Vote aimed at curbing pot growing in Medocino county
Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 11:46 am | By: Radical Russ
The Associated Press: Vote aimed at curbing pot growing in Calif. county
WILLITS, Calif. (AP) — Voters here took the state’s official permissiveness on marijuana to new heights in 2000, allowing residents to grow up to 25 pot plants for medical, recreational or personal use.But eight years later, some are campaigning to scale back the local law, saying it’s time to weed out pot profiteers in this rugged region of Northern California.
“We want to take that welcome mat away,” said Ross Liberty, spokesman for Measure B, which goes before Mendocino County voters Tuesday.
Opponents say they, too, want to evict large-scale, criminal operators, but maintain that Measure B will affect the wrong people.
Measure B “redefines who gets arrested and the ‘who’ will be medical patients that are growing more than six plants,” said Laura Hamburg, who became active in the “No on B” campaign after her medical marijuana garden was raided.
In 2000, Mendocino County voters approved Measure G, which set a 25-plant limit and also permitted personal and recreational use — the latter a symbolic gesture since state law doesn’t permit it.
Measure B would repeal that measure and set plant limits at state levels [of six plants and eight ounces].
Hamburg grows medical marijuana for herself, her mother and her sister as well as a neighbor. She was raided last year by deputies who said they found an excessive number of plants.
The charges were later dropped, leaving Hamburg determined to “work as hard as I could, as much as I could, so that no one would have to experience what I went through, which was devastating.”
[Also following the] Measure B issue are George and Jean Hanamoto. Lavender and other carefully tended shrubs bloom in their attractive front garden on a wooded hillside. And in the back yard are their marijuana plants.
Hanamoto, who is 74 and uses marijuana to relieve glaucoma and for back pain, said limiting growers to six plants would hurt people like him because growing conditions mean he can’t always get the maximum out of each plant.
The sheriff said the Hanamotos aren’t the kind of people he’ll be sending deputies after. Allman said he will continue to concentrate enforcement on large operations.
“I want the rest of the state and possibly the nation to say `Wow, we can’t do whatever we want in Mendocino County,’” he said.
The Hanamotos aren’t won over by arguments that Measure B will deter criminal operators.
“The laws are there already,” said Jean Hanamoto. “This is just to squash the little guy.”
Be sure to download today’s Stash; I spoke with California NORML’s Dale Geiringer about this very issue. Dale has an interesting twist to the story – the Mendocino measure may be in trouble because of a recent California court ruling that declares the state limit of six plants and eight ounces to be unconstitutional.
And Medocino County voters, remember to vote NO on B! B is Bad!
Topics: Calfornia, Measure B, Medocino County, plant limits
