The county's policy of issuing medical marijuana cards only to people who have prescriptions from Mendocino County physicians has yielded a lawsuit. The plaintiffs say they're after equal treatment. County officials say they may get equality, but it could be in the form of an abolished program. The lawsuit was filed by Andrea Nagy and Julian Gonzalez, who moved here last year, and a Berkeley physician, Todd Mikuriya. They claim the county's policy is unfair both to patients and to doctors' businesses. [continues 622 words]
Seven Ounces Seized At House In Russian River Estates Law enforcement officials are concerned they're now finding a more potent and addictive form of methamphetamine on Ukiah's streets. The Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force seized 7 ounces about 2,000 doses of crystal methamphetamine during a search of a Russian Rivers Estates home last week. Also found at the rented house were nearly two pounds of standard methamphetamine, about a half pound of dried marijuana, a pistol-grip shotgun and a Samurai sword tucked under a couch, according to task force Commander Bob Nishiyama. [continues 428 words]
A new California Supreme Court ruling that enhanced medical marijuana users' and growers' rights has, for the first time in this county, resulted in dismissal of a court case. "Justice has finally been served," Public Defender Jeff Thoma said Friday after the two-year-old marijuana cultivation case against Whale Gulch residents Bill Matthews and Kathy Honzik was dismissed. The defendants also were pleased. "My graying process will slow down a little bit," said Matthews, whose long hair and beard currently are salt-and-pepper, heavy on the salt. [continues 418 words]
The men who broke into a Willits residence Tuesday and shot two of the residents apparently were after medical marijuana being grown at the home. "Medical marijuana was the object" of the home invasion, said Willits Police Sgt. Mike Scofield. He would not say how many plants were being grown at the home, only that two small plants were taken from the backyard. Scofield also would not say whether the victims knew the suspects. There reportedly were at least four, and possibly five suspects involved, he said. [continues 537 words]
More marijuana has been confiscated in the last two weeks than in the two months of harvest season last year. In just two days last week, the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team, assisted by the California National Guard and the Campaign Against Marijuana Production, seized 24,758 plants from 14 sites in the Rose Creek area off the Masonite Road and Mountain View Road area. That brings the last two weeks' total to 51,649 plants seized. In the two harvest months during which the state assisted the county last year, 34,934 plants were confiscated. [continues 348 words]
Marijuana-seeking helicopters, planes and personnel this week were flying over coastal county areas as part of the annual overflight school hosted by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office and Drug Enforcement Agency. Six helicopters and six planes from various agencies around the state participated in the school, which teaches officers how to spot marijuana from the air, according to Sgt. Rusty Noe, of the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team. Later in the season, local and state officers will return to the gardens and eradicate the plants. [continues 339 words]
Every two weeks for the last year-and-a-half, county supervisors vote on whether to continue allowing a legal needle exchange program in the county. Every two weeks, the vote is 3-2, with 1st and 3rd districts Supervisors Mike Delbar and Tom Lucier voting no. Despite their concerns about the program which handed out more than 31,000 clean needles in exchange for dirty ones in its first year it does not promote drug use and does prevent the spread of diseases, said Elizabeth Ross, who directs the HOPE program, which is part of the Mendocino County AIDS Volunteer Network. [continues 626 words]
Medical marijuana card holders now can possess as many as 25 plants at any given time, two to four times what was legal before Wednesday. But the legal maximum for dried pot remains unchanged, at two pounds. The county has issued around 800 medical marijuana cards to people in the county since the program was initiated by District Attorney Norm Vroman and Sheriff Tony Craver in 1999. Vroman said Thursday he upped the legal number of plants - from a maximum of six flowering or 12 immature - at the request of those medical marijuana patients and care givers. [continues 427 words]
Local law enforcement officials don't think Monday's Supreme Court ruling against medical marijuana use will affect county residents. But Sheriff Tony Craver isn't taking any chances. He's already taken measures to protect medical marijuana card holders. The data base of patients, Craver said, has been removed from the agency's computers. He and District Attorney Norm Vroman devised the cards shortly after California voters approved medical marijuana use. The cards are intended to prevent sick people from having their doctor-prescribed marijuana confiscated or them being hauled off to jail. [continues 586 words]
Mendocino Country Environmentalist publisher Richard Johnson faced off with Wal-Mart employees in small claims court on Wednesday. Johnson has sued the store and one of its managers for arresting him last year on trespass charges while he was gathering signatures for a Green Party ballot measure to decriminalize personal marijuana use in the county. He claims the store violated his right to petition by arresting him. Store officials claim they only wanted Johnson to comply with their rules for petitioners, which includes staying within a small, marked area to one side of the store. [continues 895 words]
A multi-agency raid on indoor marijuana growing operations near Laytonville has yielded 29,518 marijuana plants of various ages and 190 pounds of processed marijuana. "It's the largest seizure of indoor plants in the history of Mendocino County," said Sheriff's Capt. Kevin Broin. Also seized from the Hunts Ranch subdivision were several vehicles, 22 firearms, a large boat, three Harley Davidson motorcycles, and eight, 50 kw-to 250 kw generators. "They're huge," Broin said of the generators. [continues 224 words]
Politics are no longer welcome at the Mendocino Transit Authority - at least not on its vehicles. The new policy is partly the result of controversy over political advertisements in favor of Measure G - the personal use of marijuana initiative, according to manager Bruce Richard. He referred to the measure as "a delicate issue." "It's one of those political topics that can generate strong pro and con opinions," Richard said. He said MTA received at least two phone calls and a letter complaining about the ads. [continues 402 words]
It has its shortcomings, but a new law requiring that people convicted of personal drug use get treatment instead of jail time generally is a good thing, according to county Alcohol and Other Drug Programs Director Ned Walsh. "I think it's good news," he said of Proposition 36, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters this month. However, "it doesn't recognize that the current treatment system couldn't take that influx" of new patients, he said. Walsh said county officials have until mid 2001 to prepare and he's hoping that will be enough time to hire new staff and move the offices, which eventually are expected to be housed at Ukiah Valley Medical Center's former Dora Street facility. [continues 320 words]
Proponents and opponents of Measure G can agree on one thing - it won't make marijuana legal. "It's illegal now and it will be illegal after the measure" passes," District Attorney Norm Vroman said during a panel discussion on Measure G Thursday night at the Ukiah Civic Center. The discussion included two proponents and two opponents of the measure, which directs county officials to make arrests and prosecutions of personal marijuana use a low priority. Possession of 25 or fewer marijuana plants is considered personal-use amounts under the measure. [continues 621 words]
Twenty sign-toting, free-speech advocates picketed Wal-Mart Monday to protest the store's arrest of a marijuana initiative petitioner last week. Wal-Mart arrested eight of them. "You're under arrest for trespassing," store manager Don Estes told each of the eight as he placed them under citizen's arrest. Police, who said they had no choice but to follow through with Wal-Mart's arrest request, took the demonstrators to the county jail, where they were booked and released. [continues 664 words]
Wal-Mart likely was within its rights when it had police remove a marijuana initiative petitioner from its property last week. But it was out of bounds when it arrested another eight people Monday who protested the removal, according to First Amendment Coalition attorney Terry Francke. "They can't keep people off their property who are protesting over Wal-Mart in particular," he said, noting there are different court cases governing petitioners and picketers. Francke said it doesn't matter whether Monday's protesters were demonstrating against a legal or illegal activity by Wal-Mart. [continues 533 words]
Spurred by a recent San Francisco court ruling, 5th District Supervisor Charles Peterson this week submitted a draft resolution to the clerk of the board to try to protect people and clubs who provide marijuana for medical use. "I'm afraid it will spur (state Attorney General) Dan Lungren to bust everybody," he said this morning, referring to the recent. court decision. His proposed resolution, scheduled to be discussed at the board's Jan. 13 meeting, asks the District Attorney and Sheriff's Office to make prosecution of people who grow or provide marijuana for medical use a low priority [continues 276 words]
Ukiah Cannabis Buyers' Club owners are worried a new court ruling could shut down their medical marijuana business, leaving their customers without respite from pain. "It's not fair, I have over 300 clients now who are very sick," said one of the clubs owners, Cherrie Lovett, who started the club partly because she didn't want to keep driving to San Francisco to get marijuana treatments for lupus, a painful and crippling disease. She said the club is the only place people can go in the area to legally get and smoke marijuana and many people will do without it if she's shut down. [continues 412 words]
