THE EMERALD TRIANGLE NEWS…… MARIJUANA NEWS FROM HUMBOLDT AND MENDOCINO COUNTIES

MEASURE B PITS NEIGHBOR AGAINST NEIGHBOR!

VOTE NO ON MENDOCINO MEASURE B

THE ANTI-PATIENTS RIGHTS ORDINANCE!

Measure B is drawing widespread concern from Mendocino County citizens who believe it wrongly targets small-time, personal use growers instead of the large-scale, criminal operators it is supposedly meant to control.

“Measure B does nothing to stop commercial growers. Instead it makes criminals out of residents with small, personal use gardens,” said Laura Hamburg, campaign coordinator for the No On Measure B campaign. “It would make it a felony for legitimate medical marijuana patients to grow more than six plants in their own homes.”

Opponents have organized a campaign committee, No on Measure B, www.nomeasureb.org to tell the voters why “B is Bad” for Mendocino County.

Measure B, which is slated for the June ballot, would divert law enforcement resources from the real problems in the community – domestic violence and other types of violent crimes and hard drugs such as methamphetamine, Hamburg argued.

Sheriff Tom Allman has said that enforcing B would be a burden on law enforcement. He has also proposed a new program to raise funds from medical marijuana cultivation, funds that will expand enforcement efforts against those who abuse the law. “Let’s give it a chance to work,” Hamburg said.

Measure B would also overturn Measure G, the Personal Use of Marijuana Initiative, which was passed overwhelmingly by the voters in 2000. Measure G allows for the cultivation of 25 or fewer plants for personal use only and leaves commercial cultivation and sales illegal.

“We need to enforce Measure G, the law the voters passed,” Hamburg said, “not go backwards and criminalize our friends and neighbors.”

In response to Measure B, a coalition of residents including patients, doctors, and citizens from across the County have launched a campaign to uphold and enforce the current law. County residents who oppose B and have signed the ballot argument against the measure include: Peter Keegan, MD; Kate Magruder, cancer survivor; Keith Faulder, former Assistant District Attorney; Lynda McClure, union representative and William Courtney, MD.

“The citizens of Mendocino County deserve clarity with respect to marijuana cultivation limits and enforcement against abuses,” Hamburg said. “But Measure B is a bogus diversion that does neither.”