VOTERS ROLL BACK LIBERAL POT RULES

With Absentee Ballots Finally Counted, Measure B Wins 52% Approval

A complete election tally has affirmed that voters on June 3 repealed
Mendocino County's liberal marijuana guidelines.

"Measure B passed," Mendocino County Assessor/Clerk-Recorder Sue
Ranochak announced Friday after the last of the outstanding absentee
ballots were tabulated.

Measure B won with 52 percent of the vote, the same margin by which
it was leading on election night, June 3.

In the complete tally, there were 14,577 votes in favor of Measure B
and 13,369 opposed.

"I think it's a clear statement the citizens of Mendocino County are
fed up by the abuses of the commercial growers," said Measure B
coalition member and Ukiah City Councilman John McCowen.

"It sends a message that Mendocino County is no longer the best place
in the nation to grow commercial marijuana," he said.

Measure B opponents downplayed their loss.

"It doesn't spell out a mandate," said Laura Hamburg, who was
arrested earlier this year on charges of growing marijuana. The
charges were dropped because she was growing marijuana for herself
and several other people who hold prescriptions for medical marijuana.

Hamburg said the narrow vote margin indicates Mendocino County voters
agree something needs to be done about illegal commercial
cultivation, but they still want to protect legitimate medical
marijuana growers from prosecution.

She's hoping that the opposing parties will sit down together to
figure out the best way to meet their goals despite a vitriolic
campaign that included allegations of sign stealing and questionable
voter-registration against opponents of the measure.

Measure B proponents have other priorities.

Buoyed by their success, they plan to push efforts to rid the county
of commercial growers, many of whom relocated or bought property in
the area because of the county's liberal stand on pot.

Many of the growers say they are cultivating for medical patients but
allegedly are making huge profits, which remains illegal under state law.

Measure B proponents say they will now push for more effective
nuisance ordinances to deal with neighbors who abuse medical
marijuana laws and will monitor law enforcement's prosecution of
commercial pot growers.

They've established a phone line -- 467-3636 -- to monitor complaints
about pot growers.

With Measure B's passage, Mendocino County joins 50 California
counties adhering to state guidelines -- six plants per person for
medicinal purposes. Lake County is among them. Sonoma County's
guidelines call for a maximum of 30 plants.

Measure B went into effect June 4, according to the Mendocino County
Counsel's Office. It repeals a local voter initiative from 2000 that
directed law enforcement to make marijuana their lowest priority and
to refrain from any prosecution for less than 26 plants.

Almost 60 percent -- 28,192 -- of Mendocino County's 47,040
registered voters cast ballots in the election. Most of those,
27,946, cast votes on Measure B.