La, La, La

Sent by a reader who was amused by my statement that marijuana is going to be legalized and we can stick our fingers in our ears and sing, “la, la, la” or we can have a plan.

I’m kind of a La, la, la type of person myself usually but this time, the fallout threatens Humboldt County and the culture I’ve come to love so I can’t ignore the signs.  Guerilla in the Midst says the Green Rush will be over with the legalization and that is just the way it will be.  He doesn’t seem to think there is much we can do.  I disagree. I  think that limiting amount of plants grown per grower at least for awhile will help build a foothold for smaller growers.  Hand manicuring produces a finer product I’ve been told.  Big corporations will use machines.  Fresher product which can be put out by small farmers in local areas (local being relative here) will pack more flavor and medicine than bigger more unwieldy businesses can match.

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Ernie's Place (Branscomb)
Guest

Kym, I want to thank you for your concern. I agree, and have so stated, that it is my feeling that Humboldt County will be hurt worse than any other county in California by the legalization of marijuana. We have very little other industry at this point. We have lost logging and lumber, we have lost fishing, we no longer have the legal agriculture that we used to have. We don’t have a pulp mill. I could go on, and on, but it gets depressing.

All road building and infrastructure repair has been stopped. We can’t even get people to look at the plan to improve the route through Richardson’s Grove. Even though it is provable that we could build a railroad up the Eel River Canyon that would improve the river and the ecology of the stream bed, it is almost instantly shouted down.

Most all of our food, clothing, household goods, and furniture are hauled in, and most of the money for those things goes to China.

Even though you and I feel sorry for the people that will be put out of work by legalization, the grower, some of them are the ones that are trying the hardest to hold Humboldt county in the dark ages. I don’t agree that the whole world will move into Humboldt If we get adequate roads. We are an isolated area, always have been and always will be.

Maybe my friend ( who’s name sounds like a flower) up Eureka way is right, if it’s legalized, we won’t have to put up with their crap any more. They will dry up and blow away like the rest of Humboldt County, and then we can start over. But, like you I realize that the growers are not ALL bad.

So where do you plan to start helping people that try to shout you down every time you mention something that might help us? I’ve notice that most all of the naysayers don’t sign their names, to the point that I wonder who is behind all the shouting. Sometimes I wonder if it’s all a big government planned plot to starve us to death for some unknown and nefarious reason.

I did look up what has happened in Portugal, and just like every controversial issue you can make what ever you want of it. The thing that I noticed the most, is that Portugal has no relation to Humboldt county whatsoever. They have jobs.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Ernie, you are right about Humboldt not having much in the way of jobs here unless they are heavily subsidized by the marijuana industry–a little bit of tourism, some government work, and a tiny bit of telecommuting. You know I agree with you on Richardson’s Grove. I love this area but holding back progress forever won’t work. We can gently herd it in a kind direction though, I think.

I’m for legalization because it is the moral position in my mind—too many people suffer from its illegality. Financially though, Humboldt could be in a nasty pinch if we don’t work together to minimize the effects. If marijuana goes legal and we aren’t prepared, we won’t have to worry about big box stores coming here, we’ll have to worry about all the stores leaving here.

Indie
Guest
14 years ago

Kym, I agree with you about the social ills resulting from marijuana’s illegality. But I am not so sure legalization is as imminent as some people think it is.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Indie, I don’t think it will happen this year or next but I do think it will happen. Opinion polls keep showing a shift towards more lenient attitudes, politicians both conservative and liberal are calling for it, the economics of the drug war as well as its obvious failure are compelling evidence for legalization, etc.

dave
Guest
14 years ago

You are right on KYM!

It will be legal, but not for a couple of years. We’re just in the home stretch.
Meanwhile, because there is no way to survey growers right now, for all we know the locals are in the process of meeting the upcoming challenge that legalization will bring.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Dave, I don’t know but I’m hearing a lot of La la la around me;>

forkboy
Guest
14 years ago

So the choices will be agro-corporation dope or hand-crafted, organic dope?

That just brings a smile to my face…

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Alright, overly simplistic…I’ll give you that. Probably there will be a spectrum but I’m hoping the balance falls towards the organic outdoor weed.

Guerrilla in the Midst
Guest
Guerrilla in the Midst
14 years ago

We have very little other industry at this point. We have lost logging and lumber, we have lost fishing, we no longer have the legal agriculture that we used to have. We don’t have a pulp mill. I could go on, and on, but it gets depressing.

If a collapsed regional industry is not dominant, its workers move to the dominant industry. When a dominant regional industry collapses, reemployment is scarce. Growing bud is the dominant industry here.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Is Tourism going to be the dominant industry if Marijuana is legalized? I keep trying to come up with ways to incorporate marijuana and tourism together but Disneyland Green isn’t working for me.

DoDo Bird
Guest
14 years ago

Alice in Referland might be a better title. There could be some good rides (ahhh…. Sea World type roller coaster rides!!) that can go along with the “park” concept.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

They could have a 3D movie of Reefer Madness. They could have a Toke a Whirl, smoke while you ride so you don’t get nauseated;>

Joe Blow
Guest
14 years ago

Kym,

“La, La, La” is right!

When I look at what you and Ernie Brancomb have to say, what you advocate and justify Kym, and what he’s done in the past 35-40 years in all his sanctimonious, self-righteousness, La La Land is where the both of you are, alright.

The plague you people helped dump on our society in these last decades will overcome all of you long before you will get your “bad law” changed. Legal marijuana will be the least of your worries.

By the way, Kim, on another subject, Good Show! That’s one way to end an unresolved conversation. Just walk away. That works for me.

Guerrilla in the Midst
Guest
Guerrilla in the Midst
14 years ago

http://news.illinois.edu/NEWS/07/0823tourism.html is the first study of cannabis tourism.

Humboldt will have to compete with the rest of California. Other California cities are already cannabis tourist destinations.

Existing cannabis business practices pave the way future legal cannabis tourism. Clubs in Oaksterdam and San Francisco promoted cannabis tourism before the cities shut down many of the clubs. Los Angeles has some 250 existing clubs which puts it several steps ahead of the competition.

When legalization arrives, Humboldt will still be playing whiffle ball with a handful of tightly regulated clubs. L.A. will be playing hardball with existing smoking lounges and vending machines.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Joe, Sorry I missed yours and Mr. Nice’s comment earlier. I’ve answered them now. Joe, I disagree with you about Ernie. I don’t agree with his views on keeping marijuana illegal but I don’t find him either sanctimonious or self righteous–I find him wise, thoughtful, and kind.

Guerrilla, That is a great article! You are right about Humboldt playing “whiffle ball.” I’d like to think we could change that if we tried though. In the article it talks about tourists traveling to places to experience “authentic” marijuana culture. I think we could offer that. In fact, I think that is part of the draw of Reggae on the River. The Emerald Cup in Mendocino is another event that could be capitalized on.

Guerrilla in the Midst
Guest
Guerrilla in the Midst
14 years ago

Tourists visit Morocco for an authentic marijuana cultural experience because the people there have been smoked out for centuries. The villagers harvest plants whole, put them in a cloth frame, and beat the plants with sticks to remove the trichomes. The people of Morocco smoke a high potency chocolate-blonde kif and export an extremely weak doo-doo brown hash.

Authentic Humboldt marijuana culture is to smoke low-potency popcorn nugs and export the top shelf product to Los Angeles.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Exporting the top product elsewhere, is not something that happens in SoHum that I know of. A very important chestbeating activity takes place at all events–men pull out their best buds and offer them around. Their egos ride on how well the smoke is perceived by others. I find it charming.

Guerrilla in the Midst
Guest
Guerrilla in the Midst
14 years ago

Good example. There is much ado about head stash in some circles.

Happy 4-20.

suzy blah blah
Guest
suzy blah blah
14 years ago

.men pull out their best buds and offer them around

hey!! its not just the men who do that!

hitting the bong to chill my bruised ego, oxo,
s

Staff
Member
14 years ago

If you’d been doing much chest beating, maybe your ego isn’t the only part bruised;>!

suzy blah blah
Guest
suzy blah blah
14 years ago

OH ouch! that would hurt but S didnt know that you were being literal, i just took it for granted that you were, you know, being figureative 😉 do they literally beat their chests? thats funny, but i can be literal if you like…
singin-
Sixteen Dead Heads looking at Suzys chest,
yo ho ho and a bottle of (cough cough) wow man Suzys purple bubblegums the best shit man = hey pass that over here, wait a minute whos voice was that?.. was that you? i dunno i forgot where i was.. uh, hey turn that music up thats sounding good,
Reggae, thats the best beat man, reggae and Jamaica, and …Jamaican RUM, thats the ticket..
–yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

LOL! Well its not totally and purely literal but then its mostly otherwise so.

Kato
Guest
Kato
14 years ago

Eek. Did you hear the “pretend” story on NPR tonight?

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Suzy, Ach, is it a pirate lass ya are? And where is your white hat while yer drinkin’ all the rum?

Kato, I just went and read it on line. Now I have to let my brain wrap around the scenario. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103276152

suzy blah blah
Guest
suzy blah blah
14 years ago

i keep my white-hat in my chest, with my blueberry-mist and my purple-urkle and my silver-kush-cross. its called white-hat cuz its so crystally that yr fingers stick together forevermore if you touch it. Oh, sorry, did you mean my white comboy hat? Suzy only wears that silly thing when i have to take a plane. it helps make a nice profile to through security with… but;
dont touch my chest if you please mr customs man..

suzy blah blah
Guest
suzy blah blah
14 years ago

cowboy

Mr. Nice
Guest
Mr. Nice
14 years ago

That NPR story is pretty far-fetched. Especially “increased emergency room visits.”

Who goes to an emergency room for a weed overdose? That’s completely stupid. What would the treatment be anyway… water? Potato salad? A Grateful Dead album? More weed?

I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but if you go to an emergency room for a weed overdose, you are an idiot. The last place I’d want to be if I were “suffering” from a weed overdose would be waiting in an emergency room reading a National Geographic from 1987 and watching some 400 lbs adult diabetic try to explain his morning chocolate binge to a nurse. What a downer that would be. I’d much rather be waiting in line for a concert, an all-you-can-eat salad bar, or to get another sack.

Staff
Member
14 years ago

Suzy, Please tell me you really don’t tuck buds in your bra when you travel by plane? I don’t want to think of what they would do if security caught you!

Mr. Nice, Increased emergency room visits sounds odd to me. I think it is probably related to when Drug Abuse Warning Network collects data on Emergency Room visits they collect data on all drugs whether the cause of the emergency or not.

“The federal DAWN report itself notes that reports of marijuana do not mean people are going to the hospital for a marijuana overdose, it only means that people going to the hospital for a drug overdose mention marijuana as a drug they use. Since marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug it is the most mentioned illicit drug when people come to the hospital for any reason. Also, alcohol-in-combination is a larger problem than any of the illicit drugs. ”

Also people, in my experience, tend to self report marijuana use more than any other substance because they know it will show up in drug tests long after they have last used it. Whereas Alcohol can be flushed in a matter of hours.