Voters: "Un-legalize it"

Hmmmmm...do you think maybe all the stoners forgot about the election?

Mendocino County's reputation as a marijuana haven of California may be going up in smoke.

Voters on Tuesday leaned toward repealing a law allowing home marijuana growing, according to preliminary results of a ballot measure vote released on Wednesday.

Critics say a cottage industry had grown out of control.

California in 1996 voted to allow possession and cultivation by residents of marijuana for medical purposes, despite federal law which declares it illegal.

Mendocino, a rural county north San Francisco, in 2000 approved marijuana cultivation for recreational use as well, voting to let residents grow up to 25 marijuana plants, compared with the state limit of six.

With about a third of the vote counted, 52 percent supported repeal, the county clerk said. The tally may not be complete for up to four weeks.

"We thought Ma and Pa growers would be able to grow a little bit," said Dave Bengston, the county's agricultural commissioner, who supported the repeal. "The legalization of marijuana sent a message to organized crime that they could set up shop here, and we got people with automatic weapons growing marijuana in large quantities."

Gee, I guess nobody could've seen that coming. I mean, who would have guessed that a law that basically amounted to putting up a sign at the county line reading, "Please come and grow a lot of weed here without any legal consequences," might attract a somewhat shady element?

Look, I know people who grew marijuana for sale back in college, none of them grew anywhere near 25 plants at a time, and they still managed to sell a lot of weed at a tidy profit. Nobody needs 25 plants for their own personal use. Trust me. Those people who sold the stuff used plenty of it themselves, and I don't think any of them grew more than nine or ten plants at a time, max.

(cross-posted at doubleplusundead)