MEASURE WOULD SCALE BACK CALIFORNIA COUNTY'S POT LAW

Willits, Calif. --- Voters here took the state's official
permissiveness on marijuana to new heights in 2000, allowing
residents to grow up to 25 pot plants for medical, recreational or
personal use.

But eight years later, some are campaigning to scale back the local
law, saying it's time to weed out pot profiteers in this rugged
region of Northern California.

"We want to take that welcome mat away," said Ross Liberty, spokesman
for Measure B, which goes before Mendocino County voters Tuesday.

Opponents say they, too, want to evict large-scale, criminal
operators, but maintain that Measure B will affect the wrong people.

Measure B "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 since voters passed Proposition
215 in 1996, banned by the feds and, according to some reports,
bringing some serious green into the Golden State.

State lawmakers allowed counties to issue ID cards to protect medical
users from being prosecuted. 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.

Federal authorities, denying that marijuana has medicinal value,
never recognized Proposition 215 and have won a number of legal
showdowns over the measure.

In 2000, Mendocino County voters approved Measure G, which set a
25-plant limit and also permitted personal and recreational use.

Measure B would repeal that measure and set plant limits at state levels.

Sheriff Tom Allman said the problem with the 2000 measure was that 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.

Mendocino County is famous for its ancient redwood groves and
breathtakingly beautiful coast, but also as a source of high-grade pot.

Estimates on how much money is generated by marijuana in Mendocino
County and statewide vary. The state's Campaign Against Marijuana
Planting, or CAMP, said 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.