PUNA HEMP ADVOCATE SEEKS TO HAVE MAYOR IMPEACHED

Hilo, Hawai'i - A group favoring the legal use and cultivation of marijuana
is seeking the impeachment of Mayor Steve Yamashiro and six members of the
Hawaii County Council.

The County Charter requires only 100 signatures of registered voters to seek
an impeachment action in Circuit Court. Roger Christie, leader of the
impeachment effort, said this week that he has obtained the required
signatures.

Christie, who opened The Hemp Island Outpost while celebrating his 50th
birthday Tuesday, accused the Big Island council of malfeasance because it
has not actively pursued a policy review of the controversial Green Harvest
marijuana raids by federal, state and county law enforcement officers.

The council last year approved such a review by the legislative auditor's
office after the state auditor declined to conduct one.

Mayor Yamashiro, who is attending a national conference, was not available
for comment yesterday. The council is not in session this week.

Councilwoman Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd of Hilo, an attorney, said the
petition does not bother her.

"I don't believe they have met the threshold issues to even seek
impeachment," she said.

Leithead-Todd said her constituants support the police campaign against
marijuana. "Most of them thank me for supporting the police," she said.

Christie's petition also cites "wrongful prosecution," referring to a 9th
Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against Hawaii County earlier this month.
The three-judge panel reinstated Puna resident Aaron Anderson's civil
lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Honolulu. The county's attorney's plan to
take the appealate ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Anderson and Christie were charged with felony promotion of marijuana for
importing 25 pounds of sterile hemp seeds from China in 1991. The charges
against Christie were dismissed; Anderson's trial ended in a hung jury
before the charges were also dismissed.

Judge Susan Gerber found that former deputy prosecutor Kay Iopa had
"presented false evidence that plaintiffs' seeds had germinated when
tested."