Mendocino Marijuana Zip Tie Program “First in the Nation”

Mendocino Sheriff Tom Allman Officially announced the start of the Mendocino County Marijuana Growing Season Monday….

Despite a 25 plant limit in Mendocino, ONLY 6 Medical Marijuana Zip Ties will be offered.

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Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman officially announced the start of the Mendocino County Marijuana Growing Season Monday evening with a “First in the Nation” plan  brought forward  to introduce a “Marijuana Zip Tie Program”. Sheriff Allman who has recently been under fire for a “Marijuana Holocaust” in Mendocino County said  “In summary, what we’re trying to do is give a very clear opportunity to people who are legitimate medical marijuana growers and give them some comfort,” he said. “This will speak for them in the same way a prescription bottle speaks for itself.”

The program, the first of it’s kind not only in the nation but in the world, was well received  Monday in a special meetingheld by the Mendocino County Supervisors. Supervisors  approved selling plastic ties imprinted with serial numbers and ”Mendocino County MMP” (Medical Marijuana Program.) Supervisor Colfax, who spoke out against Measure B- the infamous attempt to limit the number of Medical Marijuana Plants in Mendocino to only 6, also opposed the ordinance. He said efforts to control marijuana cultivation are futile.

“The solution is to legalize this wretched weed,” Supervisor Colfax said.

Medical Marijuana Patients in Mendocino County will be able to purchase 6 “marijuana zip ties” with a standard Medical Marijuana Card or doctors recommendation, additional Medical Marijuana Program zipties will be available with a doctors approval recommending more marijuana than the typical state approved and Mendocino Measure B backed 6 plant limit.  The current law in Mendocino county states that a patient may currently have 25 plants. Other amendments made Monday to the county’s marijuana ordinance include the addition of a $25 fee for dispensing tags to medical marijuana growers, with a half-priced rate for patients on Medi Cal and disabled veterans. The tags — zip ties with serial numbers on them — are voluntary.

Many Medical Marijuana Growers feel differently about the program, “This is a health issue not a criminal issue,” said Pebbles Trippet “The proposed revisions have had no public comment period and no comment from people who are most affected.” Pebbles Trippet said the program should be tabled and sent to the Health and Human Services Agency and not the Criminal Justice Committee. “The current laws are so confusing nobody knows exactly where the limits are,” said Richard Johnson the author of Mendocino Counties Measure G which legalized patches of 25 or less plants making Marijuana Cultivation “the lowest priority” for law enforcement, the same Measure G which was repealed by the Nazi Measure B Coalition.

Pinches said that legalization was the ultimate answer, but failing that was throwing his support behind the program.

“I look at it as a real protection for the medical marijuana growers,” he said. “Without the zip ties they’re susceptible to loosing their medicine and being subject to criminal prosecutions. I’ve been wrangling with this issue since 1995 and the sheriff on his own came up with an innovative ideas. I think we ought to at least give it a chance.”

Supervisor Colfax said that he was vehemently against the program as it would be ineffectual rendered ineffectual by its non-mandatory language and the lack of legalization from the federal level.

“I find this whole discussion of marijuana very painful at the same time very ludicrous,” he said. “I don’t know what is accomplished by a voluntary ordinance. What’s our standard of compliance here and what do we learn in the process?…I don’t see that putting a zip tie on one of zip plants achieves anything more than saying I love you sheriff’ or I love you board of supervisors.’…Legalize it and we’re home free, this document is simply not defensible.”

“Growers who violate the plant limits paying the County to have their crops eradicated”

Another Amendment to the Mendocino County Marijuana Ordinance will see growers who violate the plant limits paying the County to have their crops eradicated. The fees will be levied on growers on a case-by-case basis, depending on the size of the marijuana plants and the cost of destroying them. Last year, for example, it cost the county $1,400 to eradicate 100 small plants seized during a raid, no estimate of eradication costs was given.

Allman said his office will be working to make the zip ties available “within two weeks.

The ordinance will return to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors  for final adoption on May 5.