GROW-YOUR-OWN MARIJUANA MEASURE MAY BE MOOT

MENDOCINO -- The burning issue on Mendocino County's ballot, a
grow-your-own marijuana measure, is a bit of a moot point. Hemp husbandry
may be a hit with voters, but state and federal laws banning pot will apply.

Still, backers have high hopes for Measure G, which could become the first
such law in the country.

Mendocino County's cannabis campaign faces no organized opposition.

``Measure G is a political statement by the people of Mendocino County that
we think that the war on marijuana is hugely wasteful. We want to move
political opinion, and that's really what this initiative is all about,''
said Dan Hamburg, a former Democratic congressman turned Green Party
activist who is among those backing the marijuana measure.

The ``Emerald Triangle,'' where Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties
converge about 150 miles north of San Francisco, produces a pot crop with a
street value of around $1 billion annually.

Prized by connoisseurs, Emerald Triangle marijuana commands up to $5,000 a
pound.

Last year, state anti-marijuana forces raiding the county's illicit pot
farms seized more than 63,000 plants valued at more than $250 million.

Measure G would prohibit sale or transportation of marijuana. But it would
legalize uncounted hordes of pot YIMBYs -- Yes in my backyard -- by
allowing residents to grow up to 25 plants for their own use.

It also would direct county law enforcement to make busting small-time
growers a low priority.