I get The Ukiah Daily Journal at home and find so many interesting articles with in it's pages which support the Medical Marijuana Member with in Mendocino County. Here are a few that may be of interest to you. 

CONTENTS REPORTING THE NEWS

Articles

Rethinking pot laws - Laura Hamburg

Daily Journal News Marijuana 1.5 Billion Dollars Economy

Northern California's Mendocino County 1.5 Billion Dollar Economy

City Council to take another look at Measure B

Marijuana busts setting records Published on September 8, 2006

Link to Mexican drug lords found Published on September 4, 2006

MENDOCINO MARIJUANA MEASURE FAMOUS

Former Congressmen Arrested By Wal-Mart Manager For Protesting The Store Where A Decriminalization Petitioner Was Arrested Days Before February 24, 2000 - Ukiah, CA, USA

Ag hemp bill headed to governor

The Press Democrat Santa Rosa,CA - June 16, 1999 - Medical pot users plead for help - Supervisors face Prop. 215 dilemma

Medical pot users plead for help

Mexican crime families run most of state's pot farms

Board adds $900,000 to Sheriff's budget

Pot A growing field in Napa  Local industrial economy is not grapes

·         FEDERAL: Rosenthal Case Resurrected; Grand Jury Convened

·         ACTIVISM: Students in San Jose Stand Up for Patient

·         CALIFORNIA: Dispensaries Blocked in Two Cities

Marijuana: Marijuana Crop Worth $1.5 Billion in One California ... A growing field in Napa  Local industrial economy is not grapes

"Hi, you've reached Norm Vroman .... almost."

5 arrested in marijuana theft 

 A vote for Vroman is a vote for Faulder

mpp.org  "It won't go away" UC San Francisco reported that medical marijuana gave a big assist to treatment for hepatitis C, boosting cure rates an astonishing 300 percent plus bad cop review. 

mpp.org "The high court's marijuana ruling won't play in Mendocino" Science & Ideas 5/28/01

mpp.org library. Very Interesting how advanced these people are. . . 

Former Congressmen Arrested By Wal-Mart Manager For Protesting The Store Where A Decriminalization Petitioner Was Arrested Days Before

February 24, 2000 - Ukiah, CA, USA

A Mendocino County initiative decriminalizing personal use and cultivation picked up steam last week, oddly after its sponsor, Richard Johnson, was arrested for petitioning in the wrong spot at a Wal-Mart. On Monday, 20 protesters picketed the Ukiah Wal-Mart and eight of them were placed under a citizens arrest for trespassing by the store manager Don Estes.

Among those arrested were former Congressman Dan Hamburg who said Johnson's arrest brought out others who supported the initiative and that they are now helping to collect signatures. In order to appear on the November ballot in Mendocino County, the group needs 2,868 signatures by March. Johnson said the group has enough signatures collected, but they are looking for another 1,000 to be certain that they will have enough valid signatures.

Police attempted to pacify the situation without any arrests but the protesters refused to submit to a list of restrictions by Wal-Mart management.

"For them to not be willing to support the Bill of Rights does not reflect well on a company that claims they believe in American values," said protester David Drell, who was also arrested.

The Ukiah Daily Journal

Medical pot users plead for help
The Press Democrat Santa Rosa,CA

June 16, 1999
Supervisors face Prop. 215 dilemma

The agony of California's battle over marijuana as medicine spilled into the Sonoma County supervisors' chambers Tuesday as several users, including some terribly ill people from San Francisco, begged the board to stop the raids on medicinal pot gardens.

Mullins, who did not attend Tuesday's board meeting, said, "To put it bluntly, I don't want Sonoma County to become the marijuana garden for San Francisco, or anywhere else.''

Return to www.marijuana.org

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060828/NEWS/608280317/1033/NEWS01

Scores of Mexican nationals are being sneaked across the border to grow, guard and harvest marijuana gardens inside California because tightened border security has crimped smuggling of Mexican-grown pot into the state, according to local, state and federal drug agents.

Mexican-controlled operations now account for as much as 70 percent of all the marijuana cultivated in the state's rural regions, including the North Coast, the agents said.

Although multiagency teams are only in the early weeks of their annual marijuana crackdown statewide, the estimated street value of nearly 1 million pot plants uprooted this summer already equals last year's record $4.5billion. The number of seized plants in Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma counties and the Mendocino National Forest account for about 62 percent of the statewide total.

"There's more marijuana than ever growing out there," said Sgt. Rusty Noe, veteran director of Mendocino County's local anti-marijuana growing efforts.

Noe said that in Mendocino County twice the number of pot plants - 181,370 - have been pulled this summer compared to last year. The largest operation so far was a 30,000-plant garden raided Aug. 10 in the Leggett area.

In Sonoma County, more than 70,000 plants have been uprooted this summer.

A three-day operation earlier this month near Annapolis on the Sonoma Coast netted 29,195 plants with an estimated street value of $51million, according to Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Chris Bertoli.

Pot production is soaring in Lake County, which topped out at No. 2 in the state last year with 133,441 seized plants . Sheriff Rod Mitchell said so far this summer 193,000 plants have been uprooted.

"We'll probably break 250,000 plants by the end of harvest," said Mitchell.

There's so much pot being grown in Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma counties and the Mendocino National Forest this year that the volume of already seized marijuana would have been worth $3billion or more on the street, based on state estimates.

Noe estimates that in Mendocino County up to 70 percent of current production is under the command of Mexican crime families, some with ties to the Mexican Mafia.

That mirrors testimony of state and federal agents who've told the Legislature and Congress in recent months that Mexican drug traffickers have come to dominate the state's illicit marijuana industry.

Agents say tightened U.S.-Mexican border security has prompted Mexican operators to underwrite the costs of growing, harvesting and distributing pot in California rather than face risks associated with conventional dope smuggling operations across the border.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer said last month that Mexican drug traffickers are using marijuana profits "to finance the production and distribution of methamphetamine" nationwide.

Without the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting - a coordinated effort involving more than 100 local, state and federal drug agencies - Lockyer said the situation would quickly worsen.

Noe and other drug agents described how thousands of illegal Mexican nationals are smuggled across the border into rural areas of California, where their sole purpose is to grow, guard and harvest marijuana.

Noe said the men are provided guns, food and campsites. They're paid up to $10,000 cash for their seasonal marijuana work, which typically runs from April through October, agents said.

Noe said that for the crime families, it's a less risky way of doing business.

"They've learned that growing dope in rural regions of California is cheaper than spending millions on ways to smuggle it across the border," he said.

As a result, the state's marijuana production has largely shifted from smaller gardens on private property to huge swaths of dope growing mostly on public lands, including Mendocino National Forest.

To date, 179,116 plants have been uprooted in the forest this summer. Mendocino Forest spokeswoman Phebe Brown said illegal pot production continues to be "a very big problem for us."

Marijuana is even being grown within Yosemite National Park, where a 10,000-plant plantation was discovered last fall.

The potential for big profits from pot gardens is being linked to an upsurge of violence this summer in marijuana country.

Two members of the Round Valley Indian Tribe were shot and killed June 17 during what Mendocino County authorities believe was a confrontation in one of a series of pot gardens spread across tribal, public and private lands north of Covelo.

The gardens were being guarded by five Latinos, four from Santa Rosa and one from Mexico. The men have been charged with marijuana cultivation, but so far no charges have been filed in connection with the killings.

After a 4,000-plant garden was found last week growing in the same general area, Mendocino Sheriff's Capt. Kurt Smallcomb said he believed the gardens were part of a larger operation funded by a Mexican crime family.

Marijuana growers and state experts say a single mature marijuana plant can produce a half-pound or more of high-grade pot. In the current underground wholesale market, a pound of pot can fetch $2,500 or more, according to state statistics.

Based on those numbers, 1,000 plants could gross $1.2million or more in the underground marijuana wholesale market.

Some marijuana advocates downplay the role of Mexican crime families in today's pot market.

Dale Gieringer, San Francisco co-founder of the California Drug Policy Reform Coalition, said he doesn't believe the Mexican connection is as ominous as portrayed.

"Some nationals come in, grow some dope and send home the money to their families. I think it's probably as simple as that," said Gieringer.

Gieringer said if marijuana were legalized, it would significantly lessen the huge profits and the presence of criminal elements.

But Noe and other drug agents said the takeover of the state's multibillion-dollar pot industry by Mexican crime families is real.

Noe said the Mendocino County agency has connected a string of illegal pot plantations in Mendocino, Lake, Trinity and Shasta counties to a single Mexican-controlled operation.

"We've uncovered evidence to support that at campsites and in the course of interviews with a few of the suspects that we've been able to arrest," he said.

He said multiple pot gardens are the mainstay of large-scale marijuana-growing operations.

"If one plantation in Mendocino is lost to drug teams, they're still likely to be growing marijuana across the county line," Noe said.

MENDOCINO COUNTY The Marijuana Eradication Team raided pot gardens on tribal and public lands earlier this month. About 23,000 plants were seized at 34 gardens. Zoom Photo

Name an industry in Napa County that requires lots of field work, lots of sunshine, starts in earnest in the spring and culminates as the crop becomes ready to harvest as summer turns to fall.

Wine? Well, that's not a wrong answer. But in recent weeks it has become obvious that marijuana is also a growing industry in Napa County.

It has long been an open secret in Mendocino and Humboldt counties that marijuana cultivation is one of the main engines running the local economy. But in recent years, pot has outgrown its North Coast stronghold and become big business all over the state. Especially in those places, including Napa County, blessed to have rugged, remote hillsides and plenty of warm sunshine.

Signs of growth in the industry abound:

* Testimony before the House International Relations Committee in 2005 identified a Mexican gang called MS-13, with a base of operations in Los Angeles, as being involved in trafficking marijuana and other drugs in 28 states.

* The Drug Enforcement Administration in 2002 estimated that 90 percent of more of the marijuana cultivated in California was grown by associates of Mexican cartels.

* There has been an increase in busts everywhere from the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles County to National Park Service land in the Sierra Nevada to Napa County.

In the last month or so, the Napa Special Investigation Bureau made at least three busts, hauling away pot estimated to be worth more than $50 million. The first bust, back in July, was in the remote wilderness of Knoxville-Berryessa Road. That was the smallest of the three, with the haul estimated to have street value of $3 million. It was also the only one where officers arrested someone at the site of the pot garden. The man, Ezequel Villa, also is wanted on an attempted murder charge in Southern California.

Then came a larger bust at the other end of Berryessa, where Monticello Road meets Highway 128. Camouflage clothes, communication equipment and ammunition were among the items recovered.

"Based on the evidence located at the campsite the cultivators appear to be armed members of the Mexican drug trafficking organization," NSIB Commander Gary Pitkin said.

The most recent discovery was an 11,000 plant field near Capell Cove. In each case, the bust took place on private property. Pitkin indicates that it is common for property owners to be ignorant of the lucrative operations on their lands. He recommends that people be on the lookout for water being diverted from creeks or irrigation lines and new trails cutting through parts of their property.

We should all remain on the lookout for what appears to be a thriving, and threatening, industry growing in our midst.

ASA’s Summary of Medical Marijuana Media - 9/1/2006

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MENDOCINO MARIJUANA MEASURE FAMOUS       By MIKE GENIELLA      THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
From The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa California, Sunday, Nov whatever today is...

11/05/00: MENDOCINO MARIJUANA MEASURE FAMOUS
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/05pot_b1empireb.html 

MENDOCINO MARIJUANA MEASURE FAMOUS
International media swarm on initiative to legalize personal growing, possession of pot, but residents ho-hum November 5, 000

By MIKE GENIELLA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Marijuana advocates are pumping thousands of dollars into a Mendocino County initiative campaign they believe could set a national precedent for decriminalizing personal pot use.

Measure G has received international media attention, even though there is no organized campaign against it.

"Mendocino County residents seem ho-hum about the measure but the national media is going bonkers," said county supervisor Michael Delbar, a critic of the measure. "Maybe it's because we've lived with the marijuana problem for so long. There's nothing new in the arguments pro and con as far as I can see."

Measure G would permit limited cultivation and possession of up to 25 marijuana plants per adult, but would continue to make the transportation and sale of pot illegal.

It also directs the sheriff and district attorney to make marijuana law enforcement their lowest priority, and orders county officials to lobby state and federal agencies for the decriminalization of marijuana nationwide.

"It's unbelievable. I've had more requests for interviews than I ever did as a congressman, even during the height of the Headwaters Forest controversy," said former Rep. Dan Hamburg of Ukiah.

Hamburg, who abandoned the Democratic Party after his 1994 defeat and joined the Green Party, currently is a registered marijuana grower under a county law enforcement program set up after Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative, was passed by voters statewide.

In Mendocino County, Proposition 215 received 65 percent of the vote and Measure G supporters including Hamburg are predicting a similar outcome Tuesday.

"If so, I think passage of Measure G is going to send a message to Washington, D.C., and beyond," Hamburg said.

While Mendocino County Sheriff Tony Craver and District Attorney Norman Vroman are sympathetic to the Measure G argument that current marijuana laws are flawed, both have stressed that they must abide by current state and federal laws no matter the outcome of Tuesday's election.

Even with the acknowledgment that Measure G has no legal bite, the possibility of a favorable vote in a rural county that's witnessed costly government efforts to eradicate the plant is attracting a lot of outside support.

The San Francisco-based National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws has donated $1,000 to the campaign and sent in volunteers to help rally voter support. The New York- based Center for Policy Research kicked in money to cover the cost of a series of local radio ads.

Hamburg said supporters hope to raise and spend about $10,000 to get the measure passed.

Despite its reputation as one of the nation's best-known marijuana-growing regions, Mendocino County now ranks behind Kern County in overall production, according to state statistics.

Delbar and other Measure G critics think that's a dubious distinction.

What's needed, according to Delbar, is not looser laws encouraging personal use of marijuana, but a countywide stance against drug use of any kind.

Ukiah resident Robert McIntosh contended that Hamburg and other Measure G supporters are wrong in advocating decriminalization of marijuana.

"The youth of today do not need these vices. They need mentors to teach them right from wrong, and that a good education is essential if they want to make it in the world," he said.

Hamburg countered that Measure G is not an endorsement of marijuana use, certainly among minors.

"I think it's much more about personal freedom, and the accountability of government to spend taxpayers' money wisely," he said.

Besides, Hamburg said, "kids aren't fooled by the anti- marijuana arguments. They know it's virtually harmless."

Hamburg said he hopes passage of Measure G will lead to further changes in state and federal marijuana laws, and the collapse of a pricing-structure that he and other supporters believe entices criminal activity surrounding pot growing.

Hamburg recently reported to local sheriff's deputies the theft of six marijuana plants he was growing under the county's Proposition 215 program.

With a doctor's approval, individuals can secure local law enforcement identification as legitimate growers of pot to be used for medicinal purposes. Hamburg said he grows pot so he can assist in efforts to revitalize the appetite of his mother, a cancer patient.

"I don't think I'd have had people trespassing on my property and ripping off my marijuana plants if we had a sane government policy. I'm hoping Measure G leads to that," Hamburg said.

Delbar, however, is not so sure.

"I think Measure G if passed will end up serving as just another cover for local dope growers, just as Prop. 215 is doing," he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mike Geniella at 462-6470 or e- mail mgeniella@pressdemocrat.com.

Responses to this message:

• so let me guess, you're in favor, right? lurker
• This is good news Edgar_Britt
• Wonder how long before it can be more easily bought... Morrison_Hotel
• It's now "legal" to grow up to 25 pot plants each in Mendocino County mendo
• Mendocino County first in U.S. to decriminalize marijuana mendo

Post a response to this discussion thread

Article Last Updated: 09/21/2006 08:47:51 AM PDT
One deputy out of control? Ukiah Daily Journal Staff

To the Editor:

For 10 years, medical marijuana patients have had the protection of Prop. 215 in California, as well as in Mendocino County. They have also been reassured by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office and the office of the District Attorney that they will continue to have the support of both offices as long as Prop. 215 is law.

In recent years, there have been more reports of marijuana gardens being confiscated containing 20,000 or more plants and gardens of this size are becoming more and more common. I would like to thank the MCSO for their diligence in separating legitimate gardens from those whose purpose serves nothing but financial gain.

But what about the patients who are only growing for patients? Gardens with as few as 50 plants have been raided in recent weeks. I have met several patients who have had their medicine taken by the MCSO, even though they were clearly following the guidelines set forth by the DA's office as well as the MCSO. One deputy in particular has shown up at these residences at night, without warrants or backup, or the cooperation from the District Attorney's office. Some of these patients were in full compliance with Prop. 215 and had their physician's recommendations available.

These patients had all of their plants taken. He took some patients' recommendations, belittled them, and in some cases, didn't give the residents time to gather the notes of other residents who were not present at the time. While their rights were being violated, they were told by this deputy that 1). He doesn't believe in Prop 215, 2). He is tired of the pot growers in his area, 3). That the presence of a fence to conceal the plants was admitting it was an illegal garden, 4). There's a new sheriff in town, and 5). that the DEA would be notified. The DEA? The DEA? Doesn't this man work for the MCSO? Didn't he take his oath to protect and uphold the constitution of California? This deputy - a sergeant - works for the MCSO not the DEA - or does he?

While there has been a good working relationship between the MCSO and medical marijuana patients, this one man has made me question the sincerity of the Sheriff's Office.

Maria Andrews

Willits

"Hi, you've reached Norm Vroman .... almost."
VIEWPOINTS By K.C. Meadows

That was the message on the answering machine in Norm Vroman's Ukiah DA office and it always tickled me.

It was typical of Norm's personality: straightforward, but always with a twinkle in the eye.

Do I think of myself as a friend of Norm's? I'd say yes, though I've never been to his house, we never socialized and we certainly did not conspire together in a political cabal some people imagined.

Through a mutual friend, he gave me one of the meanest roosters I'd ever seen. A little guy I named Pancho who scared me to death and who finally wandered away from the coop one day and (whew!) was never seen again.

Norm and I did most of our talking at Schat's on Thursday mornings where he would inevitably show up at 7 a.m. and always find a seat with his back to the wall - and make the same joke about it every time.

Just before 8 a.m. he would say, "Well, I've got to go fight crime," get up and mosey on over to his corner office in the courthouse.

In between he was always good company; when he could hear what was being said. Norm's hearing aids weren't always enough for him to pick up all the conversation if there were more than five or six people talking at once at the table at Schat's on any given morning. Sometimes I would catch him staring off into space, knowing he wasn't able to follow the discussion.

Not that he particularly cared. When someone addressed him specifically, he was always delighted to talk.

And it wasn't just about DA stuff. He could discourse very intelligently on any number of subjects, particularly history.

He used to always say that there was nothing new under the sun and things we're all stressing about politically or economically are all things that have happened before if most people only had been provided a good enough education to know it.

I remember one Thursday morning he brought with him a framed newspaper page dating back to the Civil War era. The frame was two sided and when you turned it over, you saw that the news page was printed on wallpaper. He loved that idea: that even though paper was in critically short supply, someone found a way to continue to print the news. He thought I'd like that, and I certainly did.

Norm didn't have time for slackers and did not suffer fools, but he was perfectly satisfied to have anyone who meant it challenge him, and even call him names; and he fully respected anyone's right to his or her opinions since he was certainly set on his own.

It cannot be said enough of Norm that he was the most accessible elected official in the county. You could call him at the office and if he was there he would simply pick up the phone. No secretary to get past. He was listed in the phone book and you could call him at home (which Daily Journal reporters did many times and I am sure his wife, Raleigh, wished doing that was a little less convenient).

Vroman had definite and very public views on things and while we didn't always agree, you had to respect his convictions. He was the first DA in California to acknowledge with real action that Prop. 215, the medical marijuana law, was in fact a law. He and former Sheriff Tony Craver did the right thing by instituting the first local ID system for medical marijuana patients, a system that ended the problem of law enforcement's wasting manpower on busting legitimate medical marijuana gardeners.

Lately he'd become more and more outspoken about the DUI rate in the county and every chance he got he tried to impress upon anyone who would listen that it was alcohol, not meth, that was the real potential killer in this county. He would loudly decry what he considered a lack of meaningful punishment for people who drive drunk. Give them some actual jail time on the first offense, he'd say, and a second offense would be a lot less likely.

Was he always right? Not even he would claim that. I think in the first months of his office he misread the serious concerns of local women about domestic abuse; and he learned, I think, that challenging local police departments was a tricky business.

But he never gave up tweaking the noses of local judges when he got a chance and his battles with the county's bean counters are legendary and, it is hoped, will serve as a lesson to future DAs about how to play the budget game.

When we endorsed Norm in this year's primary we said, "He can be flippant when he should be serious, and grandstand when he should be hunkering down." After that endorsement was published Norm told me, "My wife says you got me just right."

I'm glad.

I'll miss Norm's honesty, his humor, his toughness and his genuine caring. Thursday mornings won't be quite the same.

K.C. Meadows is the editor of the Ukiah Daily Journal.

5 arrested in marijuana theft By BEN BROWN The Daily Journal

Article Last Updated: 09/27/2006 08:37:16 AM PDT

Five Bay Area men have been arrested on suspicion of robbing a medical marijuana garden in Laytonville at noon Friday.

According to reports from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, five men approached two men at their garden in the 54000 block of Registered Guest Road in Laytonville and threatened them with high-capacity 9mm and .223 caliber firearms.

The suspects then loaded 25 marijuana plants into the back of a truck and drove away from the garden. Mendocino County Sheriff's Capt. Kurt Smallcomb said a conservative estimate put the street value of those plants at $100,000.

The victims contacted law enforcement, and the five men were stopped at the intersection of Spyrock Road and Iron Peak Road by sheriff's deputies and officers of the California Highway Patrol.

Two of the vehicles driven by the suspects were found to contain the stolen marijuana plants, according to sheriff's reports.

Luis Phillip Emerick, 22 and Bradley Adam Gallow, 23, both of Freemont; Emanuel Quincy Smith, 32 of Menlo Park, Ruben Alberto Crorral, 22, of San Jose, and Christopher Lamont Reed, 31 of Santa Clara, were arrested on suspicion of robbery, possession of marijuana for sale and transport of marijuana for sale.

A search warrant, served later in the day, on a trailer used by the suspects revealed several firearms similar to those described by the victims.

Smallcomb said it's not uncommon for people to rob marijuana gardens, especially during harvest time.

"All gardens are susceptible to thievery, which often leads to violence," he said.

All five suspects were booked into the county jail, where they were being held on a $125,000 bond. On Tuesday, only Smith had posted bail.

Smallcomb said he didn't know if any of the suspects had a criminal history.

Ben Brown can be reached at udjbb@pacific.net.