cannabisnews.com: Legalizing Pot Frightens California County
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Legalizing Pot Frightens California County
Posted by CN Staff on April 12, 2010 at 04:41:09 PT
By Sam Quinones
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Garberville, Calif. -- In this region renowned for potent marijuana buds, many in Humboldt County long accepted that legalizing the weed was the right thing to do. Now some folks aren't so sure.A statewide initiative in November would allow cities to regulate pot possession and cultivation. Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has proposed a broader legalization. Neither is certain to pass.
Yet as medical marijuana has spread and city and state budgets are being slashed, legalized marijuana is becoming more possible than ever. That has some people here thinking twice.Wholesale prices have dropped in the last five years - from $4,000 a pound to below $3,000 for the best cannabis - as medical-marijuana dispensaries have attracted a slew of new growers statewide, Humboldt growers say.Recently, "Keep Pot Illegal" bumper stickers have been seen on cars around the county. In chat rooms and on blogs, anonymous writers predict that tobacco companies will crush small farmers and take marijuana production to the Central Valley.With legalization, if residents don't act, "we're going to be ruined," said Anna Hamilton, a radio host on KMUD-FM in southern Humboldt County.In March, Hamilton organized a community meeting in Garberville addressing the question "What's After Pot?" It attracted more than 150 people, including a county supervisor, economic development consultants and business owners.All this was unimaginable to the hippies and student radicals who came here in the 1960s and '70s, escaping a conventional world they abhorred. As marijuana's price steadily rose, it funded their escape. In time, mom-and-pop growers became experts.The plant thrived in the tolerant climate - cultural and geographic - of far Northern California. Small plots got bigger. An Emerald Triangle of premium marijuana growers formed in Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino counties until, virtually alone, they supported the economies.Following Hamilton's lead, a meeting will be held in Ukiah, Mendocino's county seat, on April 24 to discuss "The Future of Cannabis in Northern California." Speakers include the director of the Ukiah Chamber of Commerce.For years the plant was only a small part of the Humboldt economy, as logging and fishing provided most of the jobs.Today, harvestable redwoods are mostly gone; so, too, the sawmills. Salmon beds are covered with silt. Marijuana stands as a major source of income, even for many whose grandparents worked the sawmills and 40 years ago railed at the pot-smoking hippies moving into their midst.Humboldt State economists guess that marijuana accounts for between $500 million and $700 million of the county's $3.6 billion economy.Though growing is widespread, particularly in southern Humboldt County, it remains illegal for those not connected to a medical marijuana collective. Every year growers are arrested and sent to prison. Some live in paranoid isolation, telling their children not to discuss their parents' work. Meanwhile, they've gotten used to selling a weed for thousands of dollars a pound.Legalization could take many forms. But the conventional wisdom here is that fully legal weed might fetch no more than a few hundred dollars a pound, as more people grow it and police no longer pull up millions of plants a year.Illegal marijuana "is the government's best agricultural price-support program ever," said Gerald Myers, a retired engineer and former volunteer fire chief who moved to the county in 1970. "If they ever want to help the wheat farmers, make wheat illegal."On the other hand, increased demand for legal pot might buoy its price."If it's regulated like cigarettes, you're going to have a massive increase in demand for it, I would believe," said Erick Eschker, economics professor at Humboldt State. Either way, though, talk of legalization raises a question: Is Humboldt's competitive advantage in growing pot, or in growing pot illegally?Any well-designed legalization ought to ensure that "other people in the community won't have to pick up the tab for an industry cutting corners," said county Supervisor Mark Lovelace. "People would have to learn to turn this into a legit above-board business."How many could do that is unclear.At stake, many locals say, is more than a business; it's a way of life. The cannabis economy has spawned numerous nonprofits and community health and arts groups, which depend on growers for sustenance.Once legal, marijuana cultivation might well lose its outlaw glamour, to be replaced by the daily grind and smaller profits that farmers all face. Growers would have to keep books, pay taxes and abide by pesticide regulations.Grocery stores, car dealers, construction-supply outlets and other retailers would have to adjust. So, too, would thousands of residents, many with full-time jobs, who make ends meet by trimming marijuana at harvest season for $25 an hour.Then there is the Napa Valley model, where vintners thrive by focusing on premium wines, branding and wine tourism. Appellation - the branding of the Humboldt name like Champagne or Bordeaux - is a route people here find promising.But achieving a Napa Valley of marijuana might require the kind of collective action that Humboldt weed growers have found anathema. Remarkably, Hamilton's "What's After Pot?" meeting was the first time the topic was discussed so openly and thus stunned many locals. And no one seems to have investigated how a Humboldt appellation might be acquired.Still, the idea resonates.Said Hamilton: "It's appellation or Appalachia."Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)Author: Sam QuinonesPublished: Monday, April 12, 2010Copyright: 2010 The Columbus DispatchContact: letters dispatch.comWebsite: http://www.dispatch.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/PEuTiKu3CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #12 posted by PotSurfer on May 03, 2010 at 16:37:48 PT:
Marijuana in Malibu.
Thanks, it is a cool trailer. Whenever a former female body builder takes on the grow-sites in Malibu, it's going to be interesting!
Katie Arnoldi's POINT DUME
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #11 posted by FoM on April 14, 2010 at 18:20:32 PT
PotSurfer
Welcome to CNews. The trailer was interesting.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #10 posted by PotSurfer on April 14, 2010 at 18:08:16 PT:
Pot and Surfing in Malibu
This book POINT DUME is awesome. Surfing, weed, and Mexican drug cartels in Malibu makes for one great novel!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An8WnsUeG7c
Katie Arnoldi's POINT DUME
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #9 posted by FoM on April 13, 2010 at 05:54:19 PT
John Tyler and Everyone
I just read that Roger Waters is going to tour this year and he is coming to my state. I might just need to save some money to go see this tour. It probably will be out of our reach though.***Roger Waters Taking "The Wall" on Tour(Billboard) - Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters is taking "The Wall" on the road this fall for a historic 36-date North American tour starting September 15 in Toronto. The trek will wrap December 13 in Anaheim, Calif.http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63C0FF20100413http://www.rogerwaters.com/
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #8 posted by FoM on April 13, 2010 at 05:01:01 PT
John Tyler
I only did LSD a couple of times but it wasn't used without safeguards. I learned a lot about life thru those experiences. I do believe it could help people and I'm glad it is being tried.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #7 posted by John Tyler on April 12, 2010 at 21:58:07 PT
re #5
I saw this article. I was glad the link was posted here. I hope everyone gets a chance to read it. Doctors are rediscovering what every hippie knew (and loved), that hallucinogens brought one into a connection with the cosmos and a deeper spiritual understanding of peace and love. Lines like, “I am you, and you are me, and we are all together”, “With our love we could change the world”’ and “the love you take is equal to the love you make” make real sense when you have fed your head. Even that clinical psychologist guy in the article that was older and sick with cancer and all depressed and taking meds that didn’t help his spirit got an eye opening experience when he took psilocybin. He felt better about his self and his place in the universe. It gave him a perspective he didn’t have before. I’m glad for him. But I was just thinking if he was such a hot shot psychologist, why didn’t he know about this already? Maybe he was too busy.
That brings me back to the peace and love thing. It almost sounds silly, but the alternative is pretty dire. There was another article about army guys with bad cases of PTSD. They were freaking out. They had no peace of mind. Their souls were disturbed by what they had seen and done and had happen to them. That kind of thing gets to the mind. You can’t help but be affected. So the mind with peace, or the mind with no peace, who will be the happier, more well adjusted person? I know, sometimes you don’t have a choice, but afterwards you still need healing. The father of a woman I used to work with was a colonel in the Army and served in Vietnam. He was a combat engineer and according to her, he mostly blew stuff up. When he retired at 55 or so, he went to divinity school and became an Episcopal priest and spent his remaining years in some little rural parish. I asked her if he did that to try to make up for the stuff he had done in the Army? She said no, but you just don’t do something like that without some big thing making you do it.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #6 posted by FoM on April 12, 2010 at 12:36:30 PT
News Article From The Huffington Post Blog
Illinois House Could Legalize Medical Marijuana With One VoteApril 12, 2010URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/12/illinois-house-could-lega_n_534107.html
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on April 12, 2010 at 09:46:04 PT
Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again
April 14, 2010URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 12, 2010 at 09:30:31 PT
Off Topic: MSNBC: Psychedelics
They just mentioned that Psychedelics are being used to help all different kinds of maladies. Then they went to commercial playing the song Aquarius. It made me smile.Aquarius: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYsmDFlMZf4
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #3 posted by runruff on April 12, 2010 at 08:13:38 PT
Border states like Texas?
These states will loose giant revenue, those who are not adept at connecting the dots will be suprized!Texas is one of the top states in job and finance. The drug cartels are laundering billions through Huston banks. I'll bet they don't want that to stop!
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #2 posted by herbdoc215 on April 12, 2010 at 07:59:48 PT
If Humboldt wants scientist or real investment
There is one thing they can do to show that they are serious that would speak volumes to people like me that it's safe to come home and bring our jobs and money and that is to FIRE MET head Nazi and crooked PIG Sgt Hanson and a couple others or at least put him to dog catching 24/7 so he can't break the law playing Mr Majestic? they put Terry Farmer on the road after being DA for >25yrs for less and I can't for the life of me believe he has kept his position. If Humboldt doesn't do this and heal some of the wrongs they have committed in this war then you can bet your ass it's fixing to become like eastern Ky with little barefoot poor developmentally challenged kids numbering 100-1 to normal kids...I should organize tours for folks in HumCo to go to Pike County,Ky and places like that to see what happens when the talent and jobs all leave after resource extraction companies are done with your community!
peace,
Steve Tuck
VetsCann
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Comment #1 posted by goneposthole on April 12, 2010 at 07:37:50 PT
quadruple the production
It will bring the marijuana trafficking from Mexico to a standstill.California will have the advantage, border towns on the Mexican border will become safer. Californians should consider the greater good from legalization of cannabis, it will help more than they realize.It will be better for everybody. After the repeal of the prohibition of alcohol, a lot of dust was settled.It will be true for the repeal of cannabis prohibition too.
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