CLOUD OF QUESTIONS SURROUNDS MENDOCINO'S MEASURE B

Tuesday Vote to Limit Number of Pot Plants Faces Legal Issues

When the Measure B campaign was launched several months ago, it was
widely promoted as the way to strip Mendocino County of its dubious
distinction of being a national haven for marijuana growers.

"Take Back Our County" signs sprouted around the county faster than
inch-high marijuana seedlings being nurtured by indoor grow lights.

Eager volunteers set a goal of racking up a margin of victory so
large in Tuesday's primary election that their "message" to the
outside world would be loud and clear: Marijuana growers no longer welcome.

As the election approaches, however, the results seem uncertain in a
race that is one of the most closely watched on the North Coast, and
one that has received national attention.

In the waning days of the campaign, legal questions have been raised
about the constitutionality of state guidelines that Measure B seeks
to impose in Mendocino County.

The opposition campaign has been buoyed by a surge in the number of
"No on B" signs and letters to local newspapers in rural areas where
the county's underground marijuana economy is strongest.

Conservative estimates pegged the value of the county's illicit cash
crop at $500 million, five times more than the dollars generated by
the Mendocino wine industry.

Ukiah Valley, where the Measure B campaign originated, is the
county's seat of government, education and law enforcement, but its
politics typically are more conservative than attitudes in outlying
rural regions and coastal areas. There's a long history of countywide
campaigns shifting when the ballots from the Fort Bragg, Mendocino,
Willits and Laytonville areas are counted.

"It's difficult to quantify, but I believe things may be turning in
our favor," said Laura Hamburg, coordinator of the Measure B opposition.

Critics say that Measure B provides no new revenue or "teeth" to
local law enforcement to rid the county of large-scale, commercial
marijuana-growing operations that everyone seems to agree is the
problem. Instead, the measure only provides for a rollback from the
currently allowed 25 plants per individual for personal use to the
state's six-plant medical marijuana guideline. A state Court of
Appeal in Los Angeles last week ruled that state guidelines are
unconstitutional, throwing Measure B's enforcement provision into question.

Ross Liberty, Measure B's organizer, said that even if the more
restrictive state guidelines are found to be unconstitutional, that
still would not negate Measure B's repeal of current county
standards. They were the most liberal in the nation when county
voters adopted them by a 58 percent-to-42 percent margin in 2000.

"That's what Measure B has been all about from the beginning. We're
seeking to end an era of out-of-control commercial marijuana growing
that's been going on for the last eight years," Liberty said.

The public debate has taken on an edge in face of the
marijuana-cultivation arrests of some high-profile citizens,
including Hamburg last fall -- the charges later were dropped -- plus
a popular Ukiah High School teacher and most recently, a local news
reporter, his girlfriend, and her family.

Measure B supporters see the cases as even more evidence of how
widespread and pervasive the county's marijuana culture has become.

Many doctors, teachers, local business leaders and law enforcement
agencies have joined to make a communitywide plea for an end to
Mendocino's laissez faire attitude toward marijuana.

But critics say the Measure B campaign has become unnecessarily divisive.

Antonio Andrade, a 27-year Ukiah resident, said that Measure B
supporters have "seized on a highly troublesome, festering situation,
and separated neighbors into 'for us or against' blocks.

"Measure B is a tragic example of old-style, win-lose politics," Andrade said.

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VOTING HOURS

Polls in Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties will be open from 7 a.m.
to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

In Sonoma County, absentee ballots can be dropped off at the
Registrar of Voters Office on Fiscal Drive in Santa Rosa from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. today and until 8 p.m. Tuesday.

They also can be dropped off at any polling place Tuesday.