Mendocino County voters can expect two competing marijuana tax initiatives on the November ballot, one proffered by county officials and one by cannabis cultivators. The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday a 2.5 percent business tax on gross sales from marijuana cultivation and dispensaries, along with a $2,500 annual fee on marijuana distributors, delivery services, nurseries and testing laboratories. That business tax could be raised in increments of 2.5 percent up to a maximum of 10 percent, whether on medicinal or recreational pot. [continues 474 words]
A unique Mendocino County program that reduces defendants' felony marijuana charges to misdemeanors in exchange for restitution payments has succeeded in reducing court backlogs, jail crowding and law enforcement costs, according to a recently released Mendocino County grand jury report, which recommended it continue. But the report also reiterated concerns about whether the controversial five-year-old program provides equal justice. District Attorney David Eyster's 11470.2 Program - named for the state Health and Safety Code on which it is based - had raised $7.5 million for Mendocino County law enforcement agencies by March, of which $7 million went to the Sheriff's Office, a rate of more than $100,000 a month in revenue, according to the report. [continues 546 words]
The Pinoleville Pomo Nation has filed a claim against Mendocino County authorities for raiding a high-profile medical marijuana operation on the tribe's rancheria north of Ukiah last year. The tribe's claim is on the Board of Supervisors' agenda for Monday. Such claims are routinely denied, but must be filed before plaintiffs can sue a government agency. The tribe last year had launched what was believed to be one of the first large-scale, tribe-operated medical pot operations in the state. It claimed it had a right to grow marijuana on the tribe's 99-acre rancheria for the benefit of the estimated 250-member tribe. [continues 89 words]
WILLITS - Except for traffic passing through on Highway 101, this northern Mendocino County city is relatively quiet much of the year. But for three months in the fall, it gets an influx of world travelers lured by marijuana-trimming jobs, temporarily swelling the town's population of under 5,000 and instilling it with an international flavor. They're called trimmigrants and they are an integral part of the North Coast's lucrative marijuana industry, estimated to be worth billions of dollars and widely considered to be a major economic driver in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. But, like the pot industry itself, reaction to their presence is mixed. The migrant workers contribute to the economy, but many effectively are homeless. Though the growers who employ them typically provide housing or a place to camp, when not working, they camp illegally in parks, alleys and along railroad tracks and rivers. Some can't find jobs and turn to panhandling and frequenting food banks. [continues 1718 words]
Native American tribes' efforts to cash in on California's "green rush" by launching large-scale marijuana growing operations appear to have been premature and ill-advised if recent law enforcement raids on tribal lands are any indication. Pot raids conducted on the Pinoleville Pomo Nation's Rancheria north of Ukiah this week and on the Pit River and Alturas tribes' properties in Modoc County in July serve as reminders that such endeavors remain mired in a morass of laws that continue to make cannabis cultivation a risky business. [continues 964 words]
The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office raided a medical marijuana growing operation on Indian land just north of Ukiah on Tuesday, disrupting a high-profile project that had garnered national attention and was hailed by tribal leaders as a new way to generate jobs and revenue for cash-strapped tribes. Deputies eradicated some 400 pot plants from an outdoor location. At another location, they began dismantling a "highly sophisticated" chemical laboratory where honey oil - a sticky, concentrated pot product used to make edible medicine-was being manufactured under the auspices of the Pinoleville Pomo Nation, said Sheriff's Capt. Greg Van Patten. More than 100 pounds of trimmed and drying marijuana also was found inside the laboratory building, a former car dealership on North State Street. [continues 628 words]
More than 86,500 marijuana plants were seized this week during a four-day eradication operation in the heart of Northern California's Emerald Triangle, where law enforcement officials from three counties also reported finding "egregious" environmental violations. The plants, along with cash, firearms and thousands of pounds of dried pot, were confiscated from the remote Island Mountain region where Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties meet. Some 30 to 40 people - mostly law enforcement officers from the three counties' sheriff's departments, assisted by Fish and Wildlife and a handful of National Guard officers - participated in the assault on what they say were obviously illegal growing operations, most of which included more than 1,000 plants each. [continues 844 words]
A Ukiah tribe has downsized its plans for a medical marijuana farm, at least for now, as it continues to explore what will and won't be tolerated by law enforcement officials. The Pinoleville Pomo Nation's initial plan, backed by a Kansas investment company that funds tribal economic projects like casinos and now marijuana operations, called for a $10 million pot-growing operation in multiple greenhouses spanning some 110,000 square feet on the tribe's rancheria just north of Ukiah. [continues 413 words]
Construction apparently is underway for a medical marijuana farm on tribal land just north of Ukiah. Rows of huge bag-like containers typically used to cultivate pot plants above ground, pallets of potting soil, large water storage tanks and solar panels have cropped up on the northeast corner of the Pinoleville Pomo Nation's rancheria, adjacent to Highway 101. The area - bordered by the highway, a vineyard and rancheria housing - - has been leveled by earth-moving machines and partially surrounded by a chain link fence. But there's no sign yet of the greenhouse that was originally proposed. [continues 498 words]
Mendocino County law enforcement officials are investigating the legality of a proposed large-scale indoor medical marijuana growing operation on tribal land outside of Ukiah, casting a cloud of doubt over the future of the unprecedented venture. Mendocino County's sheriff and district attorney are seeking details about the proposal, revealed earlier this month, by the Pinoleville Pomo Nation and Kansas-based FoxBarry Farms to build an estimated 2.5-acre indoor pot production facility just north of Ukiah. FoxBarry officials said Wednesday they are scheduled to meet with the sheriff and district attorney as well as local marijuana growers to discuss the $10 million, 110,000 square foot plantation plan. [continues 334 words]
Officials in pot-rich Mendocino County are thinking ahead to the potential economic impacts of what they see as the inevitable legalization of marijuana for general use. "Whether it's at the state Legislature or the ballot box, it is foreseeable that we will have legalization for personal recreational use within the next two years," said Supervisor John McCowen, one of two board members nominated to sit on a proposed committee that would study the issue. The county can either prepare for that event or wait on the sidelines, he said. [continues 347 words]
The Pinoleville Pomo Nation anticipates that its planned 2.5-acre medical marijuana facility outside Ukiah will generate jobs and revenue that will benefit its members, according to a statement issued by its chairwoman late Wednesday. The tribe's cannabis cultivation operation - which includes a partnership with Colorado and Kansas-based corporations - will help pay for the tribe's social programs, including elder care, child care, health care and education, tribal Chairwoman Leona Williams said. The tribe has about 250 members, including about 70 members who reside on the Rancheria property, which is comprised largely of individually owned parcels. The cannabis operation is expected to employ between 50 and 100 people, tribal representatives said earlier. [continues 221 words]
News that a Mendocino County Pomo tribe is building a $10 million indoor marijuana-cultivation facility on its rancheria just north of Ukiah has been met with a mix of surprise, concern and a sense it was inevitable as pot growing becomes increasingly common and legal. "The tribes are just getting out ahead of the game" in preparation for the eventual legalization of marijuana for all uses in California, Mendocino County Supervisor Dan Hamburg said. "Legalization is coming. That's where we're headed," said Dale Gieringer, state coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Medical marijuana has been legal in California for 18 years and, after several failed attempts, a ballot measure aimed at legalizing recreational use is widely expected to pass in 2016. About two dozen states have decriminalized or legalized marijuana in some manner. [continues 648 words]
A Ukiah Indian rancheria will soon be the site of what is likely California's first tribe-sanctioned, large-scale indoor medical marijuana cultivation and distribution operation. The 250-member Pinoleville Pomo Nation revealed Thursday it has entered into a contract with Colorado-based United Cannabis and Kansas-based FoxBarry Farms to grow thousands of marijuana plants on its 99-acre rancheria just north of Ukiah. It's the first of three such operations planned in California by United Cannabis and FoxBarry, a sign that marijuana cultivation is making headway in its voyage from being an illegal backwoods venture to a mainstream business. The locations of the other two have yet to be revealed. [continues 522 words]
Lake County's ongoing battle over medical marijuana regulations returns to the ballot box, with two measures this November that, if passed, would overturn the county's current pot ordinance approved by voters in June. Measures 0 and P continue the tug-of-war over pot that is becoming a tradition of sorts. Each time the county attempts to enact restrictions on marijuana cultivation and dispensaries, pot advocates have challenged them with referendums, ballot initiatives or lawsuits. Marijuana advocates have been more successful at obtaining signatures for ballot measures and referendums than in getting them passed. Voters soundly defeated their last ballot initiative, Measure D, in 2012. [continues 702 words]
Tales of mysterious men in black or camouflage dropping from helicopters into legal marijuana gardens, cutting the plants, then disappearing with nary a word to the growers, have been spreading fear among Mendocino County pot cultivators. Many believe the intruders are private, paramilitary security officers conducting vigilante anti-pot operations, but the real story likely is less intriguing, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. The County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team (COMMET) has been conducting operations in the same Laytonville area - near Woodman Creek - where the mystery men have been reported, and likely is the source of the rumors, sheriff's officials said. Sheriff's deputies have been using a private helicopter service that would not be immediately recognizable as working with law enforcement, officials said. [continues 477 words]
ELK - Deep in a private Mendocino Coast forest, trees and brush give way to terraced clearings, miles of crisscrossing black irrigation tubing and campsites littered with cooking pans, empty food and beer cans, sleeping bags and toxic pesticides. They are the remnants of a marijuana garden where a multi-agency law enforcement effort last year seized more than 8,000 plants. The environmental damage here is a microcosm of what's happening nationwide as illegal pot cultivation continues to thrive despite decades of eradication efforts. Marijuana operations claiming to be medicinal, and thus legal in California, also are expanding exponentially, largely without regulation. [continues 1241 words]
A unique Mendocino County program aimed at reducing court backlogs by offering marijuana defendants lesser criminal charges in exchange for sizable restitution payments is at the center of a growing debate over its fairness and legality. The program has piqued the interest of a federal grand jury, which is investigating the $3.7 million in payments generated from defendants to local law enforcement agencies since District Attorney David Eyster created the program soon after taking office in 2011, according to a grand jury subpoena recently leaked to The Press Democrat. [continues 2377 words]
Streams in Northern California's prime marijuana-growing watersheds likely will be sucked dry this year if pot cultivation isn't curtailed, experts say. "Essentially, marijuana can consume all the water. Every bit of it," said state Fish and Wildlife Senior Environmental Scientist Scott Bauer, who specializes in salmon recovery and is working on a study of the issue. The findings, expected to be released soon, shed new light on a massive, largely unregulated industry in California that has been blamed for polluting streams and forests with pesticides and trash and for bulldozing trees and earth to make clearings for gardens. [continues 1571 words]
Marijuana advocates have launched a referendum aimed at quashing a newly revised Lake County ordinance that bans outdoor marijuana cultivation in residential neighborhoods. The new ordinance is too strict, said Lake County resident Michael Horner, a member of the group that launched the referendum, the Community Alliance to Ban Illegal Cannabis Cultivation. The group believes the best way to rid the county of "transient criminal growers" is to enact responsible regulations, Horner said. His organization is working on an alternative ordinance to replace the county's ordinance, he said. [continues 352 words]
