COUNTY'S MEASURE G: UPHOLD OR REPEAL? (PART 1 OF 3)

Last May, when two Santa Rosa men were arrested and accused of pistol
whipping a Ukiah-area woman in her home and then robbed her of marijuana,
Mendocino County experienced its third pot-related home invasion in
just 37 days. In 2007, frightened and frustrated citizens throughout the county
appeared repeatedly before the Board of Supervisors with disturbing
stories and scary examples of what is happening in residential
neighborhoods taken over by illegal large scale marijuana growers.

"We are on the verge of an 1851 San Francisco post-gold rush," said
Dennis Smart, a 30-plus-year resident of a rural area south of Ukiah,
at the Dec. 11 Board of Supervisors' meeting. "Vigilante committees
are forming. You folks sit on a powder keg. You have unleashed an ugly
parasite on this county that we can't quite get a handle on anymore.

"These [marijuana] ordinances are needed, but they are only a
beginning."

Ukiah City Council member John McCowen said, "I welcome any effort to
restore sanity and some balance to this clearly out of control
situation. Environmental degradation and violence are taking over
neighborhoods with fear and intimidation. People feel they're being
held hostage in their own homes."

Measure G, the "Personal Use of Marijuana Initiative," was approved by
Mendocino County voters in November 2000. Some believe - and some
don't - its repeal would begin a reversal of a disturbing trend of
large production gardens on private lands adjacent to residences and
the plethora of problems related activity brings to
neighborhoods.

Measure G was the first voter-approved effort to decriminalize
marijuana for medical and personal recreational use and cultivation
anywhere in the U.S. It passed easily with a 58-42 percent margin.
Voter patterns were strong in every area of the county, particularly
on the Mendocino Coast where the final count widened the winning
margin significantly.

The passage of Measure G set the course for a county ordinance that
ordered the sheriff and district attorney departments to give
marijuana laws the lowest priority for enforcement and prosecution, to
make no arrests or issue citations for violations of the State Health
and Safety Code for cases involving 25 or fewer adult flowering female
marijuana plants or the equivalent in dried marijuana, and to not
spend any public funds for the investigation, arrest or prosecution of
any individual within these limits.

Marijuana concerns gained momentum as 2007 drew to a close. After many
months of public input and board discussions, the county has decided
to place a Repeal Measure G initiative on the June ballot.

Mendocino County, the perennial pot production leader in California,
will likely be closely observed once again by other counties, state
and federal government officials and law enforcement agencies, as well
as the media when this repeal initiative is voted on in June. The
Board of Supervisors' decision (Fifth District Supervisor David Colfax
dissented) to place a Repeal Measure G option on the ballot will allow
citizens a second look - and vote - at how their 2000 support for
compassionate medical marijuana decision has held up.

Restore Mendocino

The vote to approve the repeal initiative for the summer election came
during the same meeting as a citizen group calling itself Restore
Mendocino made a presentation to announce it would place the "Sensible
Medical Marijuana" initiative on the ballot. This repeal plan, which
is in the signature gathering stage, was brought forward by Jimmy
Rickel of Redwood Valley.

Restore Mendocino's initiative sets new limits. It asks for six plants
per patient per year, no residential grows, four cards per caregivers,
check for doctor's recommendations and reports of abuses and maximum
enforcement.

According to a memo Rickel sent to the board on Dec. 23, their
initiative "will get rid of Measure G and have some teeth in enforcing
current illegal marijuana cultivation and protect the medical
marijuana laws. It is a win-win for the security of both the community
and the patients who use medical marijuana."

In a Dec. 28 letter from the City of Willits, Mayor Holly Madrigal
wrote, "The Willits City Council supports placing this repeal measure
before the voters on the June ballot," to limit marijuana
cultivation.

Council member Benj Thomas read a letter of support for the repeal
initiative from Mayor Douglas Crane for the Ukiah City Council. The
letter states, "The concentration of commercial growers in Mendocino
County has resulted in well-documented and wide-spread abuses. These
abuses constitute an ongoing and increasing threat to the environment
and to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens."

In January 2005, Ukiah adopted an ordinance prohibiting backyard
marijuana gardens and requiring a permit to grow indoors. After
issuing a two-year moratorium, Ukiah now has an ordinance that
prohibits marijuana dispensaries.

The Economic Development & Finance Corporation also wrote a letter
supporting a repeal measure. It states, "We would also encourage you
to direct county law enforcement to take vigorous action to protect
county residents, particularly those affected by the increase in
commercial marijuana cultivation in residential areas and to support
law enforcement with the resources necessary to make a
difference."

On Jan. 8, Jeanne King read a letter from Rep. Mike Thompson in which
he wrote, "I believe major action is needed to fight this growing problem."

Dennis Smart, in front of the board again on Jan. 8, said, "None of
this is intended to deny people their medicine, but clearly intended
to take the commercial grower and the criminal element out of this
county."

Mike Sweeney, manager of Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority,
who supports legitimate use, said, "Measure G has been misused to open
the door to widespread commercial cultivation."

Estelle Clifton was one of the citizens who disagrees with blaming
Measure G for the rise in pot-related crimes.

"A repeal will not stop illegal growing," said Clifton. "Cultivation
should be controlled by local zoning and nuisance ordinances. Measure
G is not the problem."

Easily, an equal number of individuals spoke to the board expressing
their continued support for Measure G and expressed either their fears
for potential lost protection for patients or disappointment in the
board for taking a step backward after the voters had sent a clear
message in 2000.

Colfax get huge applause

"We have a major drug problem in Mendocino County. It is not
marijuana. It's meth," said Fifth District Supervisor David Colfax. "I
got up this morning and told my wife I'm embarrassed to go to work
today because we're going to be doing group therapy again."

Supervisor Colfax received huge applause for these and other remarks
that he delivered passionately.

"We're trying to pitch hay with a shovel. I don't think we have a
grasp on the implications. [This is] an action that only complicates
the situation."

Public crime concerns

Citizens from a range of locations throughout the county stood before
the board over the past few months to share their concerns based on
personal experiences since Measure G passed. Here is a small verbatim
sampling of them:

- Daily water trucks are pounding our road into dust so growers can
water a thousand plants on a dry hillside.

- A huge generator rumbles night and day to power the four indoor
grows located on one parcel.

- We wonder how long it will be before there's a home invasion
incident in our neighborhood like so many others in the county.

- We're horrified to see Mendocino County degenerating into a kind of
deformed narco-state.

- There are near misses with pedestrians on mountain
roads.

- I feel betrayed. I voted for compassionate use. What has happened is
disastrous.

- This is not about medicine. It's not being smoked here. It's being
sold.

- We need to stop the blatant culture, the insane profits coming from
this and the further degradation of our community.

- Measure G is not the cruise I signed up for.

Seems a long time ago

Measure G was placed on the ballot in 2000 through the efforts of the
Green Party and CaNORML (California Chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) with over twice the
number of signatures required.

It also advanced with the public support of the former Sheriff Tony
Craver and the late District Attorney Norm Vroman.

In a 2000 press release, Dale Gieringer, CaNORML coordinator, wrote,
"California NORML has endorsed Measure G as a welcome step towards
protecting personal freedom and reducing the costs of marijuana
enforcement. By decriminalizing personal use cultivation, we can
undercut the criminal market."

Once passed, the Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance that
captured the intent of the initiative. Specifically, Measure G:

- instructs county government to support all efforts toward the
decriminalization of marijuana;

- directs law enforcement not to arrest or prosecute individuals for
personal use marijuana violations involving possession, transportation
or cultivation of 25 plants or fewer; and

- provides for the continued enforcement of marijuana laws against
those who cultivate, transport and possess marijuana for sale.

Text of Mendocino County Marijuana Ordinance

In November 2000, citizens of Mendocino County passed Measure G, the
"Personal Use of Marijuana Initiative," by a vote of 58 to 42 percent.
The resolution called for decriminalization of personal use and
cultivation of marijuana.

Specifically, Measure G instructs county government to support all
efforts toward decriminalization of marijuana; directs law enforcement
not to arrest or prosecute individuals for personal use marijuana
violations involving possession, transportation or cultivation of 25
plants or fewer; and provides for the continued enforcement of
marijuana laws against those who cultivate, transport and possess
marijuana for sale.

The Board of Supervisors adopted this ordinance to capture the intent
of the initiative.

Title 9 Health and sanitation

Chapter 9.36 Cannabis personal use ordinance for Mendocino
County

Sec. 9.36.010 Findings

The people of Mendocino County find

(A) Cannabis sativa (marijuana) is a beneficial plant with a
respectable heritage and hundreds of well-known industrial, medicinal
and recreational uses.

(B) Two decades of marijuana law enforcement in Mendocino County has
not stopped cultivation here but has unnecessarily marginalized a
large number of otherwise law-abiding citizens who grow and use marijuana.

(C) Those who grow for personal use are not responsible for violent
incidents sometimes associated with marijuana cultivation, but are
vulnerable to theft.

(D) The Institute of Mendocino has found that marijuana has bona fide
medical uses and is not a gateway to hard drug addiction.

(E) Law enforcement has carried out investigations, confiscations, and
arrests against persons cultivating and using medical marijuana under
Propositions 215 in Mendocino County.

(F) The cities of Berkeley and San Francisco have long-standing
ordinances which instruct police to minimize the priority of marijuana
enforcement.

Sec. 9.36.020 Purpose

The ordinance will

(A) Instruct county government to support all efforts toward the
decriminalization of marijuana.

(B) Instruct the sheriff and district attorney to make marijuana
enforcement their lowest priority with respect to other crimes.

(C) Establish a maximum limit of plants and weight for cultivation and
possession of marijuana for personal use in Mendocino County, and
prohibit the expenditure of public funds for enforcement of marijuana
laws against cultivators and users in possession of quantities below
that limit.

(D) Remove the fear of prosecution and the stigma of criminality from
people who harmlessly cultivate and/or use marijuana for personal
medical or recreational purposes.

(E) Extend police protection to those growing or possessing marijuana
for personal use.

(F) Provide for the continued enforcement of marijuana laws against
those who cultivate, transport and possess marijuana for sale.

The purpose of this chapter is to establish cannabis enforcement
policy for Mendocino County.

Sec. 9.36.030 Decriminalization of cannabis in California

It is the desire of the people of Mendocino County that cultivation
for personal use of cannabis be decriminalized in California. In this
context, the Board of Supervisors is directed to lobby state and
federal governments for the immediate decriminalization of the persons
use of cannabis, specifically by repealing sections 11357
(possession), 11358 (transportation), and 11359 (cultivation), of the
California Health and Safety Code. The people also urge the sheriff
and district attorney to publicly support such decriminalization.

Sec. 9.36.040 Law enforcement priority of cannabis

Through its budgetary authority, the Board of Supervisors shall seek
to ensure that the sheriff's office and the district attorney give
lowest priority to the enforcement and prosecution of marijuana laws

Sec. 9.36.050 Sheriff's Office arrests and citations and Sec. 9.36.060
district attorney prosecutions

The Board of Supervisors shall use its budgetary authority to ensure
that the sheriff's office and district attorney makes no arrests and
issues no citations for violations of the above State Health and
Safety Code Sections in any single case involving 25 or fewer adult
flowering female marijuana plant or the equivalent in dried marijuana.

Sec. 9.36.070 Expenditure of funds for cannabis enforcement

Neither the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, nor the sheriff,
nor the district attorney shall spend or authorize the expenditure of
any public funds for the investigation, arrest, or prosecution of any
person, or the seizure of any property in any single case involving 25
or fewer adult flowering female marijuana plants or the equivalent in
dried marijuana, nor shall the auditor-controller or the treasurer-tax
collector approve any such requests for such expenditures of public
funds, or authorize or approve the issuance of any form of payment
should such expenditures be made.