LIFE AS USUAL IN 'EMERALD TRIANGLE': GROW-YOUR-OWN-POT LAW NO SHOCKER IN
LAID-BACK MENDOCINO

UKIAH -- As the growing season began last spring in Mendocino County, Dan
Hamburg picked up the phone, called the sheriff and asked him to come over
to check out his budding crop of marijuana.

Be right over, the sheriff obliged.

At a local hospital, patients have been known to drift outside and fire up
a joint to relieve what ails them while medical staffers turn their backs.

It's that kind of place, the perfect greenhouse for a unique marijuana law
that is creating quite the buzz.

Mendocino County, home to 86,000 people and part of the state's fabled
"Emerald Triangle," is linked to the controversial plant as surely as its
vineyards yield world-class wines.

So maybe its not surprising that voters here last week heartily embraced a
measure that allows anyone in the county to grow as many as 25 full-grown
marijuana plants or possess the dried equivalent.

The first law of its kind nationwide, it's largely a symbolic victory --
state and federal laws still outlaw most pot use. But it cranks up the heat
under a sweeping movement nationwide to reform drug laws.

Voters in California backed a 1996 initiative that allows possession of
small amounts of marijuana for medicinal use and last week supported
treatment instead of incarceration for people convicted of possessing or
being under the influence of drugs. Voters in Oregon, Utah, Nevada and
Colorado also passed drug-related reforms in last week's elections.

"This is a powerful political statement on marijuana by a Northern
California county," said Hamburg, 52, who lives in Ukiah and is a member of
the Green Party committee that put Measure G on the ballot.

Hamburg, a former Democratic congressman and the state's Green Party
gubernatorial candidate two years ago, said he expects similar measures on
other county ballots and possibly even a statewide initiative.

At his home on the edge of the Coastal Range, Hamburg is "licensed" by
local authorities as a caregiver for his mother, who has cancer, and can
grow limited amounts of marijuana for her medical use. When he called the
sheriff last spring, he wanted deputies to personally approve his small crop.

Now, his mother combats nausea from chemotherapy by nibbling on green Rice
Krispies squares or butter infused with marijuana.

In spite of the measure's approval by 58 percent of voters, those who
promoted it acknowledge non-medicinal pot is still illegal because counties
cannot supercede state and federal drug laws. The federal government
opposes legalization of marijuana for any use and is challenging medical
marijuana initiatives passed in California and several other states.

State and federal law enforcement representatives are not saying whether
Measure G's passage will prompt closer scrutiny of the area. Nathan
Barankin, spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, said he did
not want to "get into hypotheticals" about how the state will respond.

"The measure is symbolic," he said.

Paul Seave, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California,
declined to discuss the measure at all.

In Mendocino County, enforcement won't change, said Norm Vroman, the
county's district attorney. "(Marijuana) was illegal before the vote, and
it is after," he said.

Every season, Mendocino, along with neighboring Humboldt and Trinity
counties, draws federal and state authorities who swoop in to eradicate
marijuana plants by the ton. Nearly 90,000 plants have been destroyed or
seized this year.

Right now, Vroman said, he has about 100 marijuana cases pending, but
didn't know if any involved possession of 25 or fewer plants.

Because of the commercial growers and traffickers that innundate his
office, he conceded that the humbler home grower often escapes detection.

"We just don't have that kind of personnel," he said.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tony Craver, who signed the petition to get the
measure on the ballot, is busy these days on talk radio trying to ward off
the notion that he supports legalized marijuana. He said he does support
letting people vote on the issue and further study that could lead to more
effective laws.

Craver said he is sworn to uphold state and federal laws, which means he'll
still be arresting illegal pot growers. "It's a real heartbreaker for me,"
he said. "I'm seriously committed to the people of Mendocino County, but
this is the law, and I'm afraid that's where it's at."

Widely supported by medical marijuana users, the measure also drew support
from those who do not smoke pot, backers say. It drew no organized opposition.

"We framed it as a personal freedom issue," said Hamburg. "People on the
right and left have said they don't want government intruding in their
lives. It doesn't mean we want everyone out there smoking dope."

Government helicopters swarming overhead in search of illicit plants are a
discordant backdrop to daily life here, said Michelle Staples, as she
loaded purchases into her car at a Ukiah drugstore.

She is not a user herself, but she said she voted for Measure G because she
is convinced marijuana is no worse than legal drugs such as alcohol and
that the money spent on enforcement is an embarrassment.

"We should be spending that money on our schools," said Staples, 53, who
cares for retired racehorses.

At a popular coffeehouse on the main drag of Ukiah, 17-year-old Brett Reid
tore into a calzone for lunch and considered life in the Emerald Triangle.

"I don't think I know of one person who hasn't tried it," he said of his
county's cash crop.

The measure quickly became fodder for school civics projects, he said.

He went to a forum as a homework assignment expecting to walk into a
Grateful Dead concert-like setting. But to his surprise, the participants
and attendees were as straight as his parents.

"There were doctors and lawyers there," he said.

At his high school, a poll of seniors in history classes showed 90 percent
would support the measure if they could vote, he said.

In fact, he said, teachers and students seemed to come together over the issue.

It's that kind of place.