BROIN, ALLMAN LEAN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS AT POT DEBATE

Sheriff Kevin Broin and North County Area commander Lt. Tom Allman,
candidates for sheriff in the November election, differed in "spin" if
not in substance during a debate on marijuana issues held Saturday at
Area 101, a spiritual sanctuary and growth center on Highway 101 10
miles north of Laytonville.

Playing to the audience with a winning personality and all the right
moves, Allman stressed his willingness to communicate and listen. He
defended the legacy of former Sheriff Tony Craver and blamed Broin for
the fact sheriff's deputies operating in the north county have been
accused of interfering with or pulling plants being grown by
legitimate medical marijuana growers.

On the other hand, Broin refused to play to the crowd. In contract to
Allman, whose answers several times garnered applause and cheers,
Broin's answers nearly always left the crowd in total silence. Broin
bluntly told the audience he was going to continue to go after large
growers and had little patience for those who endanger public safety.

Broin said he knew Craver had sometimes requested deputies not to tell
him where they were going when embarking on marijuana raids, so he
could retain plausible deniability. Broin said he wouldn't be that
way that he would claim responsibility for the actions of his deputies.
Broin also blamed Allman for the actions of deputies who were hassling
legitimate medical marijuana growers. He implied the deputies' actions
were Allman's responsibility, adding he is investigating the incident.

The Willits News has repeatedly called both Broin and Allman, as well
as sheriff's Captain Kurt Smallcomb, in an effort to discover the
nature of the event, or events, in which sheriff's deputies apparently
overreached their authority. However neither Broin nor Allman could be
reached for comment, and Smallcomb said he was not aware of which
incident either this reporter or the Area 101 audience was referring
to.

During the debate, Broin said that as a result of the incident or
incidents, he had placed one sergeant and two deputies on
administrative leave. He also said that he had initiated an
administrative investigation of the incident or incidents.

When asked if they thought marijuana was a lower-risk drug than
alcohol or tobacco, Allman garnered cheers and applause when he said
that, of the thousands of domestic violence calls he has responded to
over his 24-year career as a peace officer, "75 percent of those had
alcohol involved one way or the other. I cannot recall a single
domestic violence situation I've been to where somebody was smoking
dope and beat his wife. Usually he's eating brownies and going to sleep."

Allman said society has condoned the use of alcohol in different ways,
but "we are in the infancy stage of dealing with marijuana."

Broin took a different tack. "As far as the relative risk of user for
marijuana," he said, "I don't know for a fact how much of a health
risk that is. But I know for a fact the way it's set up right now, for
society there's certainly a public safety risk. And I think it's very
important all of us come together both citizens and government and law
enforcement, to come up with ways so we don't put our public in danger
in the areas of growing and cultivation and distribution."

Speaking more pointedly about the health risks of marijuana, Broin
said, "It's the polypharmacy thing that gets people all messed up.
It's the mixture we've found that causes so many problems."

When asked how they felt about the current county medical marijuana
growing policy as established by Craver and former District Attorney
Norman Vroman, Broin said: "As far as the 25 plants, or the
100-square-foot canopy, I think it's been fine. I don't have an issue
with that. I have an issue with people who go way outside that and
create a public safety issue."

Allman suggested he would a rewriting of the current medical marijuana
standards if a broad cross-section of the community were in favor of
doing that. "I would support any reasonable offer from a committee
comprised of medical doctors, legal scholars and healthcare and
medical marijuana providers, and this policy should not come out of
the ivory towers, and smoke and mirrors and all of a sudden it's a
policy.

"People should know what this policy is long before it's signed off on
by anybody," he said. "And we get to the final line by saying, 'Yes,
and there may be exceptions to this.'

"Some people are convinced they need more than five pounds a year,"
Allman said, "and some people can live with half a pound a year. So
there are extremes on both sides.

"I would say: don't put anybody in a corner, saying this is what it
absolutely has to be. Because, as I said earlier, [Proposition 215] is
a living, breathing proposition, and we have to make adaptation every
year as we go along."

Allman highlighted the fact that while he has been endorsed by Craver,
Broin was unanimously endorsed by the Deputy Sheriff's Association.
"Tony told me a man can only serve one master. You are either going to
work for the voters, or you are going to work for the deputies."

Allman also spoke to the perception that conditions concerning law
enforcement and medical marijuana production are spinning out of control.

"When Tony Craver was sheriff, we didn't have out-of-control
situations," Allman said. Under Craver, he noted, the county had a
clear policy and the sheriff made the deputies followed that policy.
He said currently that's not the case, and suggested Broin has been
remiss in directing his deputies.

Broin dropped a minor bombshell when he said current conditions a
perhaps $10 billion marijuana industry in Mendocino County (as
estimated by The Willits News), two people shot dead in Covelo, others
arrested in Willits with night-vision goggles and a submachine gun in
their trunk, did not sprout up in the past 10 months, during which
time Broin has been serving as sheriff. He suggested the condition
arose, at least partially, during the previous eight years while
Craver was sheriff.

"All those years, my former boss (Craver) would tell me, 'Don't tell
me where my officers are going when they go out on raids. I don't want
to know.'"

"I'm not like that," Broin said. "I want to know. If something is
going on, I want to know about it. And if they have to take a law
enforcement action, I will take responsibility for that action."

"Tony Craver was a good sheriff," Allman retorted. "The most important
thing he taught me was to listen. You can't listen if you're talking."