Group of Cannabis Growers Calls for Peaceful Presence at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors’ Meeting to Ask for Tax Relief

 

marijuana buds in a garden

Cannabis flowers ready to harvest on a small Salmon Creek farm. [Photo by Kym Kemp]

Press release from Salmon Creek Farms:

 

Frustrated Small Farmers Unite
If you are feeling the stick beating on you from the Permitting process, this could be your last time to ask the County for a carrot rather than that stick and have your voice heard:

9 AM, Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at the Humboldt County Court House. Be prepared to speak your piece, peacefully, to the County Supervisors. Arrive early to pass through the security screening. You will have 3 minutes, be succinct, passionate yet clear. You don’t have to speak, your presence will be felt.

The Supervisors can rescind, alter or change anything that the public stands up for and insists that they act upon i.e. elimination of square footage tax, tax only profit and  production, prorate taxes rather than lump sum …

Unite as a single, engaged and courageous voice. We the people: come forth to the Supervisor’s Chambers, fill the audience, bring a sign, and let them hear what you think of the situation now. 9 AM, Tuesday, February 13, 2018.

Contact information: [email protected].

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LabeledaNazi
Guest
LabeledaNazi
6 years ago

Would love to go but as one poster put it, im trying my best to keep the “humboldt culture” alive. Im an outlaw grower, have been for 25 years(lived here all my life). I feel for anybody who signed up for this horseshit but I’m going to keep doing what I’ve always been doing. I grew up with family and friends who “invented” sinsemilla. I’ll stay a moonshiner and keep my roots. Good luck to all you small time farmers. Seriously. You will need it

Creeker
Guest
Creeker
6 years ago
Reply to  LabeledaNazi

I’m with you

Pshhh
Guest
Pshhh
6 years ago
Reply to  LabeledaNazi

You got about one season left . You might be all cocky because you have an outlet that’s working out for you at the moment but it won’t last . I was just looking at great indoor in Idaho for 13

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
6 years ago
Reply to  Pshhh

Black market indoor herb is getting anywhere from 1,200 to 1,600 a pound. Yes, a few small growers are getting a little more, but that market will crash as well.

Don
Guest
Don
6 years ago
Reply to  Perspective

It’s already crashed

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago
Reply to  Perspective

The $$$$ overhead of the indoor is going to be it’s ultimate downfall. That (hopefully) in addition to the fact that it has a much higher carbon footprint than outdoor!

Creeker
Guest
Creeker
6 years ago
Reply to  Pshhh

Haha. Been hearing that for almost 30 years

Juniper Jim
Guest
Juniper Jim
6 years ago
Reply to  Pshhh

Idaho has the most stringent pot laws in the nation, pls go there and grow, and do serious time. ID ain’t CA

Stormy
Guest
Stormy
6 years ago
Reply to  LabeledaNazi

Thanks for all the crime. You and your kind have brought unending lawlessness to Humboldt. All of it associated with your favorite drug’s use. In your fevered mind you may think of yourself as a “gentleman grower,” or some other nonsense, but you are just another criminal and always will be. You no doubt raised criminals. So, more generations of delusional criminal growers.

Thanks for the drug use, the theft, the assaults, the dangerous street creatures, the mentally ill druggies, the gangsters and all the other lawless. Thanks to the hill folk who desire nothing but profit and drugs, we have some of the worst crime in the state. Despicable.

Maggi
Guest
Maggi
6 years ago
Reply to  Stormy

That is the Truth. Thanks for killing the spotted owl, for polluting the rivers, for making the Great Redwoods an unsafe place to visit, for drawing irresponsible, stupid, low-class stoners from around the world – to create garbage, steal, use up resources needed by locals, and creating a inhospitable area that can’t attract medical professionals, or keep HSU grads here. For your 30 years of destruction and chaos. Your days are numbered. Cartel tags all over Eureka. They’re coming for your shit.

bearjew
Guest
bearjew
6 years ago
Reply to  Maggi

methinks you work for BIG PHARMA. I’m a lumberjack, but you should mind your own business about what people do on their own land. Shit, I know a logger who pays a $100 for every owls nest his crew brings in so don’t tell me some garden is ruining the planet. You probably own logging equipment and can’t wait to mow down the old growth!

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  bearjew

The trees are virtually gone in my area, except on my little piece of the woods, all in the last 6 months. Gone in patches of 3 acre clear cuts, requiring minimal documentation. What’s left are mountains of debris that were supposed to be cleared off within 30 days but aren’t because no one checks up on these little permits to see if the promises were kept. All in the name of putting up greenhouses for pot grows.

You may keep up with attempts to white wash this by reminding people of what used to be done in the name of logging but it’s simply the same destruction carried on in a hundred thousand little pieces instead of a few big ones. If you are a logger, you are certainly profiting by this filthy practice because the ‘big’ timber companies are not clear cutting but you are.

Bear Jew
Guest
Bear Jew
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

You morons don’t understand commercial real estate..
Someone will either log it or garden.

I don’t care which choice it is… I just think it’s un American to complain about private property rights… move to venezuela

bearjew
Guest
bearjew
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Sure, but ask yourself this: Why were the Nazis “national socialists?”

I’m not arguing with you about fishing, but I prefer survival of the small agrarian landowner. I don’t think the mom and poppers are hurting fish

My point is that if you pay for your land and you are a little guy, not MAXAM, Haliburton, Monsanto, your fellow PLEEB land owners and community members should support your survival.

The small humble landowners are constantly under attack from those who have big $$ and want the land, the jealous, and those who own no land…. That is my issue. If you are worried about environment, go after Haliburton who has a grow permit on file with the county!

“Bear Jew” … aka… Sargeant Donny Donowitz….
Only denegrating the fascist racist types here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isVwqPyxLM8

PS: LOVE YOUR SITE!!!

Kathy
Guest
Kathy
6 years ago
Reply to  Stormy

Your ignorance is the reason people are against it. Don’t make generalizations based on a few bad seeds. Do your own search of scholarly sources and you’ll understand why it’s important. The DEA contracts out grows for research every year, NIH is currently studying CBD, and people are getting off their hard narcotic prescriptions. The vote for Cannabis as a schedule III drug will be in 2020 and Cannabis With less than .3 thc is already legal. Don’t speak about what you don’t know. What people say and what’s true are very different.

3D GrandChessboard
Guest
3D GrandChessboard
6 years ago
Reply to  LabeledaNazi

Why do we fight with people instead of corporations? Its Hatfield vs McCoy’s. Generations of bloodshed all while the banks and wealthy bought the rights and land and business, right out from under the poor, hard working family farmers for generations.
What we need is perspective. The average house bought at 300k, will bring in 600k for the money lenders. We are all cannon fodder and encouraged to forget about government doesn’t have to live on a budget.
If we really understood who the biggest drug runners are, it’s our very own corporate deep state revolving door between the sectors.
There’s no shame in becoming an economic hit man, destroying the 3rd world slowly and surely, laying the ground work for the engineered collapse of 1st world societies who fail to learn from the real criminals at the helm.
If we don’t figure it out, our children will ask us WTF were we doing …when we actually had a chance to do something about it.

bearjew
Guest
bearjew
6 years ago

Right on Kym… My point is, we all need to take a deep breathe and try, at least try, to get along with eachother.

I know that many people hate dopers, but many dopers have had tough roads that include jail time (darned pot nazis) for an herb… resisting tyrants can unite us all.

JustWantToHeartheEndoftheStory
Guest
JustWantToHeartheEndoftheStory
6 years ago

My, how very amusing. One of the selling points for legalization was that the taxes on weed would offset the increased costs of enforcement. I guess reality is catching up to the THC fueled fantasies of the growers.

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
6 years ago

What costs of enforcement? If there had been enforcement there would not have been 7500 illegal gardens on which there were no taxes and no regulation. The market would not be swamped with cheap weed and the legal growers could have sold this year’s crop and had some money to pay taxes with. The premise of going legal was that the county would make legality so attractive, and staying in the black market so unattractive, that the legal growers would have a level playing field. But there was almost no enforcement, and no costs. The taxes go into the general fund anyway – they are not sequestered for enforcement. The county let the legal growers down, and most of the people being taxed were tricked deliberately by the county into turning in interim permits in late December so they would be liable for the tax. Lets see if reality catches up to the greed fueled fantasies of the County.

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

Great, informed comments! Go ED go!!!

Pshhh
Guest
Pshhh
6 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

Your first mistake was trusting the government

jj
Guest
jj
6 years ago
Reply to  Pshhh

Hell, YES.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

What a totally self involved view. A lawyer’s distortion. The taxes were supposed to cover the cost of enforcement but somehow you want to twist it into being called a lie because there was little enforcement before the taxes were collected. The equivalent of a thief’s rationale who complaining about restitution, blaming the authorities for letting him be a thief. You want not to pay the taxes now because you say that enforcement was not effective before the taxing. Well, duh. That was the point.

justlivelihood
Guest
justlivelihood
6 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

THANK YOU so much for seeing the growers point of view . More power to you !

ghostown
Guest
ghostown
6 years ago

The “THC fueled fantasies”, just happen to be a major component of our economy. Like it or not.

Dairy Farmer
Guest
Dairy Farmer
6 years ago

Fellow Farmers. You’re wasting your energy in th wrong direction. Don’t get wrapped up in the political hype, stay focused on what matters. You’re stronger together.

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago
Reply to  Dairy Farmer

What, prey tell, is more important than working to influence the inflated taxes/ bureaucratic costs placed on the grower, which with the current market conditions WILL kill the golden goose (and put the ‘good guys’ who ‘came in from the dark’ out of business)?!! If we don’t stand up NOW there may be very little to stand up for!
Thank you to the Salmon Creek Farms group for organizing this!

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Ben Round

You are looking for others to blaming for killing the “golden goose” that you’ve been dining on for decades. The only difference now is that legalization just opened the door for so many of more parasites that the poor goose can no longer survive the insult. You aren’t better. You were just fewer. There is already little left to stand up for. You sucked her dry and wanting to go back to not paying any taxes only making that too legal is not going to say your sorry greedy hides. The taxes that you haven’t yet paid are not what killed the goose.

REAL JUSTICE
Guest
REAL JUSTICE
6 years ago

call out the supervisor who has an Illegal house without permits

Real conflict with supervisors voting on land use issues
Guest
Real conflict with supervisors voting on land use issues
6 years ago
Reply to  REAL JUSTICE

How about any lawyers ask which supervisor should have excused themselves over any land issues including the new zoning .My lawyer would have a field day with this information .Everything this supervisor voted on about land use .How do they live illegally and not do what they are making everyone else do

Adam Harrold
Guest
Adam Harrold
6 years ago
Reply to  REAL JUSTICE

Since you (REAL JUSTICE) seem to know who this person is,why don’t you call them out? I’m not trying to be a smartass. I would like to know if it’s true and if so which supervisor.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Adam Harrold

Probably talking about the Tooby Ranch and the Williams Act violations. The people who bought the subdivided land might not have known of the illegality. Or might have. https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/humcpr-rising/Content?oid=2194355 will give a synopses of that.

Adam Harrold
Guest
Adam Harrold
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Does one of the supervisors live on a Tooby Ranch parcel? If so, which supervisor?

Lost Coast info
Guest
Lost Coast info
6 years ago
Reply to  Adam Harrold

It’s public knowledge and not on the tooby ranch

jojo
Guest
jojo
6 years ago

The taxs were made by greedy supervisors.
They were only thining about how it used to be.
They were focused on black market prices and they figured there high taxs could be accomodated.
The prices are now down to the bottom. And the tax needs to be based on % of sales not a flat rate to gamble your farm to see if you can grow good enough to pass testing.

For Real
Guest
For Real
6 years ago
Reply to  jojo

Yep

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  For Real

But enforcement is not limited to successful pot growers but the destruction and determined continued illegality of smaller ones too. A grower can and historically has done a lot of damage without making a profit. As an industry it is populated with people sho do not remember their promises five seconds after agreeing to them.

Realist
Guest
Realist
6 years ago

Exactly ^
Taxes on a “interim permit” that was only issued in the last 2 weeks of 2017 is ludicrous.
Which by the way doesn’t mean u have a permit and if you don’t fit the criteria u could still be prosecuted and have your crop cut down and or be fined for a multitude of other potential issues with your grow. Taxes should be a liability once the county has given u approval for the growing year, or even better based on what u produce, not retroactively at the end of the season. And the wording of that permit was so shady, it didn’t even list the year you would be liable for taxes, how would anyone know they were referring to 2017 as well?
There are 1 acre grows that grew last year, didn’t sign and will not be held accountable and there are 2000 sq foot farms that didn’t grow that will be liable for last year’s taxes, that is just plain wrong!
Incentives for small farmers in this struggling industry are the healthiest thing we can do for our county and economy, supporting the middle class, diversity and the farms producing a clean superior quality product. Imo the fact that grows larger than 10,000 sq feet are welcome in the county is short sighted and counter productive to our economy. Scarcity creates value and the one thing humboldt should have a leg up on the competition is quality, that still remains somewhat scarce. We should be discouraging over production and rewarding smaller farms.
If we want to curtail over production then stop approving large farms and start placing liens on large unpermitted grows! Taxing/fining those not willing to permit makes more sense than discouraging and bankrupting those who have volunteered themselves up for compliance. The market has collapsed from over production and the margins have shrunken dramatically in just the last year, yet the taxes are the same. And even if you personally don’t care if we turn a profit, the budget is dependent on our tax revenue and if we can’t afford to stay in business then this hurts the entire county.
I hope we pack the place on tuesday!

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago

We should consider a tax system that is tied to the accepted ‘average market price’ for cannabis. Then the tax rate would ‘float’ like currencies do as tied to the US dollar. That way there is a known percentage of tax that a grower could count on. …..Just one idea for solving the problem.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Ben Round

Solving your problem but not the problems you create for surrounding neighbors.

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

What problems, exactly, are you referring to? Maybe you don’t want to lump all farmers together!
I don’t create farm based problems for my neighbors. I keep them in mind with activities on my place.
Generator noise maybe? All my neighbors contribute some of that. Me less than others.

Livin' Easy
Guest
Livin' Easy
6 years ago

The taxes could have been good for the county and the state, but political greed and power blew the opportunity. To tax someone for a product that doesn’t physically exist is insane. Their land is already taxed, so it’s ridiculous to tax empty green houses or areas of land with no plants. Tax the product produced, otherwise this legalization process will never fly; and everything will go back to illegal grows. I’ll be watching for CAMP helicopters again wasting millions of tax dollars.

Sickofem
Guest
Sickofem
6 years ago

Good grief. Cry me a river. Dope growers dodging taxes for 20 plus years. Now quit bitching and pay your taxes. Greedy shitbags.most of them get welfare too.

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

You want them to pay for a couple years then go out of business? Or have taxes that are affordable so they can be paid for years or decades? Come on now. Think about it, Sickofem!

M
Guest
M
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

They all do and they sign themselves and kids up for every free program available to mankind including: free school lunch, free childcare, free healthcare, food stamps, welfare, WIC, etc. they hate government and society but they’re the first one in line if they can get it for free. It’s called fraud! It’s a felony! You can actually go to prison for it. Let the Dreamers stay because they actually have goals and ambitions and send the capable low achievers packing.

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago
Reply to  M

That is a very tired misconception of ‘liberals’. Please get real.
You want to go after something very real and damaging to our country? Speak out against those who are squandering our national wealth (and that of generations to come!!) of the (mostly) senseless wars and US military adventurism!

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Ben Round

Great. How convenient to determine not to pay taxes because of military adventurism. More of the extreme right wing groups hold the same convenient delusions. What it comes down to is that some angry people get all territorial over ‘their’ everything while continuing to use what they don’t want to pay for. They immediately fall into their well worn ruts of blame to distract for the argument that they use what they refuse to pay for.

No one wants to pay taxes. Pot profiteers and users, being illegal, have just had the idea that what the label as “big” industry or “war mongers” or even just “rich” should pay for everything including the messes pot growers create. It’s just their own excuse for not ponying up. It makes it so convenient to wave the liberal banner for expensive programs while exempting themselves from paying for it by the childish ‘they are worsel distraction.

jojo
Guest
jojo
6 years ago
Reply to  M

Honestly all the pot growers i know who are poor are too scared of the government. They dont have good transportation to go to eureka to collect paperwork / food stamps every month. Infact most the poor pot growers i know arent that smart to even know how to use government programs. When poor pot growers i know cant sell there weed or run low on money to just starve and live in total poverty, they arent getting free handouts thats for sure.

Veteran's Friend
Guest
Veteran's Friend
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

That isn’t all they were dodging you know. They were risking everything.

Rusty
Guest
Rusty
6 years ago

One of the last Small Family Tobacco farms shut down last month. Know why ? They couldn’t complete any more when Tobacco hit 1.98 per pound. That’s One Dollar Ninety Eight Cents per pound.
You want to be Farmers ? This is farming.

JoshSour
Guest
JoshSour
6 years ago
Reply to  Rusty

Welcome to a little thing called “reality”

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago
Reply to  JoshSour

Yeah? The cannabis market is regulated and taxed like NO OTHER industry. So this is not “reality”. It’s more like all the frustrated agencies FINALLY getting their share of money and control of all the successful (and relatively rich) ‘outlaws’.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Ben Round

It is less regulated than drugs manufacturers, which is really what the growers are or the multiple layers of taxes charged to alcohol producers where the land is taxed, inspected and licensed , the production is taxed, inspected and licensed separately and the sales are taxed, regulated and inspected then the buyer pays additional taxes. Since all the functions are rolled into one with growers, it just seems like more.

The real killer for Humboldt Co will not be taxes, which users will pay like drinkers pay, but the competition because pot is easier to produce than wine, liquor or even most drugs.

M
Guest
M
6 years ago

Seriously! Pot growers think a 9 am meeting in Eureka is too early? I guess they never sustained a job for 25 years, commuting over 210 miles a day after work, while pregnant, to attend night college and getting home after 11:00 at night to get up and do it again in 6 hours. You actually bitch about not working and having to attend one 9 am meeting! Unbelievable! You’ll be back home in bed watching tv by noon. I for one don’t think any of you who have never paid taxes should be allowed to take from our Social Securety in your golden years. You chose not to participate in society for decades but, you want to take from what us working people paid into. You bitch about the criminalization of weed and want it legalized like corn crops but for some godforsaken reason you still believe that you should be exempt from paying taxes because you’re a special kind of self entitled backwoods people who are and have always been a drain on society. You sign yourself and kids up for every social aid program possible to mankind but contribute absolutely nothing to society.

For Real
Guest
For Real
6 years ago
Reply to  M

Cry me a river! Too much personal info and complaining. Go smoke a fatty of my legal weed already.

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
6 years ago
Reply to  M

How much is the special tax on corn? On grapes? on Dairy cattle? on Fish? on Logs? Only cannabis gets this special tax.

Adam Harrold
Guest
Adam Harrold
6 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

Thanks ED for pointing this out. If someone switched from growing pot to growing bell peppers would they have to do any of the things being demanded of the pot farmers?

The misadventures of bunjee
Guest
The misadventures of bunjee
6 years ago
Reply to  Adam Harrold

Yeah, they would. They’d be growing crops intended for human consumption. Think track and trace is a joke? How do you think e-coli outbreaks can be traced to a particular field. You have FDA rules, CA ag rules. Permits for goddamn everything from water righs to how much electricity you can pull for pumps. And wells. And transportation/distro costs. Crop insurance. Business insurance. Property taxes.
https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/SecureFoodSupply.html

The reg lists are several hundreds of pages long. Oh and better make sure the water you use isn’t tainted either. So yes, if you think the cannabis rules are overwhelming and growing veggies commercially at a profit is easy, I have a bridge to sell you.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

Pot is not corn or dairy. That is the typical self aggrandizing remarks so common. If pot disappeared tomorrow, there would simply be a lot of sour complainters. If food disappeared tomorrow, there would be a lot of death.

You think of yourselves as important but you are simply indulging yourselves.

Antichrist
Guest
Antichrist
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

sorry but from personal experance , from someone who can not smoke cannibus, it has healing properties. i used to get migraines bad ones common meds worked some and only sometimes at doses that were imsane. after moving here a friend offered me some cbd extract and asked me to try it out. i used to end up in the er between 3 and 7 times a year for migraines , i had only 3 in almost 4 years now and those were a result of not having cbd on hand. my migraines have been dioanosed as a side effect from some shots i recived while in the army, and i am forever greatful for relielf from that pain. if it is truely your belief that it is just some street drug with nothing good about it to help those suffering illness, than i sincerly hope that you never find yourself having to suffer intense pain and nothing working to help you through it.

rolling hills
Guest
rolling hills
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Yes, corn is not dairy. And grapes are not apples. And if wine disappeared tomorrow we’d have a lot of sour complainers. If opium disappeared tomorrow we’d have a lot more terminal people suffering that don’t need to be suffering. If coffee disappeared tomorrow we’d people would revolt. The same for sugar. And who needs corn to survive? Do you even have a valid point, dopey?

Antichrist
Guest
Antichrist
6 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

the differance is fish are a public resource , as are some logs that are taken from public land , cant add those in with peppers and apples. speaking of that why arent fish crab and logs taken from public land taxed at a rate high enough that the rest of us see anything from it?

Dairy Farmer
Guest
Dairy Farmer
6 years ago
Reply to  M

Sounds like you’ve made some poor life descisions. Sad.

bob
Guest
bob
6 years ago
Reply to  M

I agree with your comment screw those dirt bags! I cant wait tell I see the tail lights of the last grow dozer on 36 heading east. The rest of us true locals can sweep in and take there property for a penny on the dollar. Then we can finally get our county back. This place has turned into a shit pit over the last decade and most of it is due to the criminal dope growers who take, take, take and never give. Unless giving is spending on themselves. I know dozens of growers and all are the same. sorry guys the party’s over the sooner you realize that the sooner you can figure out your future. My theory is that when you take the food away from criminals who have been living in the drug scene for 25 years look out there going to be trying to steal from the rest of us, that’s what criminals do. What else can a career criminal do besides steal con and cheat!!!

You have no idea what your talking about
Guest
You have no idea what your talking about
6 years ago
Reply to  M

You don’t even understand how social security works. The trump administration is going to cut and gut it anyway along with Medicare and Medicaid.They have to pay for the military and tax cuts somehow

jojo
Guest
jojo
6 years ago

It is true if you dont pay into SS and get credits you dont get to cash out on anything in the end.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

What is really funny is that, in your determination to trash Trump, you make up things to blame him for because you can’t justify the extremity of your hate with reality. What is sad is that you feed your frenzy with such speculations and are incapable of noticing what really is worth noticing. You believe your own propaganda and can’t be take seriously.

Growley
Guest
Growley
6 years ago
Reply to  M

Amen. I am in my 50’s, have lived on the California coast my entire life and I have watched close-up the transformation of the weed culture and the general social degeneration. Late 70’s was an enchanted time for me because I was first introduced to young wild people in Mendo who lived a mostly off-grid, natural food, happy families, hand-made pottery type of life-style. Now… The people are greedy, dark spirited, suspicious takers. Their weed is powerfully poisonous to casual smokers, and they tout it as “organic”, but too much of their weed is high-yield fertilized, rat poisonous. I had to leave my dream home because I couldn’t live among such horrible people. What once was a safe haven of unlocked doors, kids running wild, skinny dipping in the pond with the neighbors on those extra hot days, have gone. What has moved in is creepy neighbors who will bring in more strangers who will run over your dog, steal your lawn furniture, and poison the stream water. Sorry that the dream died 15 or more years ago, and its not ever coming back. The money in weed now will be made in big greenhouses on flat land in the big farm country.

Silkentek
Guest
Silkentek
6 years ago
Reply to  M

If you don’t pay into Social Security, you can’t draw on it when you reach retirement age. Your social security eligibility and payment size is determined by how many quarters you have paid into throughout your working life. You might still qualify for Medicare, but that too has a premium. Folks don’t realize you pay a premium every month for medicare because it is deducted from your social security.
I really wish people would inform themselves before broadcasting misinformation.

jojo
Guest
jojo
6 years ago
Reply to  M

9AM is early if you live in Alderpoint and must drive 2 1/2 hours to go to the meeting.
You would need to leave at 6:30 AM to get there on time.

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
6 years ago
Reply to  jojo

I’ve made the trip many times and from Alderpoint proper give yourself 2 hours and you’ll probably get there 15 minutes early. If you’re up in the Rancho or way back on some other dirt roads, then i’ll agree with your 2.5 hours. It’s a long trip no matter how you cut it. I’m banking on nothing happening before 10 a.m. and so I’m leaving at 8. See you there jojo, I hope.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  jojo

Try jury duty after having done chores. Getting up at 5 am is rough for the law abiding too if they aren’t used go it.

Anon
Guest
Anon
6 years ago

Besides, social security paymentz are based on what u have paid in.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Anon

But don’t worry. SSI is based on not having paid in if you could get away with it.

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago

IF YOU ARE GOING TO THIS MEETING, PLEASE CARPOOL!
QUICK! Call your neighbors. Post signs on the bulletin boards of where and when to meet. Etc.
ORGANIZE IT NOW!!

Been There; Done That
Guest
Been There; Done That
6 years ago

I’m sorry you folks didn’t see the writing on the wall or believe when someone told you this was going to happen. I left the game three seasons ago for a job that pays way less and I don’t regret it for one second. Good luck.

groba dude osnt trustafarian
Guest
groba dude osnt trustafarian
6 years ago

If you don’t like the government, change it.

If you want to be and outlaw, then, you’re an outlaw. Good luck!

Asking for special treatment? Good luck with that too!

You had forty years to work on this. Where were you?

Fooey!
Guest
Fooey!
6 years ago

These are not “small” farms, or “farmers” for that matter. For the record, “mom & pop” literally translates to two people, mom and pop, and maybe their kids helping them out with trimming come harvest. Not a team of people to grow their weed, because they usually only grow less than 50 plants. That is a small farm. These farmers are not Mom and Pop, maybe 3 of them, whom have my deepest sympathy. The rest it’s always been about the money, always. Please. Mom and Pop, don’t have trim scenes, they don’t drive fancy vehicles or fat ass trucks, they don’t have light deps, most of them still grow from seed, they don’t use Eagle 20 and pollute our water, wildlife, patients and consumers, they don’t have generators, they don’t have soil deliveries, their kids aren’t spoiled uneducated pot brats, they reside here in the hills all year long rather than jet setting off to some exotic location to vacation in winter, and almost always smoke their own weed. The rest of yous, it’s all about the money and maintaining your lavish lifestyles. Do you not see through your own B.S? God, you people have created such a poisonous bubble for yourselves all these years in isolation. You are all so delusional believing that you are special, it’s sad. Yeah, welcome to reality. You’ve had a nice ride and now it’s time to pay up. This is what the rest of the country has to endure, this is what families around the country have to struggle to stay alive, supporting their families, this is reality, time to pay. Besides, anyone in the state can grow the same strains (most of which were not derived from Humboldt) and can grow them anywhere, and better. Say you do obtain a permit to grow legally, can you pull of a successful crop? Most importantly, can your weed pass the tests for consumption? Can any of you grow clean cannabis without Eagle 20? Your Humboldt farmers websites are the biggest load of crock I’ve yet to read. It’s so obviously desperate filled with fraudulent fluff, it’s hilarious, infuriating, and pitiful due to not only to how delusional it is, but how it’s all one big lie that you’ve all sadly perpetuated for yourselves for so many years and can’t even see how ridiculously fake you come off. Good luck, because your going to need it.

Pshhh
Guest
Pshhh
6 years ago
Reply to  Fooey!

What’s wrong with taking a vacation or having a nice vehicle ….. ? 🙄
We should all just own shitty vehicles that break down every other month and hunker down all winter long in the rain ?
Sorry but a lot of people like to explore this planet and if they have the means then why not .

rollin21
Guest
rollin21
6 years ago
Reply to  Pshhh

Exactly. Haters keep hatin.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  rollin21

Yes but they tend to get very hostile when their pot money is threatened. The great Alfred E Newmans of the world “What! Me worry???” fame. Got your attention now.

Ummm...why the surprise?
Guest
Ummm...why the surprise?
6 years ago

Welcome to the real world of operating an agricultural enterprise legally under an oppressive federal and state tax code. Other agricultural industries have been taxed this way for quite a while. For instance, timber is measured and taxed in the form of live trees, even if the land owner has no intention of harvesting it. Cry me a river. The rest of us have been struggling for decades with this system while the cannabis producers have raked in tax free millions and been hailed as the generous supporters of all things charitable in our communities. If I wasn’t paying taxes on unearned income I’d be able to give away a lot more money too. Yup, it’s been rough. Buck up, buttercup.

Mendocino Mamma
Guest
Mendocino Mamma
6 years ago

Yes, yes and yes. After reading every comment everyone has VALID points on both sides of the issue.
Consider whomever the “regulators” are (state or fed or local) that the short sided thinking let their permit dreams fall flat and implode.
Consider 100’s of locals whom double dipped claiming poverty on paper grabbing WIC, AFDC and Food stamps, but then go on 10,000 dollar Disneyland trips with the whole family. Or on Medi-Cal the wifey or “bae” driving huge new Suburbans, wearing Rock Revivals and Uggs, with nice manis and pedis but you can’t pay a doctor bill.
Consider that class, concious or couth are not a requirement.
Consider there are NOT 3000+ vineyards, lettuce fields, fruit orchards, dairies, or tomato farms in ALL of Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte and Trinity counties.
Legalisation was what sought, now it’s here…not quiet what was expected.
Everyone had dollar signs in their eyes now what? SMH!

Humboldt Hillsman
Guest
Humboldt Hillsman
6 years ago

I have been a cannabis farmer here in Humboldt for the last 14 years and have never met a fellow farmer who is collecting welfare or food stamps. I also have paid far more taxes than you people claiming growers haven’t been paying all these years. How do you think we are buying all these properties, houses and trucks. Not to mention we have brought the vast majority of the wealth into Humboldt County for the last several decades so show some thanks. Believe it or not you will be sorry when we are gone.

Mendocino Mamma
Guest
Mendocino Mamma
6 years ago

I would say to that Mr. Hillsman maybe they just didn’t divulge their personal or private information to you. Every permit not obtained to grade a road, put up a carport, build a fence or manipulating bank deposits when buying items for cash…hmmm. Nearly everybody’s got their hands in the cookie jar one way or another and yeah you pay one way or another as well.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

Yes. But there is no hosility like that created by threat that is personal. The pot world is just chock full of Clivin Bundys, each thinking it’s all about them and only them.

Fooey!
Guest
Fooey!
6 years ago

No, I won’t be sorry when you’re gone. I won’t miss your delusional elitist, self-aggrandizing, self-important bad behavior. It’s hard to fathom how obnoxious you self-importance has spiraled out of control. I won’t miss your light deps with your selfish gluttonous light pollution. Your deplorable treatment of trimmers who help to trim your moldy powdery mildew weed which would otherwise just sit in totes and garbage bags rotting away. Your big trucks running everyone off the road. Your loud belligerent generators. I won’t miss the traffic. I won’t miss the pollution you’ve dispersed so you can buy some more, “stuff.” Your statement only further proves my point. You will not be missed. You are not important. You are the problem. How much fungicides and pesticides have you put out into our environment to fund all your large purchases? No, you will not be missed. Guess what? Anybody in the state can grow weed now, and they can do it better than you. You dropped the ball and now you have to really pay. Man, Humboldt believes it’s own hype, shameless. It’s over, man. Goodbye and good riddance.

rollin21
Guest
rollin21
6 years ago
Reply to  Fooey!

You sound bitter. What’s wrong? Another day standing in front of the deep fryer gotcha all fired up first thing in the morning?

Humboldt Hillsman
Guest
Humboldt Hillsman
6 years ago
Reply to  Fooey!

I didn’t put any harmful pesticides, fungicides or synthetic fertilizers into our environment. I am an organic farmer commited to growing cannabis in a sustainable environmentally friendly way. Much of my farm is powered by solar energy. I have never treated trimmers “deplorably”, infact in the good old days they were cooked two organic meals each day. I have provided 100’s of jobs to members of our community and beyond. More people here than you think supplement their income with cannabis work in one way or another. Cannabis growers have been supporting much of the local economy for a long time now. With the crash of the cannabis market an alarming number of local businesses are already feeling the consequences. You may not miss me but many will. If Humboldt can be fair with cannabis growers, and they can succeed, our community has a lot to gain. The tax dollars will help fund our county in a time when a local depression is on the horizon and as compliant farms replace many or even most unpermitted farms the amount of environmental degradation caused by cannabis farming will be greatly reduced. Humboldt County needs something sustainable to keep us going after all these boom and bust industries.

Mendocino Mamma
Guest
Mendocino Mamma
6 years ago

You can’t call cannabis ORGANIC silly. The USDA controls and oversees that. Last I checked that is the feds!

justlivelihood
Guest
justlivelihood
6 years ago

you yourself know it is organic if you use only organic fertilizers and no sprays . The product can be tested before it is sold. Grow organic !! Lets be the best and grow the most organically reliable product available. Quality, not quantity.

Will Smith
Guest
Will Smith
6 years ago

I agree, honestly it’s crazy how many people on this website are in denial about the FACT that cannabis farming is a massive sector of the economy here and they don’t realize how much of a driving force it is behinde the total health of the economy here in Humboldt. There’s one thing I think most people are agreement on though, the fact the industry is starting to collapse here. What’s happening in Salinas is way bigger, and will have a way bigger ecological impact then the biggest grows in Humboldt. Soon they’re will be millions of plants growing being sprayed overhead by pesticides just like tobacco fields.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

We do. But it’s like crack. It’s a money maker that is more destructive than helpful. You all created income for yourselves while surpressing or even destroying opportunities for others.

Sorry but the only pot growers seen volunteering for tiresome work have been there because they were sentenced to community service. It’s a remarkably self involved community on the whole, who will never notice what is done for them. In the end, it costs more than it gives but it never spends much time outside of its own world. It has delusions of grandeur.

Bear Jew
Guest
Bear Jew
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

The people bashing our community here are obviously not locals. Or, they are land grabbers or carpetbaggers looking to buy…. tune them out

Emily
Guest
Emily
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

How many growers do you know, ‘guest’? With all the time you must spend commenting I’d be surprised if you know any. Maybe you should get to know some. Some are as you characterize them, some are damn fine people. Just like the business owners and fishermen and anyone else around here.

Northlander
Guest
Northlander
6 years ago

REMEBER THIS: no lawsuit has been filed regarding the changes the Board of Supervisors made to Measure S after the public voted for it. The changes, de facto, increase the financial burden on the public, whereas the County will take more money from the public. Regardless of the industry, that is not only bad ethics, it’s illegal. The Board of Supervisors is claiming they can’t comment because of threatened litigation, which isn’t true at all. What kind of person, let alone government agency, refuses to discuss changing the provisions of a closed deal AFTER the deal? By refusing full disclosure, the supervisors are effectively admitting their wrongdoing. No lawsuit has been filed and the board is not only free to explain themselves, they’re obliged to.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Northlander

Ethics. Snort…

rollin21
Guest
rollin21
6 years ago

If you lay with dogs you wake up with fleas. All the government loving liberals who never met a tax or government program they didn’t like while cheating on their taxes and burying their money in the ground. All the hypocrites who hate the corporations that control the bureaucrats while buying permits in an effort to…..control the bureaucrats. This is poetic justice. Bigger fish are going to come and offer bigger bribes to make more regulations to keep you out. Kinda the same way you want to keep everyone else out. You shoulda stayed outlaw; toldja!

Slappy
Guest
Slappy
6 years ago

Sadly, I won’t be able to make the meeting, but please send my fondest regards to Rex and Estelle who are working so hard to help themselves. These are trying times.

Northlander
Guest
Northlander
6 years ago
Reply to  Slappy

They’re helping themselves, alright, but not with hard work, rather by hardly working. Developers and state contractors own them, all they have to do is abide by their whispers. Follow the money, the supervisors voted themselves a raise last year. Whose recession? With a pay of over $6,000 every month, after taxes, they’re living high on the hog.

HOGRANCH
Guest
HOGRANCH
6 years ago

you entered into deal with satan himself, to grow an to be taxed! the state is broke, feedin to many aliens an building hi speed railroads that serve no purpose except for the ultra wealthy, not to mention what ever your political representitives can rake an swindle into their pockets, then tell you what a great job they are doing .over in the valley they could harvest those crops by machine, do you not think anybody has thought of that.

Silkentek
Guest
Silkentek
6 years ago

I wonder if all of those huge hoop houses could be used to grow food? Imagine if we didn’t have to buy from the corporate farms because people decided to grow food instead of a weed. Just dreamin’ here I guess.

Bluehaired Hillbetty
Guest
Bluehaired Hillbetty
6 years ago
Reply to  Silkentek

I total agree. We should be feeding our families food grown in the Triangle. Oh! but that wouldn’t be fair. There is no money in that. But the taxes are lower.Regulations easier to adhere to.Hmmmmm. Food for thought. Farm fresh, affordable food for our school cafeterias, truly local lettuce at Safeway, we have what it takes folks. Small truck farms used to be all over Humboldt County and sheep ranches……Did you know there were three major woolen factories in Eureka at one time? Not too many bums back then I’ll bet.

Industrialization of Marijuana farming has been the ruin of all of our communities here in God’s Country.

I would go to the meeting but I have to get up at 4:30am to go to work. And I wouldn’t be any help since I am all for taxes on pot. Back in the day I knew lots of growers, they partied til the money was gone, wife and kids were on welfare. Trading weed for coke, then “crank” as we called meth back then, because cocaine was too expensive. Yeah, these last 40 years have been rough on folks.

Watch your kids
Guest
Watch your kids
6 years ago

Many people will be watching to see if the grower from Salmon Creek, who got the shit beat out of him by the community, and had to escape to LA ( but has since wormed his wY back to salmon Creek) for being a pedophile and molesting the community’s little children several years ago , will be there protesting paying his cannabis taxes.

Not sure of the parameters
Guest
Not sure of the parameters
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Whoa. /\ this convo /\

Dramatic insinuations of pedophile (!!) behavior stands but ‘putting the “scare” in mascara ‘ gets sanitized?

Rosalie
Guest
Rosalie
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

There is a pedophile and I personally know children who are now adults molested by the unnamed. There unfortunately were no charges due to the statute of limitations and a civil suit that he paid the victims. He absolutely should be ostracized and outed to the community.

Just maybe
Guest
Just maybe
6 years ago
Reply to  Rosalie

I agree completely!!! When I see him attending local events and knowing his victims friends are having feelings [edit], I cannot believe he is allowed here! Or anywhere!! Lock him up! It’s not a secret!

Blue dog
Guest
Blue dog
6 years ago

Time to pay taxes like the rest of us. The rest of the community has to live with all the negative impacts from this industry. Our rivers and tributaries are being destroyed. Crime in the County is at record high. Someone has to pay for these impacts.

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
6 years ago
Reply to  Blue dog

I understand your point. YET cannabis farmers are not asked to “pay taxes like the rest of us”. They are being told to pay exorbitant taxes, WAY HIGHER than the average citizen, WAY HIGHER than the costs of administering the programs related to cannabis, AND disproportionate to the profits farmers can now make! Reasonable taxation is appropriate. That is what Tuesday’s protest is about!

The misadventures of bunjee
Guest
The misadventures of bunjee
6 years ago
Reply to  Ben Round

Of note; don’t be a bunch of chanting, disruptive d-bags at the meeting or you may find unpleasant results, such as increased taxes proposed, and people getting arrested. Behave yourselves. They are not required to vote in favor of your wants, so don’ t f-k it up.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Ben Round

You caused more harm than others for decades. Cherry picking examples is self deluding.

Probably you will win some concessions sooner or later. But since it’s not taxes, which you have yet to even try paying, that will do you in, the industry is never again going to be the cash cow you all knew and loved.

You suck!
Guest
You suck!
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

GIVE Em HELL! DONT BEND OVER TO INTIMIDATING THREATS!

bearjew
Guest
bearjew
6 years ago
Reply to  Blue dog

blue dog? Are you a government worker? Because if you are, you are not a “taxpayer.” You are, in fact, a tax taker….

Government workers around here need to keep that in mind — they are living off of taxes not paying them.

Mariahgirl
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  bearjew

Government workers pay taxes like everyone else. Unless of course someone is on the dole which is a lot of people in California.

Flor
Guest
Flor
6 years ago

Ed Denson, you are a good person, but the tax rate this county is offering is by far the lowest in the state?! Hello… if you can’t afford $1 / ft. For outdoor, or $2 / sq. Ft mixed light, you should choose a new profession. Counties like Monterey , thru Southern California are charging $6-20+ / sq. Ft. The board of supervisors knows this, and has offered us a great deal. They know they have to, or the entire industry will move south where they can grow year round. Just saying careful what you ask for. As someone who knows how to pull consistent harvests, I will pay WAY lower taxes at the current rate than by taxing my profit…. please don’t change a thing. Thank you BOS and to the planning department who have come up with a reasonable system that may not be perfect but is well intentioned. Anyhow…. that’s real… good luck out there… huge grows in the valleys will make our life so hard… it’s already in full swing…

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
6 years ago
Reply to  Flor

Hi Flor, thanks for the complement. I think putting a tax on land use like this is like taxing someone for having dreams of success. Taxing the harvest or the proceeds makes so much more sense. But the issues I have with the present tax is not that it exists, or that it is $1/$2/$3. It’s that they have changed who is taxed and what is taxed without getting voter approval. That is illegal.

Mr. misinformed
Guest
Mr. misinformed
6 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

Poor Ed. He is so misinformed and he has committed to staying misinformed.
The sad part is, all of his “followers” that don’t read or inform themselves want to cling to everything poor ed says . So Unfortunately, in the end, his “followers” will continue to be misinformed and will learn that ed was wrong.

justlivelihood
Guest
justlivelihood
6 years ago

There will be a lot to comment on at the supervisors meeting tomorrow . My 2 basic issues are pit privies and wells.
I’ve just been informed that pit privies need to be DESTROYED ! Okay, maybe there are some that are badly built but a properly done privy with a deep hole, where each deposit is covered with ashes or lime and a dry substance such as leaves or sawdust , and where no liquids are added , to keep the pile calmly composting in an aerobic fashion is a benefit to the environment, not harmful at all .It’s easy to keep the flies and small animals out , pleasant to use and passively functional. But the county seems to prefer flush toilets where clean fresh water is used . Also, and this is really absurd, they want us to bring in porta potties instead of using well done pit privies-those plastic smelly icky cells that are no fun at all to use. And then of course they have to be driven up and down curvy gravel roads and add to the truck problem already happening. And where are they dumped when full of sewage and chemicals ?? That can’t be good.
Okay so I also just learned that if we do not have a well permit, we need to DESTROY our wells and drill elsewhere when permitted. A lot of us have older wells , 40 yrs or so when no permit is findable at all . I have a newer one which was such a thrill to have done, so exciting to finally be able to spend the 7,000 to have a reliable source of water .The well driller did not get a permit before drilling which I did not know was necessary and is now unreachable . The onus is on us(forgive the onomatapoeia ) to obtain this permit . I could just cry .
there is more stuff. About grey water, about taxes, etc etc . Oh but as a footnote: Not only do our privies have to be destroyed but we have to have a permit to do so( for a fee of course)!! This is crazy

Divide by Zero
Guest
Divide by Zero
6 years ago

Oh the irony. The group dominated by lefties who vote to regulate anything that moves are incensed when regulations apply to them. Pay up suckers.

Mariahgirl
Guest
6 years ago

I am not a grower or a user but doesn’t it seem that the people that got their permits were the big farms that could pay the most in fees and taxes. It is like Sundberg bending over for his friends at Mercer Fraser, who is he kidding, he will make sure that goes through, his kids don’t go to school in Willow Creek and he does not get his water from Willow Creek . Our stupervisors are as crooked as can be and I think John Ford is just as crooked.