Harvest in Humboldt

Cannabis carrier.

Cannabis carrier.

In October, rural Southern Humboldt roads wind through areas heady with the perfume of cannabis. Sometimes, when the vehicle in front is full of totes, the perfume is headier than others….

Someday, photos of marijuana harvest in the Emerald Counties will be tucked in the history e-books alongside photos of alcohol prohibition.

 

 

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74 Comments
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Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago

Another night when the pot stink of neighbors woke me up so I had to shut the window. Yup. The tag line on those pictures might be “Remember fresh air?” It will be like people in big cities thinking that their sky is a beautiful blue when in fact they don’t know that is pretty much isn’t.

Dude
Guest
Dude
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

The best smelling air in the country. Love it or leave. Lol

dawni
Guest
dawni
5 years ago
Reply to  Dude

Dude, I don’t have anything against a nice whiff of some good pot plants but day after day my (in town) neighborhood has been smelling like a mega grow scene for days and days, obviously brought here for cleaning.
Better than some of the neighbors dryer sheets smell once in awhile but really some fresh air while I do my yard work outside is more desirable for me than either over powering scent. It is Not “country air”. Get real.

antichrist
Guest
antichrist
5 years ago
Reply to  dawni

the smell of what is being farmed is country air. just as the stench of horse, pig , cow, shit. or corn or even grapes during harvest time.just because it is something that isnt to your liking doesnt make it not country air. the fact that the land is being used for ag makes it country air. i dont understand folks that think their own shit doesnt reak while complaining about others.

Really?
Guest
Really?
5 years ago
Reply to  antichrist

That is because some people can’t smell exactly how horrible it is. How pervasive, long lasting and repulsive. Like a skunk who never runs out of stink letting off 10 feet away.

If my neighbors who have livestock so poorly maintained them that from 500 feet away it made my nose run, they too would be hearing from me. But stock owners do not let it get that out of hand without animal welfare getting involved.

Pot, besides stinking, has the wonderful attribute of making the user/grower dismissive of other’s complaints. It’s all about their own wants. Since they do not mind the stink, they don’t care about anyone who might..

antichrist
Guest
antichrist
5 years ago
Reply to  Really?

you never lived near a dairy or slaughter house then, or even a smoke house or ag fields where waste was used as fertalizer then. yes it reaks. just because you happen be bothered by it doesnt mean anything. red cars upset me, so no one is allowed to have a red car ….. same frame of mind yet it sounds stuck up that way. life is just that things change either learn to live with the change or dont. but if you find away to live with it you will be a happier person.

Really?
Guest
Really?
5 years ago
Reply to  antichrist

No. I would avoid moving next to a slaughter house. A dairy depends on the diligence of the farmer. A sprayed farm smell goes away fairly fast and would be an irritation but one that I could live with. But when something moves in on me, then yes. I would object and do what I could about it. Especially at 3 am.

Just because you are not offended by what you do, doesn’t mean I have no right to object. You are not in charge of the world. So you can try to get along with reasonable neighborly expectations or you will find that others take up the issue as an official mandate. Of course, if you decide to keep your nuisance within your property lines, stink becomes all yours and welcome to it.

Dragonfly
Guest
Dragonfly
5 years ago
Reply to  Really?

Moving to Humboldt or Mendocino is like moving next to an airport. Don’t move to an area known for marijuana production if you don’t like the smell. Don’t move near an airport if you don’t like the sound of planes

Really?
Guest
Really?
5 years ago
Reply to  Really?

The pot growers are pretty much the ones who have moved in. Not one of people getting the 5 under 3 acre conversions near me have been here even a full year. Most were clearing within a couple of months of moving here. So what you say is self centered nonsense.

antichrist
Guest
antichrist
5 years ago
Reply to  Really?

by all means you are right i am not incharge. however that being said zoning laws dictate that they can do as they are where they are. they are now paying taxes and producing product that adds to the states gdp. are you doing so on your land ? would you like to cover the loss of reneuve to the state county and city ? it is no differant that a airport changing a flight path. when the zoning change happened you had your time to make a fuss. now thst it is happening you are a bit late. dont put your lack of effort o everyone else now that it is settled

Sparkle Mahn
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  antichrist

Right on the $. Stink is relative.

Brodie
Guest
Brodie
5 years ago
Reply to  antichrist

The smell of Ranching and Farming is what it takes for people to have food to eat and survive. We as people can survive without Pot.

Dude
Guest
Dude
5 years ago
Reply to  dawni

It’s going to remain. So go get a new place to call your town. Your town that’s funny. Arrogant …Beat it . Won’t miss ya

Trolls Abound
Guest
Trolls Abound
5 years ago
Reply to  Dude

Seriously, that attitude is what is wrong with the current grow scene. Fuck everybody, I’m a grower. Fuck my neighbors, I’m a grower. Get out of my way, me and my trailer need the whole road, I’m a grower. Don’t like me dusting you out and screwing up the road , screw you, I’m a grower. Don’t like my lit up greenhouses? Don’t care, I’m a grower. Your privacy gone? Tough shit, I’m a grower. Just move , even though you were here decades before me, I’m cool, I’m a grower. Oh, your dog got hit by one of my asshole workers, tough shit, I got some pot to grow. What? Just move, cause I’m cool, I grow pot.

Skips
Guest
Skips
5 years ago
Reply to  Trolls Abound

I like this comment, sums it up. People used to be considerate and neighborly. Let’s get back to that, shan’t we?

guest
Guest
guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Skips

Or at least they were afraid of getting ratted out so were forced to be circumspect. Now they are free to be themselves.

Sparkle Mahn
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Dude

Beat it
Beat it
Beat it Beat it Beat it BEAT!

Redwood Dan
Guest
Redwood Dan
5 years ago
Reply to  dawni

Cherry scented urinal cakes from an industrial supply store will cover lots of smells. Break one up in front of a fan, they evaporate like moth balls. Police can get a warrant for weed smell, but one for overwhelming artificial cherry smell might be harder to get signed.

It's not all about you
Guest
It's not all about you
5 years ago
Reply to  Redwood Dan

Sort of zipped by the issue of respecting neighbors.

🌲
Guest
🌲
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Pretty soon hemp will be grown everywhere, it will save the environment
Maybe you weed haters should leave before that happens

Trolls Abound
Guest
Trolls Abound
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

FYI, there is a Smell Ordinance along with the Noise and Light Pollution Ordinances.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Remember when we had a pulp mill? Remember that smell?

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Remember people complaining about it? Remember the stack scrubbers? Remember their end?

Jon
Guest
Jon
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

If you don’t like what your neighbor is doing, plant your own garden… of male plants. “Have a seedy day neighbor “.

Dealt it
Guest
Dealt it
5 years ago

What do you when your wife farts in bed? Does that wake you up? Good thing you don’t live by any farm animals you wouldn’t have your window open all year. Why don’t you drop the smell excuse and just admit that you hate pot and the people it represents. I mean i really don’t get it. You spent all day smelling weed then you got in bed said your prayers smelling weed,fell asleep smelling weed and then it woke you up. Does your nose only work when you unconscious?

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Dealt it

Yup. Again it is what you want and only about you. That if course is the whole point. When has one pot grow done anything but flip others with the chant “If you don’t like it, leave.” And you wonder why there at so many regulations. It’s because you will not regulate yourselves.

BTW, I raise farm animals. I’m not exactly a delicate flower. It takes a lot to get my attention.

groba dude trustafarian osnt
Guest
groba dude trustafarian osnt
5 years ago

If it’s not the honey-pot reek of the plants, it’s the knock-you-over stench of the burning flowers… I used to think it was a great smell, until I lived in Redway. Not anymore, and never again!

Craig
Guest
Craig
5 years ago

I don’t really notice the smell of marijuana grows, with the exception of when I pass Weott when I’m traveling on 101. The grow at Weott must be a permitted grow, since it’s been rather obvious for a few years.

I like stars too!
Guest
I like stars too!
5 years ago
Reply to  Craig

I call it “Weed-ot”…

farce
Guest
farce
5 years ago

It was a random delight….like 20 years ago! Now it is the smell of hype, over-saturation, economic collapse and greedy mega-grows. I don’t blame the plant! But our beautiful scene is blown out to disgusting excess and I won’t pretend it’s nice. Sad, really. It’s a spectacle- like watching a house burn down.

howard
Guest
howard
5 years ago

ganja mon

Sparkle Mahn
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  howard

Ya mahn CooL mahn!

Dragonfly
Guest
5 years ago

All this cannabis, dispensaries across California profiting and Not Giving Back to the community! Local non profits struggling and in some cases being slandered & harassed. Mateel and KMUD contributed to this distortion. For whatever reason they believe small struggling nonprofits owe them. Stop with the bullying, slander and verbal abuse! They are Not responsible for the debt incurred by two mega organizations. Stop manipulating volunteers,mostly Not permanent residencies, to attack long time wonderful community members! Act and learn how to seek money outside of Cannabis.

Swine
Guest
Swine
5 years ago
Reply to  Dragonfly

Um don’t lump kmud in with.mateel
A it’s not some huge otginazation. It only have five paid people who don’t make much.

The Hermit of Grizzly Mountain
Guest
The Hermit of Grizzly Mountain
5 years ago

Why aren’t there pot tourism “hay rides”? Bring the kids. Sit on a big truck bed of flowers while you drive past the gardens, the drying shed, the generator, the spring head… (joking)

farce
Guest
farce
5 years ago

Do you have a permit for that? And the other 10 permits that go with that? Are your taxes paid in advance? You let children near the plants?!! That’s a violation!! We need to report you…What is your name name name???? And yes…Enjoy your wonderfully safe and heart-warming “legalization”! You won…

Greendenny
Guest
Greendenny
5 years ago

Ever driven 299 west.. right before guintolli. Wes Green landscape wreeks the entire area with nauseas composting soil.. every f’n day. I can’t stand it! Ever been to s. arcata business’s.. the stench of arcata’s wannabe tofu shitters engulfs from the marsh.. great to sit n wif n have a beer near. Ever have to live near a refinery or propane or any chemical plant.. how about your stinky ass fuck’n perfume worn to cover yer beer n mcdonalds shits n sweats… selfishness lies with the smeller and the smellee.. you all stink! And we need community now more than ever! So get a life and make a real difference for those all around you. Bitch’n n whining is just only that! Pffffft… oops sry i just farted!

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Greendenny

I did not move to a pot grower’s paradise. It surrounded me in 3 acre exemptions. I just got my 5th logging notice since March. I didn’t think there were so many seperate parcels with the notification zone but they seem endless. And clueless, thinking legalization is just like their old piracy, just without risk of arrest.

Growers and users create hate by their own arrogance. Every time one of them whines about being regulated, it creates a little warm glow of satisfaction of seeing a bit of karma happen right in here and now. Growers did not have to behave the way they do. They do not have to be so very self absorbed that any negative remark generates vomiting of their accumulated bile. They could, just once, explain their issues and ask what would help them get along with their neighbors. Every seen that even once here?? Why yes, before you say it, you don’t have to. But when the inevitable comes to do you in, just remember how many people you alienated who could have been a support.

Pot is just an innocent plant, not invasive or too poisonous. I don’t hate it. I hate the behavior in the people it attracts. Even though I don’t usually use a string of cussing- fuck you all too

Potmation
Guest
Potmation
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Conversion exemptions can be used for cannabis permitting.

Can also get a conversion exemption and grow unpermitted.

Uh
Guest
Uh
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Cdf told me its for whatever you want and theres no limit in a neighborhood.
The 8- 3 acre conversions in my neighborhood were all done to make money by selling the redwood, not for pot. I’d double check if i was you, highly doubt all your neighbors are in the permit process and cut just to grow pot. Redwood is at its highest price in a long time because this is the last of it. Cant believe the enviro groups are so busy yelling about growers they just let everyone destroy the lasy private redwood holdings. Both watersheds on either side of us were heavily logged by green diamond, whos workers started 3 fires in our hood this season alone.
If you’re pissed about 3 acre conversions then call CDF.

Potmation
Guest
Potmation
5 years ago
Reply to  Uh

Stumpage prices went up because there are less companies to supply increased demand. Redwood companies shutting down over the years left a hole in a niche market.

Environmentalists are more concerned about old growth doug fir trees on Rainbow Ridge than second growth redwoods on individual parcels.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Uh

The neighbors themselves have said that pot growing was the goal and the smell coming from their places is confirmation that in that at least they were not lying. However the reason specified on the permits is “to increase grazing land” yet no grazing animals ever show up. It just a convenient box to check on the permit. No one ever comes out to follow up anyway. Part of the requirements are to clean up slash within 30 days but most have not complied. It’s another set of regulations that have no teeth.

R-DOG
Guest
R-DOG
5 years ago

Kind of like the fisheries when they were going strong year around back in the day

Central HumCo
Guest
5 years ago

The definition of “commercial” has created significant confusion.

Playing with fraud by using the fraud’s rules does not exonerate you from the fraud . . .

political moderate
Guest
political moderate
5 years ago

Yeah right author. The smell this time of the year makes me wanna puke. You all should be ashamed of your selves. The last 30 years in the redwood curtain will be remembered as the gateway era. The legalization of pot led to the proliferation of meth, heroine, homelessness, and crime.

LuckyPunk
Guest
LuckyPunk
5 years ago

That’s a “Thanks for cleaning up my polluted grow site” wave

weedageddon
Guest
weedageddon
5 years ago
Reply to  LuckyPunk

(next year) “would you like fries with that?”

LuckyPunk
Guest
LuckyPunk
5 years ago

Glorifying the criminal outlaw culture!

Hell in a bucket

Sparkle Mahn
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  LuckyPunk

May come a day
I will dance on your grave
Unable to dance
I’ll still crawl across it
Unable to dance I’ll still crawl.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago

Love thy hater ❤

On the way to economic failure.
Guest
On the way to economic failure.
5 years ago

The smell you cry baby’s are sniveling about is the smell of a bustling economy,its the smell of flourishing buissnesses in the town’s,its the smell of plenty of jobs for everyone Evan the people that have nothing to do with weed , living off the curtails of the money it brought here.youll all be sniveling about something else far worse in a year or two,poverty on the way in a large scale.been places wher everyone is flat broke and welfare is in every living room.with that comes depression,crime and substance abuse it ain’t pretty.so whine on about weed you cun+$ you’ll be missing the smell someday

guest
Guest
guest
5 years ago

I remember the Mayor of Eureka was reputed to have that the pulp mill odor was the smell of money. Like that kept it from going away. And a lot of people tried very hard to keep them in business. Growers, not so much. They have alienated way too many.

I must have missed all the economic benefit that pot has produced. ‘Cause what I smell is the smell of poverty that is everywhere. What ever growers spent on, it was not to establish flourishing businesses employing locals. No upscale developments, businesses that become giants employing large numbers, nothing but buying some high cost groceries or a big truck for themselves. Now with competition becoming intense, the struggle will lead to a few large growers cornering the market and becoming local big deals while the little fish disappear. Of course they may create a upscale market. Who knows but it’s not going to be self centered, nasty mouthed big players who do it.

For Sure
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  guest

What? No upscale developments? What about Knox Cove? And more. The Dazey empire? The subdivision right up Ap road?

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  For Sure

Knox cove was not funded by pot money. The rest I have don’t know about but I suspect not. Subdivisions need funding. Pot money is generally unbankable so where ever it ends up, it’s not there.

Bump
Guest
Bump
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Well its the factual ‘trickle down’, it ends up in the landscaping, tile, furnishings, stainless appliances, swimming pools and soaker tubs! and the pockets of those fine craftspeople that do the finish work. Those jobs will be hard to come by. Even concrete work has hit the skids.

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Bump

It was lost anyway as the income from pot dwindles. It’s always better to have an economy that doesn’t rely on one resource, especially one as boom and bust as illegal pot. Which has also managed to make Humboldt distasteful for legal business.

warrens buffet
Guest
warrens buffet
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Nailed it!

Central HumCo
Guest
5 years ago

Nature can’t be transformed by anyone into the criminal realm.

Dictators require the assistance of the people they rule, without which they cannot secure and maintain the sources of political power. Authority is the belief among the people that the regime is legitimate, and that they have a moral duty to obey it.

The degree of liberty or tyranny in any (pretend) gov’t. is in large degree a reflection of the relative determination of the subjects to be free and their willingness and ability to resist efforts to enslave them.
–Einstein, ‘Facing the Hard Truth.’

Skippy
Guest
Skippy
5 years ago

If some of the cannabis money earned went back into the community and built better sidewalks in Garberville and built a hostel for the workers to come n go after the harvest and to buy local rather then up north and the stores in town didn’t mark up their prices we wouldn’t be in this mess. Some folks did give back and some didn’t it’s as simple as that. I don’t see doom and gloom here in SoHum I see new business and new changes that will benefit us all if you act like your apart of this community and atqrtngiving back and making a difference. Times have changed and the ones who are passionate about what they grow and learn respect with their neighbors and be patient SoHum will have a new change and attract tourists that come to see the Tallest Trees in the World as well as where Cannabis Began. Hang in there!

Trolls Abound
Guest
Trolls Abound
5 years ago
Reply to  Skippy

In the next year or two there will be no need for a hostel for workers. After all the abatements and unreal permitting processes abandoned by many there will be no migrant pot workers. The problem is going to fix itself.

anon traveler
Guest
anon traveler
5 years ago

sheesh.. those who think the smell is horrible should go to i5 in the central valley and live next to a feedlot

that smell you object to??
its the smell of an economy that is alive and growing..

Ag land is Ag land and until its rezoned MOST of the AG users quietly laugh at all of your pissing and moaning about same..(and on the way to paying bills).

GROW UP.. ya live in the country in AG land.. its got AG smells.. whether you care for them or not YOU are the interloper with the sensitive nose who chose to plop down in the country and THEN start complaining about AG smells..
go back to the city
you are NOT wanted with your oh so sensitive noses

go back home
anon
ps NOT a cannabis grower but I and others love the money injected into this economy…

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  anon traveler

It is awful. That feed lot off I5 is gross. A horrible way to treat animals. So It was not put next to housing. You make a lot of incorrect assumptions out some false idea that crying “agriculture” means you can do whatever you want. People actually engaged in agriculture know there are abundant rules governing what they can do and where they can do it.

Saying that something is equally bad does not make pot one iota better. To think that way is like being stuck in a car full of arguing kids saying “He started it.” Doesn’t fix the problem and just aggrevates the adults. And in this scenario, you are behaving like the children.

Following that up with a small minded round of “I hate you” is even more childish. You and your insensitive self absorption are not wanted either. So go away. Sooner or later that arrogance will burn your sorry butts. Hopefully on the way out.

Trolls Abound
Guest
Trolls Abound
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

If you compare something with something worse you can negate a persons concerns. “Oh, your neighbors are the poster children of everything wrong with the current grow culture? Just be glad that Charles Manson and his gang aren’t living there. Don’t like it? Move!!”.

Walter
Guest
Walter
5 years ago
guest
Guest
guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Walter

I do not know about that. Zoning has been used for decades to restrict the damage other people can inflict on their neighbors. I don’t think that RICO is necessary to eliminate a nuisence. It just makes it a lawyer money maker.

Besides if pot growers do “wall themselves off” from the rest of the world, which the article says they can’t but they certainly can,” that eliminates the nuisance issue.

RICOlegalPOTgrows
Guest
RICOlegalPOTgrows
5 years ago

It’s ALL A PIPE DREAM read here “, just like they Pulled a RICO CASE for illegal. The legal ones will be even easier to do this with .. anyone smart would know better to mess with the Federalies

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/how-anti-mafia-laws-could-bring-down-legal-pot-206233/

Sparkle Mahn
Guest
5 years ago

Nice haircut. Last time I got one was…

Chatty Cathy
Guest
Chatty Cathy
5 years ago

Now that’s a pipe dream.
See the tenth admendment.
Cats out of the bag and not going back in.

Flatgirl
Guest
Flatgirl
5 years ago

EVERYONE knows you get accustomed to a smell in a couple of hours and cease to even notice it. The people bitching about it are laughable.

Trolls Abound
Guest
Trolls Abound
5 years ago
Reply to  Flatgirl

You’ve lived here long enough to know that’s complete bs.

MRhateHoneyDewFarms
Guest
MRhateHoneyDewFarms
5 years ago

Pipe dream ? Oh really I have two friends in Colorado who got RICO cases for being completely legal. Your just riding the wave cause your a follower. An will never be a leader Chatty Cathy. Suck some more to get the permit that automatically signs u up for tax evasion & money laundering.

SCOTTIE
Guest
5 years ago

the reason pot smells so highly ,is so that EVEN THE BLIND CAN FIND THEIR MEDICINE!
SO STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THE SMELLS . YOU PROBABLY WEAR A SUIT AND TIE DON”T YOU?
AND WHAT ABOUT THE SMELL THE THIRD WORLD COUNTRY HAVE TO PUT UP WITH JUST TO PRODUCE THOSE FANCY ITEMS WHICH YOU LOVE AND IMPORT SO MUCH!?