76-Year-Old Twin Cannabis Farmers Tell LA Times Why They’ll Vote No on Prop. 64

Los Angeles Times Story

Screenshot from yesterday’s LA Times.

Yesterday, the LA Times ran a story on two 76-year-old twin cannabis farmers. The two have grown marijuana in the Covelo area since 1986. They will be voting no on Proposition 64 which would legalize recreational use of cannabis. The story gives a look at why many small growers don’t want the proposition to pass. One of the brother’s sums up their concerns:

“The thing you need to realize is that this is a movement that is becoming an industry,” Robert said. “The movement was organic gardening, the back-to-the-land, alternative lifestyle. We were the original generation that came out here and set up our pot gardens.”

Like mom-and-pop businesses squeezed out by big-box retailers, he said, so are pot farmers in danger of being squeezed out of business once big corporations get a toehold in the cannabis business.

Even though Proposition 64 gives small farmers a head start, banning large cultivator licenses for five years, farmers like the Cunnans aren’t especially comforted.

You can read the rest of the LA Times story here.

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Gazoo
Guest
Gazoo
7 years ago

As a 40 plus year smoker, I’m torn between what’s right and what’s proper, I would love to be free and able to smoke my weed without any problems, however I don’t believe prop 64 is just what is needed, I was number 843 in the state of California for prop 215 so I been smokin legal for years I just don’t know if it’s the right way yet

Joey
Guest
Joey
7 years ago
Reply to  Gazoo

The real issue is now is it’s all about greedy non tax payers.

humboldt dad
Guest
humboldt dad
7 years ago
Reply to  Gazoo

Right now I don’t think Prop 64 is the right thing. I can see all the big tobacco companies (Phillip Morris, Japan Tobacco Int., British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco Group) coming in and having pot farms the size of their tobacco farms and you can guess what that would do to all the little guys. For now I say NO on Prop 64!

G-ma
Guest
G-ma
7 years ago

I’m taking shit for it,but I voted NO.untill they get it right I can’t agree.im torn.IDK it just isn’t setting well with me.all the things they put you thru,so they can spy on you.charge to much money.the cost goes to less workers or less money for the farmer,more money to the government as par!!!somebody will always lose in this deal.we work harder and make less.WTF

Shak
Guest
Shak
7 years ago
Reply to  G-ma

I’m with you G-ma.
In time it will be decriminalized anyway. More and more states are nullifying the bad law. More & more juries are nullifying bad law cases.
Eventually common sense will lead the way, even in law.

anon
Guest
anon
7 years ago

Oh come on kym. This is just propoganda for the shady growers who don’t want to pay tax like other industries do.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  anon

What tax is it again which is shadily propagandized as not being paid?

Jeff
Guest
Jeff
7 years ago
Reply to  anon

[edit] I’m so sick of people making decisions based on what the bad folks do. Time and time again the proper folks get totally side swiped because of [edit] like you trying to ‘get ahead’ of what the bad guys are doing. Playing into all the scare tactics the government hands you so they can form the world as they wish. Clean the wax out of your ears

Saucy
Guest
Saucy
7 years ago
Reply to  anon

– Can you blame them? Who actually “WANTS” to pay taxes? do you actually like giving a percentage of your earnings to the government each year? I think most people pay taxes because they legally have too, and not because they “WANT” to.

Shak
Guest
Shak
7 years ago
Reply to  Saucy

Ditto. I would love to be able to donate to the causes I felt worthy, but after forced taxes, I barely have enough to pay for the necessities of life.

Brad
Guest
Brad
7 years ago
Reply to  Saucy

Most people pay taxes because their employers are required to withhold it from their paychecks, not because they feel all warm and fuzzy about obeying the law.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  Saucy

All growers seem to want to pay sales taxes in order to grow……and California is taking in lots of sales taxes. .. and the county of Humboldt also gets local sales tax revenues…….no need for more taxes on growers…..just overkill of gubbamint and corporate greed.

Coletta Hughes
Guest
Coletta Hughes
7 years ago

I know legalizing it will save the pines and other places where the greedy ass shithead growers have set up shop. But I also care very much about one of the old mom and pop growers who loves his land too and I could never vote yes for that reason alone. So I’ll be voting no on legalizing recreational use.

Sad thing, I think the feds are letting gangs and the foreigners get away with a lot of clearcutting etc to help convince people of the lie that weed needs regulation.

All weed needs is a stop put to the greedy mega growers and their nasty chem weed!

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  Coletta Hughes

Stop puts……good one Colletta😆

“In the pines, in the pines, where the sun dont eva shine”…..

1985
Guest
7 years ago

I agree. H.O.J. daah!!!

Shak
Guest
Shak
7 years ago
Reply to  Coletta Hughes

That’s crossed my mind many times, too.
Especially when they finger point over a bag of ferilizer destroying the planet while for over 51 years the Military bases, where the families live, have known Radioactive waste in the drinking water. The epa spills twice into the river. The tax funds collected to help the poor are instead given to the UN & to foreign enemies.
I’m grumpy again, but justified.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  Shak

Yup, and just think of all the urbanite dwellers and all those old water lines with lead and other toxic crap people are ingesting….

Maybe now we know why gubbamint is so scared shitless to provide community drinking fountains……liability of health lies and cover ups.

hmm
Guest
hmm
7 years ago

It is a far from perfect Prop! Without further protection, small farmers will be a thing of the past. On the other hand, voting NO is voting to keep many people in prison who dont belong there and to send many more others to prison.

Light dep killed high quality cannabis and boutique growers. The quality of dep is good enough to satisfy buyers who buy to distribute to the medical market, and end users dont know enough to demand indoor quality. Ive seen some clean outdoor, but it is a rare and relative thing, since dust, pollen, ect is ubiquitous outdoors.
Testing standards are VERY poor! They are based on standards for food, not medicine, and food that is intended to be washed before being consumed, at that!

The insane increase of yearly production allowed by light dep has driven price down to the point that only someone with a large outdoor grow can make a living.

Banning light dep would help save truly medicinal quality cannabis and truly small farmers.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  hmm

Voting yes means people still go to prison, it is just that now, more laws were made for taxation that did not previously exist because gubbamint avoids using existing laws to enforce and prosecute……total takeover of society to thwart constitutional human rights for citizens only……non citizens don’t count constitutionally, but for social issues, rats are needed.

rolling hills
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rolling hills
7 years ago

I trust the black market more than I do the guberment.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  rolling hills

Agreed 100%, it is the principle of the matter.

hmm
Guest
hmm
7 years ago

Who would go to prison if this passes?

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  hmm

Who would not go to federal prison……a question the county and State blowhards can’t or won’t answer……not even with a HAZMAT cleansing booth at the poll stations…..

Shak
Guest
Shak
7 years ago
Reply to  hmm

Protection? Like collecting huge sums of money to protect us from radioactive waste and other hazzards? Protection, as in exchanging huge sums of money to assure goons don’t beat us up & throw us in cages?
What do you mean by “protection”?
Protecting our health, livlihood and liberty?
What are they protecting? The environment?
You might be interested in this podcast. For over 51 years, radioactive waste flowed into the water sources of military base. The great godly all caring protectors knew. But did nothing. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lu-kdbik6Js&feature=youtu.be
That kind of protection?

tugboat
Guest
7 years ago
Reply to  Shak

Protection I believe is the same protection that Al Capone offered to his clients.
” pay up or I kill you “

Resident @ large
Guest
Resident @ large
7 years ago
Reply to  hmm

Whatever happened to consumer driven markets? If you prefer to use corporate grown weed have at it. If not. Support your local ” mom&pop”

Shake Well
Guest
Shake Well
7 years ago

Pot growers against pot legalization!? I’m shocked!

Seriously, a story about pot growers – twins or otherwise – who is voting FOR 64 would be more noteworthy.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  Shake Well

Pot Growers are not ALL,

Young, Dumb and full of Cum…..

Newbies are idiots, always have been…

Wisdom is the old way, the only way, but then greed takes hold when other forms of living life are attacked……really says how bad the american job market, business, employment have become that people emigrate away from other job sectors into pot agriculture.

Uncle Sam, that's who I am
Guest
Uncle Sam, that's who I am
7 years ago

Taxation and regulation of a plant is it legalization. It is government control”
Republican or Democrat or otherwise playing the masses. Stay underground, stay american

Julia Carrera
Guest
7 years ago

Thank you Kym, for posting our oldest and most precious members of the Small Farmers Association! The Small Farmers Association Board and membership are voting no on 64, and so am I! We need to protect our communities and the generations of families that call the northcoast home! Our deepest gratitude to Robin for doing a stellar job at shining the light on what could be a disaster if the urban areas don’t have compassion for the north California families that farm their medicine!

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  Julia Carrera

Urban cares not for rural except for theiving the natural resources and profit…..

Electricity – dams
Water theft – dams
Water rights takings – dams
Fish kills – Big Ag
Fishing degredation – Big Ag, Dams, political lies
Low Water Flows – Big Ag
Pot – regulation encourages corporation control, avoids obligation to prosecute under the laws predating this current fiasco, adds to water rights takings and regulation, etc….politics tying lies into fabrications and concoctions to use pot to take away or limit water rights, but all of the rest of industry is given a pass to protect urban politics that depends on rural area thefts😈

Resident @ large
Guest
Resident @ large
7 years ago

Organic food movement- consumer.
No GMO. – consumer
Fair treatment migrant farm labor- consumer.
Agree that big AG sucks. Do not support it.

Brad
Guest
Brad
7 years ago

Everyone has to eat and if you buy your food in a grocery store you are supporting Big Ag. Few people can cobble together a complete healthy diet 365 days a year from home grown or farmer’s market purchases.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  Brad

True, but the “intent” is real and fabricated to be as such….not for you, him, her……but the few elitists who make bank.

the misadventures of bunjee
Guest
the misadventures of bunjee
7 years ago

I voted yes because any law can be tweaked as time goes by. You guys need to get over your fears and take that leap. Everything is conjecture and wishful thinking until the votes are counted. That and these guys are 76, not 26. Things are going to be different in 50 years on a lot of levels, as things tend to be.

Tudor
Guest
Tudor
7 years ago

No because the process to change a law has to be someone with power and money to get it going. Sadly once it’s passed corporations will never let those changes happen because they stand to make a lot of money once they push out the little grows and buy up their land.

Shak
Guest
Shak
7 years ago
Reply to  Tudor

Well said Tudor.

Brad
Guest
Brad
7 years ago
Reply to  Tudor

I disagree, with proper support grower’s organizations will be able to continue to shape policy in Sacramento, but they have to do it now to build a strong base.

Jeff
Guest
Jeff
7 years ago

Haven’t we learned from prop 215 and colorados recreational laws that a poorly written prop with the intentions of amending are FAR from what happens? All the unknowns get folks in trouble and jail time is Imminent. On top of the fact that the prop is supported by folks with their hands in the pot? Ever see who lobbies FOR 64 and what there interests are? Big money doesn’t lobby for competition, they lobby when they find a loophole for the benefit of their business.. that’s what business is

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago

Tweaking laws is just another form of admitting the untweaked version was fucked from the beginning, flawed…..as if an ultrasound was necessary to see through the embriotic fluids…..

It seems in American politics that rubber stamping has become a disease of tantamount proportions.

Crime stopper
Guest
Crime stopper
7 years ago

cry all you want. The millions of users in San Fran,Oakland, and Los Angeles cancel every no vote up here by 1000 fold. Start selling chiclets again.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  Crime stopper

Yes, and urbanites call rural folks hicks too.

Politically, the majority can’t take away the human or constitutional rights of the minority…..this fiasco is far from over……..it could be over IF the feds decriminalize…..but the feds don’t want this fiasco to be over……anything to divert attention away from the impending societal meltdown in America due to nothing pot.

TC
Guest
TC
7 years ago

Im so confused! yes or no? no or yes? i just want to be able to go to my local market and grab some pepsi and a fat sack of weed and go home.

Meaghan Simpson
Guest
Meaghan Simpson
7 years ago

TC – OY VAY! Pepsi and “a fat sack of weed” that is NOT grown with any care for our heirloom certified organic medicinal methods and materials OR our environmental laws are being massively broken by massive huuuuuuuge illegal grows that cause destroy forests with illegal clear cuts forests, illegal diversions of springs, creeks, rivers, illegal pumping, plus totally industrial BIG POISONS CHEMS and grow CHEMS poisoning our watersheds! creeks! streams! rivers! wildlife wiped out! Massive illegal
Recreational pot growers are not liberating pot. They are already committing so many crimes worth mega $billions for cleanup already do not intend to change! Just want to make $100 million and pay some taxes and “maybe” afford to pay big time to clean up the massive harms when they have profits from their crimes?!?!? Insane!
GMO MJ and new synthetics GMOS 2.0 with BAYER/MONSANTO big time invade and patent and own the recreational and medicinal massively planning big corp coups in progress engaged. Our worst fears from 50 years ago were BIG CORP takeover and turn our organic medicine into a harmful health hazard! We were the heirloom organic movement on the ground… Now the monsters monopoly madness mergers are more gonzo than ever greed from the bowels in the belly of the beast! No on Prop 64! Prop 64 is war on our lands, soils, springs, creeks, rivers, oceans, fish, birds, foxes, raccoons, everything…humanity and all living things and the rights of nature. Prop64 is war on healthy heirloom organic! TC you want a fat bag of weed? Get smart creative and green protections for your environment and your health! NORML has always been way too dull normal side of legalization for my taste! Just legalize it,
But NO heirloom organic seeds strains or methods and materials. What a waste!
Get it right or do not legalize evil!

TC
Guest
TC
7 years ago

WOW, ok ok ill just go buy it from the neighborhood thug then, sheeeeesh!

Taurus Balzhoff
Guest
Taurus Balzhoff
7 years ago

OK, old dope growers are not farmers, and pot is not “medicine”. The saddest thing is that weed has been illegal about 40 years too long, and that you characters EVER got $4000 a pound for it! Cannabis should be grown on farmland, by businessmen, traded on the open market, and taxed. It should be totally legal for anyone at all to grow what they need at home.
The end. There is no reason why the whole state should maintain a prohibition which has not worked, ever, so that a few people can grow “enough to get by”. You have all pushed your aberrant, black market, druggie lifestyle to the limit. Time to face the fact that the other 40 million people in the State of California get to tell you it’s time to move on. Sorry if there’s no Social Security for dopers, and that you will have to find something else to whine about.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago

Cannabis should be grown whenever any person wants to grow cannabis.

The “where” is politically subjective when it should not be.

Maybe when politics catches up with the illicit “other economic activities”, then the “where” is validated as reasonable.

Illicit economics:

Nurseries
Big Pharma
Animal trades
Maritime industries
Fishing Industry
Pulp Industry
Etc…… – anything imported that fucks with the natural environment and displaces species….pike minnows, carp, morning glory, etc… as example types of illicit economic frauds allowed by gubbamint blowhards…..

TrinFriend
Guest
TrinFriend
7 years ago

Shame on you and anyone else who dares claim that cannabis is not medicine it has been proven over and over again! Even the national cancer institute released a document acknowledging that both CBD and THC kill cancer cells. I have seen it save lives numerous times. Just because someone enjoys it and does not use it specifically toward a cancer regiment or to stave off their grand mal seizures does not mean it is not medicine.

All your statements add up to the fact that you don’t get that the big Ag model is a failed model. When you hear about local farmers markets and their popularity and growth over the last few years it is precisely because people are waking up to the fact that the industrialized green revolution has not brought us higher quality food or better land stewardship. In many cases it has brought the opposite. Hence movements toward organic non-gmo products.

Many existing growers are the ones who took the chance. They are not simply criminals, but again, if you don’t believe in the medicine it’s easy for you to say. We are patients and we have helped pay for the research needed to show the benefits that are helping to change the laws. Unbridled capitalism is what’s wrong with this industry and why we need regulations (as long as it’s federally illegal). AUMA legalizes vertical integration and consolidation of the market place. It’s not good for patients as it amends 215 and it’s not good for small businesses. I guess if you can’t see how bad things are in our food system then you can’t see it with the medicine – especially if you don’t see it as medicine.

G-ma
Guest
G-ma
7 years ago

You still have to pay the same at home or on a.farm or wherever.im still voting no.untill they get it right for everybody.and back in the day we got $5,500.lb.that was in L.A.And we will never see that price ever again.unless you mega grow you can’t make shit.SAD SAD SAD.

Brad
Guest
Brad
7 years ago
Reply to  G-ma

I disagree. I just saw a tad over a hundred pounds harvested from a 2600 square foot small operation from growers who knew their shit, figuratively and literally speaking and who are going into the legal growing system. Even at 1300 to 1500 dollars a pound that’s a decent living for two families.

TrinFriend
Guest
TrinFriend
7 years ago
Reply to  Brad

Whoa…I don’t know if that’s a decent living for two families after taxes and operational costs. It costs somewhere around 20k to grow and prep a site like that – depending on how you go about it and your practices of course. Then if you are paying 150 per unit for Trimming there goes another 15k.

Every year for the past 8 years the price dives. I know quite a few people who have already presold their outdoor harvest at 11 and 1200. Going with 13 as was stated above your looking at $130k Gross Sales. Just the overhead knocks it down to $95k. Even splitting this in half is less than the median income in California (which is roughly $61k) Who knows what taxes will be but they are likely to be in the upper range especially because as cannabis farmers we don’t get to write anything off. Then, you’ll have all your local and state permitting/licensure fees…at this time in Trinity…the lowest fee is $5,000 a year.

None of this includes whether you have a good year or a bad year. Farmer’s cannot count on high quality and high yield every year. This year is a prime example with all this rain and the russet mites running rampant. 2 years ago we got hit by russets for the first time and we almost lost our farm completely because we lost 70% of our crop. This year is completely different, with different variables. You make good points, I hope you are right as we go into the future. There’s just so many variables.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  G-ma

Yup, gubbamint wants “unit volumes”……mom and pops don’t provide mass units, mass volume for the dispensary models……

Ruth Broderick
Guest
Ruth Broderick
7 years ago

@ yahoo.com

Old Enuf
Guest
Old Enuf
7 years ago
Reply to  Ruth Broderick

I’m very supportive of recreational use–I thought voting yes would be a no brainer. After I passed on the one sound byte info and looked at small growers concerns as well of the predictable total legal chaos that is inevitable: (eventually Feds Will deal with a big hammer, simmering turf wars between medicinal/ recreational regulations will escalate, losing quality grows versus monstrous cartel/ scorched earth grows thriving)…. I couldn’t do it. We all know the RJ Reynolds mogul-types will destroy every small grower in a heart-beat leaving Humboldt a waste dump in a decade. Just couldn’t do it.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  Old Enuf

Most pro pot people are not waiting for recreational.

Why?

They smoke in defiance of the political blowhards, always have.

Anyone jumping on a bandwagon now are either too young and dumb or are face pulling elders….not much room to twist and shout ala Beatles style.

Mike
Guest
Mike
7 years ago

Go covelo. Fight for your wright’s

Ram Priya
Guest
Ram Priya
7 years ago

VOTE NO ON PROP 64! KEEP PROP 215 INTACT! DON”T BE DUPED BY SHYSTERS! VOTE NO ON PROP 64!

Put up a Parking lot!
Guest
Put up a Parking lot!
7 years ago

Wish I would have bought stock in fence co. I think Humco. politicians will be disappointed when the price crashes and prop. taxes go unpaid along with local merchants not getting the business they used to. Along with the sales tax it generated. Humboldt will be a brand name for corporate pot industrially grown else where and sold at a fraction of current price. Maybe local politicians will get kick backs from Corps, maybe they already are. I think it was Cindy Lauper who said it best. “MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING.”

THC
Guest
THC
7 years ago

I’m voting no based on the economical issues. I mean let’s face it, I would say over 80% of the local economy is based on the production of pot and the only reason the prices are high is because it’s illegal. If it was to become legal big corporations would not be spending the insane amounts of money to comply with local and State land use regulations. It would cost them a fortune to Terrace off the land and make it into viable Agland, why would they do that when they could just go down south and cornrow that shit.

Henchman Of Justice
Guest
Henchman Of Justice
7 years ago
Reply to  THC

What other issues are you voting on besides economic?

Seems that the Humboldt Consequential needs to receive another secret e-mail on the fiasco to clear up the confusion.

The Dude
Guest
The Dude
7 years ago

“The movement was organic gardening, the back-to-the-land, alternative lifestyle. We were the original generation that came out here and set up our pot gardens.” That movement is non-operative and quite frankly, the movement has no business trying to enforce their assumed moral authority on others.

The “movement” growers simply want to enforce their morality on others, while pretending that they aren’t trying to keep prices artificially inflated by keeping pot illegal.

Free the weed, grow your own, stick it to the fake “mom and pops” and big corporations at the same time.

Yes on 64.

Rob
Guest
Rob
7 years ago

The only ones that don’t want prop 64 to pass is law enforcement and the greedy sniveling dispensary owners!!