Mendo's Ziptie Program Killed

The Ukiah Daily Journal is reporting that today the Mendocino County supervisors

voted 4-1 to eliminate the county’s medical marijuana permit program Tuesday after more than an hour of public comment.

Third District Supervisor John Pinches dissented, saying the county should repeal its medical marijuana ordinance, County Code 9.31, completely and calling marijuana law “confusing.”

Responding to a threat of legal action from Melinda Haag of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mendocino County Counsel Jeanine Nadel proposed that the Board of Supervisors remove from the ordinance all language referring to a program that allows collectives to grow up to 99 plants per parcel with a permit.

“They were threatening to file an injunction against our ordinance and try to throw it out in court, and also threatening to individually go after county officials who were supporting these laws, which they believed to be in violation of federal law,” 5th District Supervisor Dan Hamburg said after the vote.

Hamburg and 1st District Supervisor Carre Brown supported Nadel’s recommendation, worried that the federal government would withhold money that comes to Mendocino County for its social service and other programs.

Second District Supervisor John McCowen argued that removing the permitting program would boost black market prices for marijuana and make it more readily available to children.

The permitting program allows collectives an exemption to the county’s 25-plant-per-parcel plant limit if they get a permit and follow a set of

rules. Nadel’s revised ordinance returns to the 25-plant limit for all growers.

For more on the story go here.