fears of the Measure B proponents take away the security of our citizens to provide for their health and safety.''

Reeking of Pot

The proposal ``provides a voter mandate for reasonable protections, while not interfering with legitimate medical marijuana,'' according to the Web site of the Yes on B Coalition, a group pushing for passage.

Kathy James, former president of the Ukiah Unified School District Board of Education, said the 2000 law should be scrapped because it has contributed to widespread marijuana use among students.

``I think it's very prevalent, and it's considered no big deal,'' said James, 60. ``They'll say `it helps with my anger, my sore back from wrestling, it keeps me calm.'''

Young people are also finding jobs with marijuana growers, she said. Several students have been sent home from school because they reeked of marijuana after harvesting the plants, she said.

Marijuana Haven

Bengston, the agriculture commissioner, said he's concerned business developers will bypass Mendocino because of its reputation as a marijuana haven. With the county's $90 million grape harvest suffering its worst bout of frost in 45 years, the salmon season canceled statewide because of a drop in the fish population, and the timber industry continuing to decline, the county needs to attract new industries, he said.

County Sheriff Tom Allman also supports today's proposal. If Measure G passes, ``I think what will happen is that people will say, `Wow, Mendocino County isn't full of Mr. and Mrs. Cheech and Chong,''' Allman said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at rflinn@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 3, 2008 00:01 EDT

Please vote Yes on Measure B

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:01:42 AM PDT

To the Editor:

Don't sit on the sidelines on Measure B. Please come out and vote on what your mind and heart tells you. You have heard the issues and views from both Yes on B and No on B advocates. Supporters believe Measure B will meet the needs of all seriously ill Mendocino citizens, reduce toxic exposure to the brains of children and adolescents, reduce crime, nuisance, and environmental pollution. Opponents of B believe the current 25-plant limit is necessary for medical illness, will not contribute to crime, and will improve the economy. Others believe that improvement can occur only when federal laws might change in the future. But, for the here and now in Mendocino County, all of us must weigh in with our beliefs. Come out and vote Tuesday, June 3rd.

Robert Werra M.D.
Ukiah

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:02:05 AM PDT

To the Editor:

I am so terribly afraid that the illegal dope growing drug dealers have taken control of what once was a very nice place to live. I am afraid that the recent fact that the registrar of voters has been flooded with well over 2,000 new voter registrations in the past couple of months is an indication of methodical and devious tactics of the No on B supporters, who will do anything to maintain their strangling hold of this county.

Surely not all of the new voters registrations are from legitimate Mendocino County residents. They are probably from people who live out of our county and are making it appear as if they are legitimate residents purely for the purpose of defeating Measure B. You watch, as soon as the election is over these registered voters will scatter like cockroaches in daylight. There are even ads on the radio from the No on B faction promoting this activity.

I am afraid that the criminal element has infiltrated our local government by deceit, fraud and financial backing by NORML. This criminal element has taken over like a cancer spreading its disease into every facet of our local government. Has anyone checked to see where election campaign contributions have come from? Has anyone followed the money?

I am afraid that when our sheriff had the guts to stand up to the dope growing, drug dealers, they threaten him with impeachment as a tactic to try to shut him up. I hope this doesn't happen and that the good people of Mendocino will see through this attack on our highest level law enforcement official. If they control him, they control the county.

I am afraid that while the Yes on B Coalition played by the rules, the No on B people scurried around like rats in the night stealing and defacing the Yes on B signs placed on private property. They distributed confusing literature full of lies and misinformation concerning what Measure B is all about in an attempt to scare people who might have a small amount of pot into thinking they will be targeted by law enforcement. The reality is non-medicinal use of pot is illegal. It has been for over 40 years. Yet, no one has had their doors kicked in by law enforcement because they are smoking a joint in the privacy of their own homes, not unless there is more severe legal activity going on to warrant this.

I also do not believe the No on B people have at all been honest about their funding. Common sense dictates that a large amount of money has probably come from out of county and most likely from NORML, a nationally based organization trying to legitimize the dope growing drug dealers. The No on B people have hired consultants to aid in distraction techniques aimed at confusing the average Mendocino County resident about what the true facts are concerning Measure B.

I am afraid that we have lost our beautiful county to the drug dealers whose slogan is Support our County' when in fact the only thing they are interested in is supporting the environmentally destructive profits which goes directly into their drug dealing dope growing pockets as well as the pockets of their unethical and immoral attorneys who sell their souls to the highest bidders.

Yes, I am afraid that the citizens of Mendocino County are being held hostage by the dope growers and drug dealers. We have slowly allowed them to take over. I am afraid it might be too late to save our county. If we do not actively try to stop the dope growing, dope dealers by demanding that a voter registration fraud investigation be started immediately even if it means postponing the current election, we may never have another chance to stop the criminals. They are too financially supported and too devious. They are a parasite that is eating away at our community. I strongly encourage everyone to please vote Yes on B on June 3rd and don't buy into the propaganda sludge that the opposition has attempted to brainwash and confuse us with. This may be our last chance. We need to break free of the bondage that the drug dealers have on us. Please vote yes on B.

Sallie Palmer
Ukiah

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:02:02 AM PDT

To the Editor:

I have been listening to people talk about why they are either for or against Measure B. I am for Measure B because since Prop 215 passed I have seen a big decline in our youth.

There are a lot of businesses that are saying they are having trouble getting young people to work. When I was working for Willits High School as a coach some of the players were getting a hold of marijuana. I had trouble having them keep their grades up. A lot of them became ineligible at the end of the quarter. I never saw any student go from a C to a B while using marijuana. I have never heard of any teacher saying a student's grades improved by using marijuana. There may have been one or two. I personally never heard of any one including parents say that it did improve their children's grades by using marijuana or that it made their child a better student.

I have talked to over 200 students' parents in the past 10 years and they felt marijuana did a lot of damage to their children's lives. That is why I am voting Yes on B in June.

Dan McBride
Willits

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:01:34 AM PDT

To the Editor:

Why does "Yes on B" have my support? There are several reasons, one of them being the absolute rudeness of "No" supporters at the Forum on B held last week at the Willits Grange Hall. Even after their speakers politely offered their reasons for a "no" vote (medical marijuana), it was painfully aware that the vast majority of "no" people in the audience were there because they want to continue on down their path of greed and refusal to make a living in some honest and legal way.

Believe me, I voted for Prop. 215. I fully support honest peoples' rights to use medicinal marijuana within the limits set by the State of California, as well as their personal medical doctor. I support the growers who grow without profit for these people who need their medicine for legitimate reasons.

The main reason I support a "Yes" vote is my frustration in being unable to safely walk on and enjoy my own property anymore. There is marijuana growing just over our fence line. None of us is willing to go to the far reaches of the property to check for pot growth, for fear of what or who we might find there.

We are the third and fourth generations of our family to care for, nurture, protect and love our land in Willits. Another generation -- my grandchildren -- wait in the wings to play on their land and cherish it as we do. I cannot, in good conscience, allow them to play there as their parents did. It is just too risky. What a very sad thing.

If there were no other reason for me to vote "Yes on B," this would be it. I want Mendocino County to go back to being the peaceful, beautiful place it was when my children and I grew up. I truly fear for the future of Willits and Mendocino County if Measure B does not pass.

Please join me in voting "Yes!"

Kathleen Lewis
Willits

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:01:34 AM PDT

To the Editor:

Let's all begin the process of taking back our community and providing a better place for our children. Please join me and vote Yes on Measure B.

Paul Jepson, M.D.
Ukiah

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:01:37 AM PDT

To the Editor:

Measure G has opened a floodgate of criminality in Mendocino County. People from all over the state and the world poured into the countryside and neighborhoods to grow commercial marijuana.

They don't care about anyone or anything else. Some are growing large crops in the thousands. Others are growing smaller, yet still lucrative grows right in the middle of once quiet, safe neighborhoods. The danger from these growers -- their verbal threats, guns and vicious dogs is obvious.

But, there is another, more insidious kind of criminal that came out of the woodwork. This is the commercial grower who amasses big bucks while pretending to grow for medicinal purposes. They claim to be a caregiver providing medicine for the sick.

Then out of the other side of their mouth they say, "Marijuana is the number one cash crop in Mendocino County." Why? Because it's illegal. Do these people really want marijuana to be legalized? No. They want prohibition. They like prohibition. It keeps their profit margins high.

They claim to be interested only in marijuana for medicine, but then proudly proclaim marijuana is the number one crop in Mendocino County.

Well, which is it -- medicine or money?

I think we all know the answer.

Please vote Yes on Measure B.

Larry Puterbaugh
Ukiah

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:01:37 AM PDT

To the Editor:

The how and why of the California six plant limit.

A visit to the pro-marijuana website, http://www.safeaccessnow.net/sb420letter.htm, shows the letter from John Vasconcellos and Mark Leno, authors of SB 420, which established the six plant guideline in 2002.

They note that, "We have crafted SB 420 as the result of three years of intensive negotiations among all key stakeholders (including patients, providers and physicians)..."

They also say that, "These guidelines are endorsed by several credible knowledgeable supporters of the medical uses of marijuana: Dr. Marcus Conant (well respected HIV/AIDS doctor), Scott Imler (long-time medical marijuana patient advocate and president of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center), Marsha Rosenbaum (medical sociologist and director of the San Francisco office of Drug Policy Alliance), and Jerry Uelman (Professor of Law at Santa Clara University and medical marijuana defense attorney)."

Most important of all, they note that the adopted state limit of six mature plants or 12 immature plants and 1/2 pound of dried marijuana isn't inflexible, but rather allows any patient to have more if a physician recommends that they need it.

They conclude by saying SB 420, "Provides broad protection to tens of thousands of ill Californians without jeopardizing any ill Californians."

As the election approaches, voters should beware of last-minute misinformation from the opponents to Measure B.

The SB 420 guidelines were carefully developed to account for the medical needs of patients. In contrast, Richard Johnson, the principal author of Measure G, has described the 25-plant limit of Measure G as being, "Entirely arbitrary. We were going for the maximum." It is the 25 plant limit that has no scientific or medical basis.

We have a crisis from the impacts of commercial marijuana. Measure B will help us deal with this crisis by getting us back in line with the rules that govern in the vast majority of California counties instead of making Mendocino County a magnet for commercial growers.

Ross Liberty
Ukiah

Marijuana advocate votes yes on B

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:01:57 AM PDT

To the Editor:

I believe that marijuana should be legal and available for medical, religious or recreational use and that there is no rationale for banning its use while allowing the consumption of alcohol and tobacco. This is why I have testified as an expert witness on the religious use of marijuana on behalf of three criminal defendants in three different states who claimed their use of marijuana was a religious sacrament. That was when my only exposure to the issue of marijuana was the use side of the equation and I knew little about the impact of its cultivation.

Now that I live in Mendocino County and see the damaging effects of unregulated marijuana cultivation I would not be able to take such a case again. You see, I have come to understand the problem with liberalizing use and cultivation while marijuana is still illegal nationally.

The problem begins with the fact that we do not exist in isolation. Our liberalization has been the opportunists' delight. By attracting people from all over the country that want to capitalize on the laisse-faire culture here, the make-up of the county has changed dramatically in the past few years. Short-term interests of the few trump the long-term commitments of the majority of us.

I do not always know what size operation people are thinking of when they refer to "large" commercial growers, but I know first-hand the problems that can come from a grower with several hundred plants -- all supported with "physician recommendations." Add up hundreds of these operations across the county and this has serious environmental impact. No one would be turning to look the other way if vintners suddenly took over entire hillsides with vineyards or every back yard had crops of coffee grown for export or a company decided to start an asphalt plant at the top of a major watershed. There are stringent regulations and mitigations such businesses would have to meet while producers in the marijuana industry remain free of oversight.

Those that argue that uncontrolled marijuana cultivation is harmless are either very lucky not to have been touched by its excesses, or they are disingenuous. I want to believe it is the former. Yet these very people make righteous claims as to their concern over the environment and people's rights while they look away as growers suck the water dry and bring in vicious dogs, guns, create hazardous fire conditions, contaminate soil and otherwise act solely in their self-interest and ignore the insult and danger to others. I have been saddened that the proponents of marijuana have not joined with their fellow community members to find solutions to these problems rather than demean and accuse them of making up stories. If you are not solely about profiteering and your very supporters have turned against you, it is time to look at the problem directly and seek solutions.

While seeking an alternative solution to prohibition, I have spent countless hours in conversations with concerned people trying to find a solution that satisfies everyone. I sat in many supervisors' meetings listening to neighbors describe their troubling experiences. Almost everyone I have heard speak on this issue -- publicly or privately -- has said they supported liberalization of marijuana and they are sad that it has become such a problem. From what I can see, people are concerned with the effects of widespread marijuana cultivation -- not the plant itself. They still support compassionate use of medical marijuana and do not seek its eradication -- so far.

My understanding from talking with attorneys and listening to discussions in the Board of Supervisors is that there is no legal means for the county to license, regulate, or tax what is still not legal (Prop 215 did not legalize marijuana in California.). Yet, every other industry is regulated and taxed so as to contribute to the community.

The sheriff and the district attorney have made it clear that they have no mandate, nor budget to pursue every pot grower in the county. And for those who create a nuisance or danger, they need more provision for addressing the problem. We need to be in line with the rest of the state on plant limits to take the pressure off our land, water, wildlife, and community.

If advocates for medical marijuana really want to protect its availability, it is time to work with the community to contain the situation and the abuses or the blow back will set the liberalization movement back 25 years. This is why I voted Yes on Measure B and urge you to do the same.

Deborah Pruitt, Ph.D.
Willits

In our opinion - Vote YES on Measure B- Yes on Mendocino County

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:01:53 AM PDT

Tuesday is the last day voters in Mendocino County will have to cast some very important votes.

In supervisor districts there are numerous candidates on the ballot and opportunity for change in both the 1st and 2nd District races in which we have endorsed Carre Brown and John McCowen respectively.

One of the most important votes on the ballot we believe however, is a Yes vote on Measure B. It is vital, even if you think Measure B will pass, or you have no supervisor race where you live, that you still make sure to use your mail ballot or go to the polls and vote Yes on Measure B. It is vital that we not only pass Measure B but pass it with a margin big enough to send the message that is at the core of Measure B's importance: Mendocino County is no longer a place where greedy pot growers are welcome to come and take advantage of our neighborhoods, our compassion for the truly sick and dying and our desire to live in a safe and generous community.

Measure B does two simple things: it repeals Measure G, the 25 plant per person personal use ordinance that led this county down the path to a commercial marijuana industry most who voted for Measure G had no idea would be the result. All we tried to do was give people an opportunity to grow a few plants in their back yard if they smoked a little dope. But Measure G, combined with new medical marijuana laws giving anyone with a medical marijuana card (now available on practically any street corner) provided a license to grow hundreds and thousands of plants under the guise of "compassionate" caregiving. In fact, however, those growers are selling their pot to the highest bidder and have created a marijuana industry that has brought a horrendous increase in crime and a breakdown of our rural county's security and economic future.

Last minute controversies over court decisions on the state's medical marijuana regulations make passing Measure B that much more critical. We are convinced that the state will prevail in the need to have uniform medical marijuana growing limits and it is important that our own county repeal Measure G now to put aside the idea that 25 plants is some magical number for our citizens. It is a number pulled out of the aIr by the Measure G proponents who admit is was simply the highest number they thought they could get away with.

Down to the very end of this election season we are still hearing the same tired misinformation from No on B:

The Measure B will make "criminals" out of medical marijuana patients. Medical marijuana patients are completely protected by Measure B under state regulations already in place in the majority of other California counties.

That Measure B will impede law enforcement. Over and over the No on B campaign has falsely made this claim even in the face of virtual unity in the law enforcement community that Measure B is an important tool for them to crack down on the commercial marijuana growing masquerading as medical marijuana. In fact, the No on B campaign so blatantly misused Sheriff Allman's comments on marijuana to imply that he opposed Measure B that he decided to endorse Measure B to make it clear that Measure B would in fact be good for law enforcement.

Measure B is simple, logical and necessary.

If you are among those who want our county back, vote Yes on Measure B.

Yes on Measure B

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:02:12 AM PDT

To the Editor:

We are writing to express our support of Measure B (which would rescind Measure G) in the upcoming election.

In our hospitals, we are truly privileged to work with some of our county's brightest, most dedicated individuals -- people who stand with us, ready to serve everyone who enters our doors without regard to where they are from or were born, or what they have in their pocket. Our Mendocino County doctors and hospital employees are parents, neighbors, volunteers, and school board members -- active in community affairs. We live and work in Mendocino County, and we are very concerned about the effects of Measure G on our community.

As hospital executives, we know and respect doctors who include marijuana prescriptions in their practice of medicine. However, there is another side to marijuana -- a darker side that includes abuse, violence, and environmental degradation -- that we see personally, in our organizations, and especially in our work with the community's youth.

We believe that California state law adequately provides for the needs of those who have medical needs for marijuana. To date, we haven't seen or heard anyone credibly say, "I can't survive on six plants and two ounces of processed marijuana, and a state law that permits me to be prescribed even more." Rather, a group of ardent users, likely supported by a significant infrastructure of illegal growers and harvesters, suggests that we should be eating marijuana like lettuce.

We disagree.

Our community's youth are more important to our future than marijuana cultivators. "Making good money trimming bud," as some put it, is, in spite of some opinions to the contrary, a significant step toward a less-than-optimal life: it means a life in crime. We suggest that virtually none of our county's youth involved in the marijuana industry have anything to do with medical marijuana. With a law that requires local law enforcement to make the prosecution of small-scale marijuana offenses the lowest priority (below jaywalking), we invite young people into an industry that is not healthy for them or the community. Our tacit acceptance of marijuana sends the wrong message to our children.

The marijuana industry is also a threat to our environment. As a non-regulated industry, marijuana growing often includes the dumping of pesticides, waste oil, and fertilizers, causing major damage to our natural resources and wildlife. Numerous generator fuel leakage problems have scarred our fragile environment. If these "fuel oil spills" occurred in a different industry they would be nationwide front-page scandals ­ we pretend it's just the price of getting some poor soul their "medicine."

If the marijuana industry is permitted to grow without restriction, we fear that legitimate businesses will begin to depend on the revenue that comes from providing tools and supplies that support marijuana cultivation. This dependence could become a negative cycle, with upstanding businesses unwilling to stand up against the marijuana growers because it will jeopardize their financial position. As our county gains a reputation as the marijuana growing capital of the nation, the marijuana industry will likely overtake us.

Many people who voted in favor of Measure G did not intend to invite the dangers of illegal marijuana growing to take permanent residence in our county. By voting for Measure B, we allow responsible users access to marijuana and send a message to illegal drug dealers that Mendocino County is not interested in the title, "America's Pot Capital."

Please join us in voting in favor of Measure B.

Terry Burns, President/CEO
Ukiah Valley Medical Center

Kevin Erich President/CEO
Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital

Raymond Hino, CEO
Mendocino Coast District Hospital

Yes on Measure B

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

Article Last Updated: 06/02/2008 08:01:59 AM PDT

To the Editor:

I am a progressive Democrat and I'm voting yes on Measure B. Why? I've seen the negative effects of commercial marijuana in my family, in my neighborhood and in this county. One issue that most concerns me is the future of our children. It seems to me we are raising them in a drug culture of easy money -- where regular education and career ambitions are just not worth the effort. Where skirting the law and a hardened attitude are the norm. I know I am watching this happen within my extended family for a second generation with a third generation coming up. The effect of the commercial marijuana industry on these family members has been crippling. At this point none of them are equipped to handle normal jobs or normal life.

There are now 80-plus local physicians signed up in support of Yes on B. When I saw this my curiosity led me to wonder: would there be a similar list of professionals working with children (i.e. teachers, law enforcement, psychologists) who'd be willing to state they see no negative impact from this drug culture on our youth? If we logically extend it out, by engaging in the commercial selling of marijuana how much of our children's futures have we also been selling away? And how are we impacting the lives and futures of children in other communities?

Mary Gustafson
Ukiah

Police, local party leaders blast mailers; No on B says it didn't send them

By BEN BROWN The Daily Journal

Article Launched: 06/01/2008 02:53:44 PM PDT

The leaders of Mendocino County's Republican and Democratic parties, as well as Ukiah Police Chief Chris Dewey have issued a joint statement expressing outrage over mailers sent out in opposition of Measure B which they call misleading.

"We are outraged that the No on Measure B Campaign has purchased space on slate mailers that masquerade as official publications of recognized organizations," the three said in their statement. "These mailers are a deliberate attempt to fool the voters."

One of the mailers is marked "Attention Republicans," a second reads "Voter Information Guide for Democrats" and the third reads simply "Cops."

All three come with disclaimers that read that the document was prepared as a voters guide and is not the product of an official party organization. They also note that all appearances were paid for by each candidate or ballot measure.

Speaking individually, Dewey, Margie Handley of the Mendocino County Republican Party and Democrat Jim Mastin all noted their disapproval of the mailers.

"Every police chief in the county, the district attorney, the Highway Patrol commander, the Ukiah Police Officers Association and the Deputy Sheriff's Association endorse Measure B," Dewey said. "I'm not aware of anyone working in law enforcement who is opposed."

"It is outrageous that anyone would try to imply that the Republican party is opposed to Measure B," Handley said. "In fact, the Mendocino County Republican Central Committee has endorsed Yes on Measure B."

"It's election time, and we want every voter to become informed on the issue and then vote their conscience," Mastin said. "Local groups send out readily identifiable slate mailers that promote positions supported and endorsed by your neighbors and friends. Unfortunately it's also the season of the phony slate mailer. They are designed to deceive, misinform, remain anonymous and do it all for the highest bidder."

Laura Hamburg, spokeswoman for the No on B Campaign said the campaign was not involved with the mailers.

"We didn't pay for the mailers and we didn't have anything to do with the content," she said.

Though saying it was not involved, Hamburg said the campaign was glad to know there were opportunities for the No on B message to get out to Republicans and members of law enforcement who might be against Measure B, despite official endorsement of the measure by both of those groups.

Measure B, which was placed on the ballot by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors in January, would repeal Measure G and set medical marijuana limits in Mendocino County at the state limit of six mature or 12 immature plants and eight ounces of dried marijuana.

Measure G, which was passed by Mendocino County voters in 2000, instructed law enforcement to make the prosecution of marijuana gardens of 25 plants or fewer the lowest possible priority.

The election is Tuesday.

Ben Brown can be reached at udjbb@pacific.net.

Mendocino County Pot Growing Measure Nears Vote

POSTED: 12:29 pm PDT May 31, 2008

WILLITS, Calif. -- Opponents say they, too, want to evict large-scale, criminal operators. But they say Measure B won't address that issue and will instead go after the people who need medical marijuana.Voters in this rugged stretch of Northern California took marijuana laws to new heights in 2000, allowing residents to grow up to 25 marijuana plants for medical, recreational or personal use.

But eight years later, some are campaigning to scale back the law, saying it's time to weed out pot profiteers. "We want to take that welcome mat away," said Ross Liberty, spokesman for Measure B, which goes before Mendocino County voters Tuesday. "What (Measure) B does is redefines who gets arrested and the 'who' will be medical patients that are growing more than six plants," said Laura Hamburg, who became active in the No on B campaign after her medical marijuana garden was raided.

The issue offers a glimpse into the murky world of medical marijuana in California, legal under state law, banned by the feds, and according to some reports, bringing some serious green into the Golden State. Using marijuana for medical purposes has been legal in California since 1996, when voters passed Proposition 215. But that law had only a sketchy mechanism for how marijuana would be produced and dispensed. State lawmakers subsequently allowed counties to issue ID cards to protect medical users from being prosecuted by local authorities. Each cardholder is allowed to have up to a half pound of dried marijuana or six mature marijuana plants, although local governments can set laws exceeding the state's limits. Meanwhile, federal authorities, who never recognized Proposition 215 and deny that marijuana has medicinal properties, have won a number of legal showdowns over the measure.

In 2000, Mendocino County voters approved Measure G, which had a 25-plant limit and permitted personal and recreational use, the latter a symbolic gesture since neither state nor federal laws allow personal pot use. The new law, Measure B, would repeal Measure G and set plant limits at state levels. (It's not entirely clear what that will mean since state guidelines are at issue in a Southern California court case.

The No on B side interprets the case as undermining Measure B. The Yes side disagrees, noting the case is under appeal.) Sheriff Tom Allman says the problem with Measure G is it gave the impression marijuana had been legalized in Mendocino County. "There's this perception that we're just a bunch of Cheech and Chong marijuana growers up here," Allman said. Blessed by ancient redwood groves and bordered by a breathtakingly beautiful coast, Mendocino County has long also been famous as a source of high-grade pot.

Estimates on how much money is generated by marijuana in Mendocino County and statewide vary; officials say it's hard to come up with a definite total since so much of the industry is undercover. Figures from the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) show more than 220,000 plants were seized in Mendocino County last year, up from about 136,000 the year before. Statewide, CAMP reported seizures of 2.9 million plants with an estimated wholesale value of $11.6 billion.

Hamburg, the daughter of former Rep. Dan Hamburg, grows medical marijuana for herself, her mother and her sister as well as a neighbor. She was raided last year by deputies who said they found an excessive number of plants. The charges were later dropped, leaving Hamburg determined to "work as hard as I could, as much as I could, so that no one would have to experience what I went through, which was devastating." Hamburg says there's no correlation between state seizure figures and county plant limits, pointing out that CAMP stats show Mendocino County ranked fourth in 2007 seizures. No. 1 was sparsely populated Lake County, which follows the state minimum of six plants, with nearly 483,000 plants seized. She argues that it's not Measure G that spurs marijuana growth in Mendocino County but its climate, topography and the institutional knowledge gleaned from decades of marijuana farming.

But Allman and others say cannabis became a lot less covert here after Measure G passed.
"It's in your face bad," said Allman.

These days, residents complain they can't sit in their backyards because the smell of the next-door marijuana patch is so strong, the sheriff said. In August, said Liberty, "it smells like pot everywhere. It just reeks." On the other side of the Measure B issue are George and Jean Hanamoto. Lavender and other carefully tended shrubs bloom in their attractive front garden on a wooded hillside in Mendocino County. And in the back yard are their marijuana plants, their characteristically spear-tipped leaves turned to the sky. Hanamoto, who is 74 and uses marijuana to relieve glaucoma and for back pain, said cutting plant limits to six would hurt people like him because growing conditions mean he can't always get the maximum out of each plant. Allman says the Hanamotos aren't the kind of people he'll be sending deputies after. He said he will continue to concentrate on large operations. Beyond that, "I want the rest of the state and possibly the nation to say, `Wow, we can't do whatever we want in Mendocino County,"' he said. But the Hanamotos aren't won over by arguments that Measure B will deter criminal operators. "The laws are there already," said Jean Hanamoto. "This is just to squash the little guy."

Copyright 2008 by KTVU.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.

3 held in pot seizure

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

Article Last Updated: 05/31/2008 08:47:14 AM PDT

The Daily Journal

Three Mendocino County men were arrested and one cited Thursday afternoon after a search of two homes in Redwood Valley revealed 400 growing marijuana plants, according to Mendocino County Sheriff's Office reports.

At 12:20 p.m. Thursday, Sheriff's Deputy Tim Goss drove to a home in the 9000 block of East Road on a complaint from neighbors about a marijuana grow.

According to sheriff's reports, Goss talked to the people living in the house, who told him they were growing marijuana but would not allow Goss into the house to check on their compliance with medical marijuana laws.

Goss got a search warrant for the property and found two houses, one of which had been converted completely into a grow room, according to sheriff's reports.

Deputies found 100 plants on the property as well as evidence of other plants that had been recently removed. Further investigation led officers to a second house on Webb Ranch Road, where deputies found 300 growing marijuana plants as well as drying marijuana.

Aaron Alirez, 21, of Redwood Valley, David Coons, 21, of Willits, and Jason Dominguez, 29, of Redwood Valley, were all arrested on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and providing a place for the manufacture of marijuana and were booked into jail on a $30,000 bond each.

John Rule, 49, of Willits, was cited on the same charges and released at the scene.

National Forest Visitors Advised To Watch Out For Illegal Marijuana Gardens

News Release

US Forest Service
Mendocino National Forest

Public Affairs Officer
Phebe Brown
Phone: (530) 934-1137
Fax: (530) 934-7384
Email: pybrown@fs.fed.us

Willows, May 13, 2008 - Nearly a quarter million illegal marijuana plants were seized on the Mendocino National Forest last year and the prime growing period is now beginning, prompting national forest officials to advise the public to be especially vigilant when visiting the forest.

"We want the public to be aware that this illegal activity and occupation is taking place if they encounter marijuana gardens on the national forest," Tom Contreras, Forest Supervisor, said.

Illegal marijuana growing is an increasing problem on public lands in California. National Forest System lands are becoming increasingly used for growing and harvesting illegal marijuana gardens and these operations can potentially present a safety hazard to forest visitors and employees.

Most of the marijuana gardens are in remote locations. The national forest has vast and mostly uninhabited lands with many areas of rich, fertile soil and a climate that provides the necessary conditions for growing marijuana. Plants are put into the ground between May and June and harvested in late September through November.

"If a private citizen comes upon something suspicious, don't enter the area; just leave and notify local law enforcement authorities immediately," Julie Lombard, Forest Service Law Enforcement Patrol Captain, advised. "Do not enter any garden area."

Last year, law enforcement personnel seized 220,359 marijuana plants from the Mendocino National Forest. In 2006 the law enforcement team eradicated 405,399 marijuana plants from 55 illegal marijuana sites on the forest. More marijuana was taken by this team than any other group anywhere in the Forest Service in 2006.

In addition to the criminal activity associated with the marijuana gardens, there is substantial environmental degradation caused by the illegal growers. Herbicides and pesticides used to remove competing vegetation and gnawing rodents (which are a food source for the northern spotted owls), human waste and garbage, all end up in rivers after winter rains. Also, the irrigation systems dewater small streams needed by fish, and compacts the soil in the gardens, leading to erosion.

The typical marijuana garden has changed from the late 1980s and early 90s. During that time the typical operation had 100 to 1,000 plants. These days, operations are far larger, ranging in size from 1,000 to 30,000 plants, or more. The larger growing operations often have armed individuals tending the gardens, Lombard said.

"Most of the increase can be attributed to the proliferation of foreign Drug Trafficking Organizations," Lombard said.

Forest Service law enforcement officers work with County Sheriff's Departments, California National Guard, and Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) teams. Headed by the Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, CAMP teams were created in 1983 for the primary purpose of eradicating illegal marijuana from public lands in California.

Growers can live in the Forest near these sites for months at a time. Officers have come across these illegal camps with exercise facilities, tree houses, barbed wire fences and numerous firearms, Lombard said. These camps often contain cooking and sleeping areas which are within view of the cultivation site. Some camps have tents, hammocks and sleeping bags on the ground and have been found with large overhanging tarps as cover for the entire campsite.

There are some things to watch for which may indicate marijuana is being grown in an area. They can include:

• Isolated tents in the forest where no recreational activity is present.
• The utilization of trailers with no evidence of recreational activities.
• A pattern of vehicular traffic or a particular vehicle seen in the same isolated area on a regular basis.
• Unusual structures located in remote forested areas, with buckets, garden tools, fertilizer bags, etc.
• Signs of cultivation or soil disturbance in unlikely areas.
• Black piping and trash scattered in forested areas.

For additional information or to notify law enforcement authorities of a suspected garden area in the Mendocino National Forest, please contact Forest Service Law Enforcement at (530) 934-3316.

Just a house in the hills - until the raid

Friday, May 30, 2008

(05-30) 04:00 PDT Calpella, - -- Mendocino CountyThe house looked like any other in the hills overlooking Lake Mendocino: neatly painted blue walls, a redwood deck spreading into a yard of raked dirt and stones, a tidy shed to the side of the driveway.

Then the 12-man major crimes task force kicked in the doors one day earlier this month at twilight, screaming, "Police Department, search warrant!" And it became clear this was no house for living.

It had been gutted and transformed into an indoor farm for at least 270 marijuana plants.

Ranging from 1 to 5 feet high, the plants were arrayed throughout the house beneath 27 heat lamps. A wall-size display of 130-watt fans and air-conditioning engines blasted cold air through hundreds of feet of piping to keep the temperature at 71.4 degrees.

And that didn't count the trailer a few hundred feet up the hill, where a similar arrangement nurtured 250 small starter plants. Or the 50-kilowatt diesel generator in that tidy shed fitted with hidden, insulated walls to muffle its around-the-clock roar.

All told, arresting officers estimated it must have cost at least $100,000 to set up the house. The pot had an estimated street value of at least $1 million.

"Pretty typical for what we see around here," said Robert Nishiyama, commander of the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force, as he surveyed the operation. "It's not really that big."

Authorities destroyed a record 333,000 plants in Mendocino County last year, 100,000 more than the previous year.

Nishiyama and his team hit an operation like this about three times a week. Nishiyama, a special agent with the state Department of Justice, estimates that even if local law enforcement ran raids every day, they would still only get a fraction of the market - and they now seize less than 20 percent.

"It's everywhere," he said. "We don't even bother with the small stuff."

At the raided house, 35-year-old Jason Smith sat morosely on the deck steps, hands cuffed behind his back. He was the only one at the house when it was raided.

"I'm not at liberty to talk about this," he said, gazing up at the deputy guarding him. His eyes hardened.

"I will say this, though," Smith said. "We kill people in other countries for oil, we have pharmaceutical companies abusing people for billions of dollars - and then you have a naturally growing herb that can be used for medicine.

"It doesn't make sense to criminalize it," he said. "No sense at all."

Since local pot regulations were relaxed in 2000, Mendocino County pot cultivation has exploded to new highs - and with it have come new headaches.

Police say there has been a proliferation of home invasion robberies, which they blame on drug dealers ripping off pot growers. In 2000, authorities countywide recorded 1,100 pot-related criminal offenses; last year there were 1,500. Fire officials estimate 40 percent of structure fires are now ignited by super-hot indoor pot-growing lights.

"A decade ago, marijuana was really only grown in the hills," said Ukiah Police Chief Chris Dewey. "Now it's everywhere. We've been arresting growers who came here from Florida, New York, Texas, Chicago - you name it. People are fed up."

-Kevin Fagan

Authorities raid two houses north of Ukiah, Calif., on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, seizing hundreds of marijuana plants and growing equipment worth nearly 100.000. Daily raids are part of the background as Mendocino County residents prepare to decide on controversial Measure B, a proposal to outlaw the growing of more than six medicinal marijuana plants.

Photo by Kim Komenich / San Francisco Chronicle

Pot is burning issue on Mendocino ballot

Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, May 30, 2008

(05-30) 04:00 PDT Mendocino County - --

Marijuana is so ubiquitous here that everyone, from schoolteachers to kids, can tell you when a sinsemilla bud is ripe. From late summer to fall, the county reeks with the skunk-like stench of ready-to-harvest weed. The annual $1.5 billion pot crop constitutes two-thirds of Mendocino County's entire economy.

"You tell people from other parts of the country that folks grow pot all over town, and they think this is just a freak show here," said Ross Liberty, who owns a welding shop in Ukiah. "They're not far off."

Earlier this year, Liberty and others who used to be benign about the issue decided enough was enough. They put Measure B on Tuesday's ballot to repeal the nation's most liberal rules for growing pot, which for eight years have allowed anyone to grow up to 25 plants for personal use. If Measure B is approved by a majority vote, the per-person limit will revert to the statewide limit of six plants.

But then there's the other side.

Opponents of Measure B call it a meat-ax approach to an emotionally volatile issue and say that going after the weed in Mendocino's backyards and spare rooms is wrongheaded at best, cruel at worst. What is really needed, they argue, is a better effort to eradicate large-scale plantations that are hidden in the heavily forested mountains and are guarded by thugs toting assault rifles.

The anti-measure forces are led by an ex-congressman's daughter who was busted and later cleared for growing a medical pot garden.

"We need to harness this gigantic industry, not try to kill it," said Laura Hamburg, whose arrest last fall so infuriated her that she decided to head up the anti-Measure B push. "There's this caricature about this county that we're all hippies sitting around smoking joints, but that's the last thing from reality. Medical users truly need this plant."

The homegrown weed in most of those yards and rooms is medicine to be used by those who grow it, Hamburg said, or sold to the 400 medicinal marijuana clinics in San Francisco, Berkeley and the rest of the state. These grow-farms are not the problem, she insisted - flashy out-of-towners are.

Advocates disagree

But that's a key assertion with which Measure B advocates vehemently disagree. And to illustrate how bad they think neighborhood pot farms have become, they point to a 2004 incident in Ukiah.

That's when a would-be robber leaped the fence of Larry Puterbaugh's back yard and shot and wounded his neighbor, Memo Parker. The man was trying to steal from Parker's pot farm, police said. Puterbaugh had already complained for years about the stench from the hundreds of pot plants over his back fence - but even after the shooting, police did nothing about it. Parker had doctor-signed cards authorizing medicinal growth on the farm.

Parker later pleaded no contest to cultivating too many plants in a separate case. But in 2004, all Puterbaugh could do was fume.

"That's when I began thinking we have to do something," Puterbaugh said. "Why should we be scared in our own neighborhoods, in a quiet town like this?

Measure B backers date the genesis of their troubles to 2000, when 58 percent of the county's voters passed Measure G, which allowed anyone to grow as many as 25 marijuana plants for personal use - far exceeding the state guideline of six plants per person for medicinal use only.

The "personal use" reference, in practice, has meant growing for medical use - but the kicker for critics was that each lot of 25 plants required only a doctor-signed permission card saying the grower would use the pot or that the grower was cultivating it for another patient. Some houses began displaying as many as 12 cards, leading to complaints that the new rule was allowing people to grow commercially for cash, not medicine.

"It's like we kicked the door open and said to the rest of the nation, 'Come on in and grow pot!' " said Mike Sweeney, an environmental activist who is helping direct the Measure B campaign. "Now, what we want to do is slam that door shut. We want people around the country to know that Mendocino has changed its ways."

One who answered Mendocino's siren call is Ukiah Setiva Morrison. After hearing in North Carolina about the area's legendary pot leniency, he changed his name from Ronald Matthews and, in 2005, moved to Ukiah to run a short-lived church called the Hemp Plus Ministry.

"I really believe that cannabis isn't bad for you - stupidity is bad," he said, standing in his garden of 11 outdoor plants in Redwood Valley. Now he is running for county supervisor.

Measure B's proponents and opponents agree on one thing: the necessity for a prohibition on large pot farming operations, some of which sport as many as 500 plants, no matter where they are.

But as for crimping everything back to a six-plant limit? A popular local T-shirt speaks for Measure B opponents. "Let It Grow," it reads below a jaunty pot-leaf drawing.

Hamburg points to her own 39 plants - which were ripped out by police last fall - as an example. They were used as medicine for an intestinal condition as well as for her cancer-survivor mother and two others, and she had doctor-signed growing cards to justify the garden - which the search warrant didn't note, an omission that led a judge to throw out the case in March. It was a typical-size "grow" for the county.

However, Hamburg's political profile was anything but typical, and she thinks that's why she was targeted. Hamburg's father, former Democratic Rep. Dan Hamburg, helped lead the 2000 campaign that liberalized the county's pot laws, and she spearheaded the 2004 drive that passed the nation's first local ban on growing genetically altered food. Hamburg also worked as a reporter at The San Francisco Chronicle in 1997 and 1998.

"I wasn't going to be 'the pot girl,' leading this campaign, but that all changed when 11 deputies tore out my plants and locked me out of my own house," she said. "Now I just want to make sure that never happens to anyone else."

Legalize pot, they say

Hamburg and other Measure B opponents say that instead of limiting pot, Mendocino should be a beacon for the decades-old movement to legalize the $3,000-a-pound weed. The county's liberal guidelines are just that - guidelines tacitly respected by federal officials who still operate elsewhere under U.S. law banning pot of any quantity. But if it were legalized instead of demonized, Hamburg's group maintains, the economically struggling county could tax that $1.5 billion crop and become hugely prosperous.

"This whole fight is like Prohibition," said artist Catherine Magruder, a cancer survivor who says smoking pot erased the pain of chemotherapy. "You can't squish marijuana out of existence, it's too late. So why not figure out, together, how to make it work for all of us? And why not start that movement right here in Mendocino?"

Not surprisingly, considering how firmly pot culture is laced through this county, even Measure B proponents - who include virtually every elected or law enforcement official - say they support medicinal marijuana. The Board of Supervisors and many of those pushing for the rollback supported the lenient rules when they passed in 2000.

But now they say Hamburg and her backers - mainly patients, small-time growers, doctors, the San Francisco office of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law (NORML) and a former county prosecutor - are deluded.

"What really got to me was when I tried to hire some teenagers for my shop and they laughed at me," said Liberty. "They said they make so much money harvesting pot for growers that they don't need my $8-an-hour jobs.

"Look, they can make $30 an hour, and I see them driving $50,000, tricked-up trucks all over town," he said. "I can't compete with that. Nobody can. How in the world can we attract new business when the workforce just wants to grow or harvest pot?"

There's more at stake here than just local regulations.

"This is the only battle going on in the entire country about marijuana cultivation, and anyone who cares about this issue in the United States is watching it very closely," said Dale Gieringer, California director of NORML.

Lots of money

Marijuana has been a significant presence in this county since the 1970s. Though grapes are the big legal crop here, Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties are fabled as the "Emerald Triangle," considered by many to be the premier pot-growing region in the nation.

But at the same time, the area has an outdoorsy charm that draws not just environmental progressives but families hunting the kind of solitude that can be found only in a Rhode Island-sized county with 88,000 residents and four small incorporated communities. With the collapse of the local timber industry, poverty here is slightly worse than the state average, but the restored Victorians and tidy ranch houses in most towns and county roads reflect recovery more than despair.

The only immediate sign to outsiders that there's more going on here than simple rural living is the preponderance of shops selling pot-growing equipment and the occasional sign extolling the virtues of the herb. One of the first sights greeting drivers rolling into Ukiah is the Adopt-A-Highway sign proudly proclaiming cleanups by the "Medical Marijuana Patients Union."

"We definitely go our own way," said longtime resident Randy Bream, leaning against the till at his Mendocino Hobbies shop in Ukiah. "Look, I call myself a conservative, and I don't care who grows pot as long as they don't push it on me or my kids.

"What matters for me is that there are friendly people here. On Memorial Day, the city puts flags up and down the main street. All this fighting over pot? I wish they'd just hurry up and decide whether it's legal so we can stop talking about it."

Inside Uphill battle: Authorities say they manage to seize only 20 percent of Mendocino County's marijuana crop. A8

Info on B

For more information on Measure B:

Text of Measure B: www.yesonbcoalition.org/fullmeasureb.php.

E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.