MEASURE B ENFORCEMENT ON HOLD UNTIL COURT RULES

A tangle of lawsuits have brought enforcement of Measure B to a
temporary halt while county law enforcement officials await court rulings.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said the Sheriff's Office would
be delaying enforcement of Measure B's new medical marijuana plant
limits until Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke rules
on the lawsuit filed by county residents George Hanamoto and Paula Laguna.

"County counsel asked that we hold off until the next hearing date,"
Allman said.

Behnke is scheduled to hear the case July 25. He dismissed Hanamoto
and Laguna's first complaint on April 23, ruling that Measure B did
not violate the Compassionate Use Act, which set California's state
medical marijuana plant limits.

Hanamoto and Laguna have since refiled their suit based on the
decision in People v. Kelly in which a California Appellate court
ruled that the state medical marijuana limits set by SB 420 were
unconstitutional. Measure B set the same limits.

County Counsel Jeanine Nadel said a stipulation was put in place
during the first hearing of the Hanamoto and Laguna suit that, should
Measure B pass, it would not be enforced until the court ruled on its
constitutionality.

Nadel said if Behnke rules against Hanamoto and Laguna on July 25,
the stipulation will be lifted and Measure B will be enforced.

In the meantime, the Sheriff's Office will continue to arrest people
for violating the existing county law, which allow people to grow
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use and possess up to two pounds of dried marijuana.

Those growing and selling marijuana commercially will continue to be
prosecuted.

Sheriff's deputies have arrested several people on suspicion of
growing and selling marijuana commercially since voters approved
Measure B on June 3.

Additionally, Nadel said the county counsel's office is waiting to
see if the California Attorney General's Office will be filing a
petition for review in the Kelly case. A petition would bring the
case for a hearing in the California Supreme Court.

Measure B, which voters passed with approximately 52 percent of the
vote, repealed Measure G - the county's personal use marijuana law -
and set medical marijuana plant limits at the state limits of six
mature or 12 immature plants and eight ounces of dried marijuana.

Measure G, which was approved by Mendocino County voters in 2000,
instructed law enforcement to make the prosecution of anyone growing
25 or fewer marijuana plants the lowest possible law enforcement priority.