Outlaw pot growers in California fear legalization
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gWxTA5_tagmDkwFJ58QYCVYFB0qAD9ELARIO3
By MARCUS WOHLSEN
Mar 24, 2010
REDWAY, Calif. The smell of pot hung heavy in the air as men with
dreadlocks and gray beards contemplated a nightmarish possibility in
this legendary region of outlaw marijuana growers: legal weed.
If California legalizes marijuana, they say, it will drive down the
price of their crop and damage not just their livelihoods but the
entire economy along the state's rugged northern coast.
"The legalization of marijuana will be the single most devastating
economic event in the long boom-and-bust history of Northern
California," said Anna Hamilton, 62, a Humboldt County radio host and
musician who said her involvement with marijuana has mostly been
limited to smoking it for the past 40 years.
Local residents are so worried that pot farmers came together with
officials in Humboldt County for a standing-room-only meeting Tuesday
night where civic leaders, activists and growers brainstormed ideas
for dealing with the threat. Among the ideas: turning the vast pot
gardens of Humboldt County into a destination for marijuana
aficionados, with tours and tastings a sort of Napa Valley of pot.
Many were also enthusiastic about promoting the Humboldt brand of
pot. Some discussed forming a cooperative that would enforce high
standards for marijuana and stamp the county's finest weed with an
official Humboldt seal of approval.
Pot growers are nervous because a measure that could make California
the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use will
appear on the ballot in November. State officials certified Wednesday
that the initiative got enough signatures.
The law, if approved, could have a profound effect on Humboldt
County, which has long had a reputation for growing some of the
world's best weed.
In recent years, law enforcement agents have seized millions of pot
plants worth billions of dollars in Humboldt and neighboring
counties. And that is believed to be only a fraction of the crop.
"We've lived with the name association for 30 or 40 years and
considered it an embarrassment," said Mark Lovelace, a Humboldt
County supervisor. But if legalization does happen, he said, the
Humboldt County name becomes the region's single most important asset.
"It's laughable at this point to try to be hush-hush about it," he said.
Humboldt County's reputation as a marijuana mecca began in the 1970s.
As pot users began to notice a decline in the quality of Mexican
weed, refugees from San Francisco's Summer of Love who moved to the
forested mountains along California's conveniently remote North Coast
began figuring out better ways to grow their own. The Humboldt name
soon became a selling point for marijuana sold on street corners
across the country.
These days, the small towns in this region about five hours north of
San Francisco are dotted with head shops and garden supply stores.
California is one of 14 states that allow people to grow and use
marijuana for medical purposes, but recreational use remains illegal.
(And will remain illegal under federal law, regardless of how
California votes.)
For decades, the outlaws, rebels and aging hippies of Humboldt County
have been hoping for legalization. But now that it appears at hand,
many clandestine growers fear it will flood the market with cheap,
corporate-grown weed and destroy their way of life.
About 20 pot growers gathered on a patio outside the meeting Tuesday
to discuss the dilemma posed by legalized pot. Many wore baseball
caps and jeans, just like farmers anywhere else in America. No one
addressed anyone else by name, a local custom driven by fear of
arrest, but that didn't stop some in the group from lighting up their crop.
Many complained that legalization would put them in the same bind as
other small farmers struggling to compete against large-scale agribusinesses.
A dreadlocked younger grower who said he had already been to prison
for marijuana objected that no one could replicate the quality of the
region's weed. When he was a kid, he said, "Humboldt nuggets that
was like the holy grail."
"Anyone can grow marijuana," he said. "But not everyone can grow the
super-heavies, the holy bud."
Under the ballot measure, Californians could possess up to one ounce
of marijuana for personal use. They could cultivate gardens up to 25
square feet, which is puny by Humboldt County standards. City and
county governments would have the power to tax pot sales.
Some growers Tuesday fantasized about mobs of tourists in limos
streaming to the county. Others were not thrilled with the idea of
paying taxes on their crop.
Many agreed with the sentiment on a sticker plastered on a pizza
joint's cash register: "Save Humboldt County keep pot illegal."
--------
California vote to legalize pot scares Humboldt
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/article/12786/
By Dennis Wyatt
dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
209-249-3532
March 25, 2010
Get ready for the economic collapse of Humboldt County.
News that the move to legalize marijuana has qualified for the
November ballot was greeted with the same amount of enthusiasm in
Eureka and its hinterlands as if it was an edict from the federal
government ordering the clear cutting of the entire Redwood National Park.
The worries in the land where San Francisco comes across as a
conservative bastion are simple. Legalize pot and it will send the
price of Humboldt County's top cash crop spiraling downward. And when
that happens, the fear is that it will lay waste to the entire
economy of the region that will make the collapse of the lumber
industry seem like good times.
They fear corporations Weed Mart if you will will flood the
market and drive the price down. They also don't like the idea that
they would be subject to taxes knowing the vast array of resources
the government can bring to go after tax cheaters is 10 times more
devastating than anything the California criminal justice system
could do to them.
So after decades of leading the charge to legalize pot, the Marijuana
Mecca is having second thoughts. It explains why you are starting to
see stickers popping up around the region that read, "Save Humboldt
County - keep pot illegal."
This has prompted pot growers to start doing something that pot
growers rarely do - meet openly with elected leaders in a standing
room only gathering to brainstorm ways that Humboldt can deal with the threat.
That's right. The pot growers, not law enforcement, think legalizing
marijuana is a threat.
One of the more interesting ideas to come of that meeting was to make
Humboldt County to marijuana aficionados what Napa Valley is to wine
connoisseurs. Such a vision would include pot farm tours and pot
tasting with resorts and all the tourist trappings you'd find in the
Wine Country.
Such a proposal would build on one that is equally business-like:
Creating and protecting the Humboldt brand of pot.
Humboldt County become an ideal place for illicit pot growing due to
its relative remoteness and lush forests but because of its climate.
That allowed Humboldt County to do what the North American Free Trade
Association could never do for a United States industry which was
wipe out one of Mexico's top cash crops high end marijuana.
So instead of "Acapulco Gold" being bantered about in song and
underground newspapers we may one day see big billboards proclaiming
"Humboldt High". There's even a proposal to build a cooperative to
enforce high standards for marijuana and stamp the product that
passes muster with an official Humboldt seal of approval.
For those who still don't believe that where people take stances on
many issues has to do with money, consider this: Law enforcement
raids in the past few years have seized billions of dollars worth of
plants. Virtually everyone is in agreement from law enforcement to
the growers that what was seized was only a tiny fraction of the crop.
The Humboldt growers are worried that big agri-business will come
into the county and start growing pot that will ultimately drive them
out of business by flooding the market with inexpensive corporate-grown pot.
Who would have ever thought saving the family farm would have
entailed keeping big business out of marijuana cultivation?
Humboldt County's concern is just one unexpected consequence of the
move to legalize marijuana in California. It also underscores
concerns of how prevalent pot use could become.
Do we really need to legalize marijuana beyond its use for legitimate
medicinal purposes?
Civil libertarians would argue otherwise.
Of course, they aren't the "civil libertarians" who happen to make a
living selling illegal pot which naturally has a higher value than
something you can purchase without risk.
The concern over money and such makes the argument pro-pot
legalization forces have made over the years seem a tad too pious.
In the end it is clear the only reason pot growers do what they do is
not to strike a cause for personal choice and freedom but to line
their pockets.
They are not the civil libertarians as they like to portray
themsleves but opportunists.
Voters need to think long and hard about legalizing marijuana if for
no other reason than to make sure that we're not putting law breakers
who are avoiding paying millions in taxes on their profits out of business.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment