cannabisnews.com: Cannabis Craziness is Ending 





Cannabis Craziness is Ending 
Posted by CN Staff on March 05, 2009 at 10:49:28 PT
By Kevin L. Hoover
Source: Arcata Eye
USA -- It’s as though eight years in, the 21st century has finally begun. Of course we need sustainable energy. Of course we need an equitable tax policy. Of course we need a logical model for health care.And transportation, and the environment, and education, and agriculture, and the economy. Of course. All the pent-up obsolescence of the old ways is finally collapsing, and the more changey things get, the more popular our new president becomes.
That change may include the demise of Reefer Madness as we know it, and we know it all too well in Arcata.When I interviewed deputy drug “czar” Scott Burns last year, I was flabbergasted at the tragicomically superstitious state of his beliefs. This beltway Bushie’s retrograde rhetoric was infuriating, since the ignorant and counterproductive federal pot policies have mainly served as a price-support program for the illegal cannabis industry.The government’s unimaginably stupid approach to this particular drug may finally be ending, 50 years after it should have.First, the U.S. attorney general has signaled an end to raids on medical cannabis facilities, most of which are just marijuana stores. But the proprietors’ relief could be short-lived, because the old-school paradigm that kept the profit in the faux-medical cannabis establishment may be on its way out as well. A serious move is afoot in the State Assembly to legalize cannabis, and it might, just might finally rescue us from the cockamamie patchwork of legacy laws that’s distorting and degrading our community.If legalization comes to pass, it will be as much because the government needs the tax revenue as any notion of logic or fairness.They need the money, so now we see the prohibition beginning to crumble. It will be just excellent to see the entrenched gray-market medical cannabis industry try to fight reform and keep the big bucks flowing. Watch their whole sham schema – the fake clinics, the Dr. Feelgoods, the for-profit 215 grows – evaporate once cannabis is legal.Meanwhile, the first wave of grow house busts came down last week. And now that APD is set up for it, there will be more. Those who, lured by large, tax-free dollars, ruin residences, endanger Arcata neighborhoods and gamble their and their families’ futures on lax law enforcement now have to worry about not whether, but when the cops will come charging in.The era of Arcata as grow house sanctuary is over, and last week’s raids are already changing the game. Homes which have had been internally shuttered for years suddenly have open windows, with non-halide light shining out. One has a new "FOR RENT" sign on it. Maybe an actual family will move in and enroll their kids in one of our depopulated elementary schools. It’s fairly safe to assume that the government will get legalization wrong on some levels, but one thing we ought to insist on is that those with medical need and others who want to grow on a sensible scale (no whole-house conversions) for casual personal use are allowed to do so, just as some people make delectable beer and wine at home.Part of the romance of Arcata is its counterculture, which is undeniably cannabis tinged. But the recent profit-driven saturation, involving wholesale transformation of the town into a marijuana monoculture, is anything but healthy for Arcata, its people and other living things. Everything from our greenhouse gas output to solid waste diversion efforts to availability of housing has been heavily impacted, mostly off the books and without public process.Cannabis craziness has pitted neighbor against neighbor, corrupted property managers, criminalized entrepreneuers, ruined and depleted housing stock, invited organized crime into neighborhoods, threatened public safety, wasted police resources, shattered lives and turned many against legitimate medical and recreational use – among innumerable other negative impacts.End the madness. Save our neighborhoods. Legalize freedom. Legalize marijuana. Of course.Source: Arcata Eye (CA)Author: Kevin L. HooverPublished: March 4, 2009Copyright: 2009 Arcata EyeContact: editor arcataeye.comWebsite: http://www.arcataeye.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by John Tyler on March 07, 2009 at 08:53:33 PT
prohibition is craziness
The only cannabis craziness I can think of is cannabis prohibition.
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on March 05, 2009 at 17:24:05 PT
I can easily imagine them... the agents,
wanting to snag that "Big operation you saw on that TV special."
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on March 05, 2009 at 17:20:32 PT
The raids he speaks of...
I wonder if that Marijuana Inc. special had anything to do with them? Or maybe some of that stuff about that movie or documentary or whatever it was... Humboldt County. Unless it was staged or re-enacted, you know that whenever police saw those marijuana gardens, they immediately went to trying to locate them.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on March 05, 2009 at 17:13:01 PT
This guy... Hoover.
He's really over the edge about what he considers to be the fraud of medical use cannabis.Herbdoc, it's easy to see that he's some sort of provocateur, no doubt. I'm sorry so many have given you and those who love you so much grief.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on March 05, 2009 at 12:11:57 PT
Herbdoc
I wish you all "Peace", and Love, too. Peace and Love.
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on March 05, 2009 at 12:07:43 PT
Lucy Mae, you, and your family
are in my prayers, Herbdoc. I'm so sorry.
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Comment #3 posted by herbdoc215 on March 05, 2009 at 11:24:33 PT
Kevin Hoover is a NUT!
He's hated in Humboldt worse than the pigs, he almost single handed brought the feds there...goes around spray painting peoples houses he thinks are grows...and all kinds of other FUD. Him and his hater ilk have brought this down on Arcata and when the place turns to a ghost town, I hope he's proud of himself! My wife Lucy Mae is in the hospital right this minute having her second heart attack this year, all brought on by the stress that was her gift for trying to help people in Humboldt...all egged on by Hoover's lies and his fish wrap rag generating controversy constantly! I pray someday him and the old boy/pig network get the misery they have visited upon so many others returned to them tenfold!   Peace, Steve Tuck  
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on March 05, 2009 at 11:22:36 PT
too bad
>>The era of Arcata as grow house sanctuary is over, and last week’s raids are already changing the game. Homes which have had been internally shuttered for years suddenly have open windows, with non-halide light shining out. One has a new "FOR RENT" sign on it. Maybe an actual family will move in and enroll their kids in one of our depopulated elementary schools.Sadly, I think the opposite is true - the houses will remain empty. Has this guy checked the economic news lately?The best thing for Arcata would be for legalization to occur and then for them to open their arms to cannabis growers. Who's going to live out there otherwise? The entire regional economy has been based on cannabis for 40 years.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on March 05, 2009 at 11:05:06 PT
Just Something Off Topic and Interesting To Me
Fresh Cannabis Rosehttp://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Cannabis-Rose/dp/B0016LY7UQ
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