May 13th, 2008

NO ON MEASURE B

B IS A BAD IDEA FOR MENDOCINO

VOTE NO ON MEASURE B JUNE 3, 2008

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MEASURE B

MEASURE G

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Reasons to
Vote No on Measure B

the following is the NO ON B MEASURE B PRIMARY BALLOT ARGUMENT as it will appear on Ballot:.

Measure B is a backward step towards marijuana re-criminalization that targets small-scale, personal use growers instead of large-scale commercial operators and organized criminals who are actually causing the problems in Mendocino County.

In 2000, Mendocino County voters overwhelmingly approved Measure G, the Personal Use of Marijuana Initiative, which allows cultivation of twenty--five (25) plants or fewer for personal use only, while leaving commercial cultivation and sales illegal.

Measure B would 1) repeal Measure G so as to re-criminalize personal use growing, and 2) subject medical marijuana patients to arrest and prosecution on felony charges for growing more than six (6) plants, forcing many seriously ill people into the criminal market to get their medicine.

Mendocino County will not be made safer by cracking down on small personal use growers. Instead, it will be made less safe by diverting police resources. Sheriff Tom Allman has said that reducing patient plant guidelines to six plants would be "a burden on law enforcement" under which his deputies "will not be able to focus on any other public safety issue". (Press Democrat 3/17/07)

Mendocino County sorely needs to regulate large-scale gardens and to attack illicit grows and commercial trafficking. Measure B is a bogus diversion that does neither.

The solution is not to repeal Measure G (MCC9.36), but to seek ways to enforce it by regulating commercial growing.

If you support targeting large-scale criminal operations rather than personal use gardens, VOTE NO on B.

If you believe seriously ill patients should not be arrested for seven (7) plants, VOTE NO on B.

If you believe law enforcement has more important priorities than arresting and prosecuting small marijuana gardeners, VOTE NO on B.

If you support decriminalization of marijuana, VOTE NO on B.

B is Bad for Mendocino. Vote NO.

the following is the NO ON B MEASURE B REBUTTAL ARGUMENT as it will appear on Ballot:.

By supporting Measure G, the Personal Use of Marijuana Initiative of 2000, voters chose not to criminalize their friends and neighbors for small personal use gardens.

Measure B, which seeks to overturn Measure G, DOES NOT "protect the rights of medical marijuana patients". Rather it REDUCES the amount individual patients may grow to the minimum allowable under state law, subjecting patients to felony arrest, prosecution, property confiscation, even jail for anything over 6 plants.

Measure B DOES NOT attack "no limits" commercial operations; rather it outlaws personal use growers. If B passes, even one plant will be a felony for non-medical home growers.

Those now seeking to overturn Measure G blame it for current ills surrounding marijuana growing. We disagree.

• Measure G DOES NOT condone commercial growing, but specifically calls for "the enforcement of marijuana laws against those who cultivate, transport and possess marijuana for sale."
• Measure G protects small-scale, personal use gardens, leaving law enforcement free to concentrate on serious crimes.

Sheriff Tom Allman's new program would raise funds from medical marijuana cultivation, funds to support enforcement against those who abuse the law. Let's give it a chance to work.

According to the Sheriff's Medical Marijuana Report, less than 1% of 911 calls and less than 1% of prosecutions in Mendocino County involved marijuana in 2007.

We must find remedies for areas of abuse, but not by recriminalizing a substantial part of the population.

Vote No on B. Preserve the will of the voters.

Susan B. Jordon, J. David Colfax, Ronnie Gilbert and Carrie Hamburg: