Anti-marijuana measure passes

More than two weeks after election day, the county registrar of voters Friday declared a controversial anti-marijuana ballot measure victorious after an exhaustive recount.

But foes of Measure B immediately vowed to take it to court in an effort to maintain the county’s status quo as one of the nation’s hotbeds of marijuana cultivation.

The measure passed 52% to 48% after election officials tallied 11,000 ballots that arrived late on polling day.

The victory reverses a measure passed in 2000 by Mendocino County voters that made cultivation of up to 25 marijuana plants legal for recreational or medicinal need. Measure B limits medicinal pot gardens to six plants and prohibits recreational growing.

Its opponents, however, plan to argue in court next week that Measure B should be tossed out because it mimics the state’s six-plant threshold for medicinal patients, which was declared unconstitutional by a state appeals court.

-- Eric Bailey