How Legalization is Changing Humboldt County: A Story in the New Yorker
Humboldt County marijuana, the county seal, and the iconic first cover of the New Yorker drawn by Rea Irvin.
Values…Today’s New Yorker, that quintessential East Coast cultural magazine known for rigorous fact checking, gives a skeptical though somewhat sympathetic look at Humboldt County values and how they are affected by legalization.
The writer, Emily Witt, states that “the farmers of Humboldt are now trying to convince regulators and buyers that these outlaws who had profited off prohibition were not greedy criminals but people who stood for something: stewardship of the land, the biodiversity of a crop, resistance to corporate consolidation, and a spiritual connection to a psychoactive plant.”
The piece which takes a serious, long look at the local culture is well worth the read as a summary of what occurred here over the last 50 years and it also takes a look at the future of the local culture and how its values can be destroyed or spread by legalization.
Of course, the superficial and obvious look at the Southern Humboldt community is there as expected. The author writes, “When I visited in February, the marquee of a shuttered movie theatre in town bore the slogan of a newly formed visitors’ bureau: “Elevate the Magic.” But Garberville did not seem entirely ready to make itself over as a place for a romantic getaway—forty years of paranoia and chosen seclusion are not easily dispelled. The town relies on a cash-heavy, still partly clandestine economy, and it has a significant population of homeless people with drug dependencies.”
However, the author spoke to a number of residents and it shows. The interview with Jason Gellman, owner of Ridgeline Farms and Emerald Cup winner, is chosen to bring the reader closer to the area. In the article, Gellman describes what it was like to grow up as part of the marijuana culture. The author quotes him as saying, “You didn’t think it was bad, because when your dad does it and your mom does it, every single person, every single friend, grows weed—every one of their family members grows weed—it’s not looked upon as bad. It still isn’t bad, but you knew the outside world thought of it as bad.”
The problems of the area are juxtaposed with an acknowledgement of the richness and altruism of the non-profits that the back-to-the-landers funded. The author describes “a community center, the Redwoods Rural Health Center, and KMUD, the nonprofit radio station on which the Civil Liberties Monitoring Project, an organization started by local farmers, broadcast the movements of law enforcement in the area” among others.
The nuanced piece quotes Gellman as describing not only the strong community aspects but also the toll taken on its members. “There were a lot of deaths,” he said. But, also he notes, that in part we remember these deaths because they didn’t occur in some group of people we had pushed away from us–a criminal element we feared and tried to ignore, but instead those deaths were some of us. Gellman describes a tight-knit community honoring those who died. He said, “…I think it’s just because we know so many people. We have so many friends.”
The article offers viewpoints ranging from Gellman charging that Humboldt County used the attempts of farmers to go legal to correct what the author called the “mistakes of a multigenerational libertarian experiment” to John Ford of the Planning Department arguing that growers were just having to abide by the same rules as everyone else. “Those are the normal costs to anybody,” Ford is quoted as saying. “Whether you’re building a single-family home or beginning a business, or constructing a building, you would be expected to minimize and mitigate your impacts.”
The article notes the concerns about legalization not doing enough to “protect legacy farmers from getting undercut by new agribusiness entrepreneurs.”
But also points out the value and story that the same farmers are trying to tell. The writer describes how “[o]ne farmer, Tina Gordon, poured me glasses of Tang, Sunny Delight, and fresh-squeezed orange juice to make a point about the differences between marijuana grown indoors, in a greenhouse, and outdoors.”
The author argues that the “farmers who survive will likely do so by making themselves part of the branding of their marijuana, styling themselves as representatives of an heirloom culture with a premium product—the cannabis version of the farmers pictured on cartons of organic milk.”
In the end, the author says that the outlaw culture of “Humboldt can no longer claim its independence, and it will now have to see if it can hold on to its values.”
We’ll have to see if the author is right.
The article is well worth the read and only a click away.
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🕯🌳Now I know were Hank from Lost coast got his moniker.
It is a Monocle
https://www.nearsights.com/blogs/nearsights-blog/15240617-how-to-wear-a-monocle
If only LoCO, with its numerous “reporters”, could post timely news articles.
I’m afraid the future here looks bleak
No more bleak than the present. Maybe weeding out the growers who cut corners and sell on the black market will lead to a better industry and future for Humboldt. Not the rivers of cash flowing as in the past, but better for Humboldt as a whole.
There’s something really ironic about the industry that funded EPIC, the NEC, and Earth First! complaining about having to comply with environmental regulations.
1. No one minds the rules except the asses. We mind the stoopid and costly way the rules are implemented so that complying with them forces the compliers to grow in non-sustainable ways.
2. No group is homogenous. Therefore the oldsters that started the growing and backed the enviro groups are not the same as the green rushers who are the ones getting licensed.
3. And FORD, we all see growers are way over regulated compared to any other ag sector. Please stop LIEING.
Thats total BS. The people that I knew that were a part of EPIC and Earth First either grew in a righteous earth friendly organic way, or didn’t grow at all, and are glad today that some of the environmental destruction brought about by big time greedy capitalist pigs is being addressed. And small time mom and pop operations will continue to grow enough to get by in an organic way without going legal, so deal with it.
Or as the guy said in Blazing Saddles….Badges!? We don’t need no stinkin badges.
Just to set the record straight, “Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” is a widely quoted paraphrase of a line of dialogue from the 1948 film ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’. That line was in turn derived from dialogue in the 1927 novel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ
no permits = no plants. don’t cry when your illegal scene goes into the chipper.
Yeah.. because that attitude has been sooo very effective in the past..🙄
That’s the hope but only 287 permits have been given out and of those only 28 are under 4000 sq feet .. and there has to be roughly 50,000 grows here if not more .. people are telling on people now??? It’s sad to see how a community once tighhtly knit is now overrun by people trying to green rush … I have hope and will stay and push through because I have been here too long to just give up on us ! Humboldt still has some of the best weed ever .. if you can still find the ones who care (the 280 who have permits ).. lately I seen some really shitty weed .. those are the Freddy people !
~no more bleak than the rest of the planet. We can comment on and on about just this part of planet Earth, but, truly, we have it pretty good in spite of all of my/our complaining.
We gotta go up the hill together . . . gather hands.
Dig it!
Agreed.
No doubt!
Yeah , after legalization, our community is going through quite the adjustment on many levels not just economically. But one thing the people in my watershed are very happy about is that three of the mega grow green rushers got busted or abated and had to pull up stakes and leave. No one is sorry to see them go. They did not give back, all they did was come here to get rich and abuse our land and water sheds .
Yeah but we never needed this corporate-biased “legalization” to do that. Abatements and convoys were all possible without this fake “legalization” and we needed it for many years. Why did we have nearly zero enforcement, zero regulation and those nasty mega-grows were allowed to blow up our neighborhoods? Makes me wonder
Anyways ..many egregious mega- grows became today’s wonderfully permitted mega-farms or shall we say “good players”…paying fees to eradicate their small neighbors.
Too bad in other water sheds mega grow green rushers were the ones the county lined up to give the permits too… Smaller folks didn’t have as much money to pay them..
Pretty much all my neighbors actually cut back in that terrible 5 year drought. Yes- we did. Because we were actually concerned about the struggling fish population in a dire time. But turns out that was the time to screw the fish and go big if you wanted to build the financial resources to get through the permit process. I saw what happened and I don’t forget. Nearly all permitted grows used extra water in that crippling drought. I have a very hard time applauding their “cleverness” and whatever other bullshit terms they use for themselves and their wonderfulness.
That’s because I personally do not beilive any of this over regulation has anything to do with “protecting the environment”.. Its all about the county making as much money as they possibly can, and using financial instruments of “terror” to rig the game in favor of big corporations. And big money. People don’t think the county has an adgenda.. well.. Just look at what they did to Bob McKee and tell me they don’t use ridiculously rigged underhanded tactics. No other county in the state of California has implemented these extremes. Sure some have banned it. But Not Mendicino, Not Nevada county, not Trinity county, not Del Norte county, None of them.. just Humboldt… its a absolute Crap Show..
This ain’t their first crap show! They have a long history of monopolizing industry. You’d have thunk people would have learn from all the past examples of the corporate government collusion.
One and the same.
The fourth rail of the sheep pen is about to be put in place.
Social credited,
Micro chipped,
mega chapped
This shit has been coming down the pipe. Screw,INC the environment is a corporate government jobs project.
Marshall Islands?
“No one is sorry to see them go. They did not give back, all they did was come here to get rich and abuse our land and water sheds.”
You need to reread what you stated and think about it, let it sink in!
Unless you are indigenous and can trace your lineage back thousands of years in Northern California, maybe you should rethink what you said. No one came to “give back”, they all came to “get rich”, even before the gold rush.
This article likes to romanticize what you people like to believe is your culture, when its all nothing but sales & marketing. Please name a non-green rusher that gave back to his or her community, without benefiting or degrading the wildlife habitat and watersheds…
Ok.. well the community started And funded Epic an FOER it’s fairly recent that they started to turn against “All Growers” in the hills and start to label everyone as “bad”.. just by being apart of modern society you and anyone else on this planet has an impact so.. Your statements are false and delusional. The water sheds were in massive disarray from irresponsible logging practices. Seriously if it wasn’t for the Originals here Humboldt would have been in FAR worse shape.
You need to do some research concerning the initial funding and conception for EPIC and FOER. And my question was, in part, who “gave back to his or her community, without benefiting”? In the case of EPIC and FOER, Executive Directors, Staff and Attorneys benefited, not the community. My definition of community are public safety, local public fire departments, public hospitals, public schools, public water & waste treatment facilities, not the formation of non-membership organizations and tax exempt corporations that include private/public partnerships or Board meetings not open to the public, because non-profit and tax exempt organization are not public, they are private corporations…
I do have to acknowledge that when EPIC was first formed (1977); when local residents came together to successfully end aerial applications of herbicides by industrial logging companies in Humboldt County and in early lawsuits (1980’s), EPIC established that cumulative impacts must be considered by the California Department of Forestry (CDF) in their review of timber harvesting plans (THPs), full compliance with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) procedures .i.e. requiring agency review of THPs. Also, the Native American Heritage Commission must be consulted if there is evidence of Native American historical sites within the THP, along with a more aggressive review and application process by Department of Fish and Game, Regional Water Quality Control Board and public comment.
So I guess my question would be, how did EPIC & FOER give back to their community?
Oh please. Epic and FOER give back? They are largely responsible for this inherent tanking of the economy.. While they where great in the past, and did pull together some great feats, today the Organizations are just pencil pushing paper huggers that are cozing up to what ever industry is going to pay for thier cozy little town desk jobs.. Where where they when the water sheds were taken over by Cartels? Oh, I know sucking up and friending all the Ma and Pa growers for thier foundation.. and now.. Now that the cash cow is dry NOW they want to call us smaller folk abusers.. hmmm Never heard an Fing Peep from these people when they were sucking up all those large donations.. But you know go ahead and defend Giant polluting chemie gmo agro giants label them clean while u all take thier money and support the county financially terrorizing smaller well meaning people.. By all means.. but don’t call yourselves enviro.. because that is a joke…
I turn on the tube and what do I see
A whole lotta people cryin’ “Don’t blame me”
They point their crooked little fingers at everybody else
Spend all their time feelin’ sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your momma’s too thin; your daddy’s too fat
Get over it
Get over it
All this whinin’ and cryin’ and pitchin’ a fit
Get over it, get over it
You say you haven’t been the same since you had your little crash
But you might feel better if they gave you some cash
The more I think about it, Old Billy was right
Let’s kill all the lawyers, kill ’em tonight
You don’t want to work; you want to live like a king
But the big, bad world doesn’t owe you a thing
Get over it
Get over it
If you don’t want to play, then you might as well split
Get over it, get over it
It’s like going to confession every time I hear you speak
You’re makin’ the most of your losin’ streak
Some call it sick, but I call it weak
You drag it around like a ball and chain
You wallow in the guilt; you wallow in the pain
You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown
Got your mind in the gutter, bringin’ everybody down
Complain about the present and blame it on the past
I’d like to find your inner child and kick its little ass
Get over it
Get over it
All this bitchin’ and moanin’ and pitchin’ a fit
Get over it, get over it
Get over it
Get over it
It’s gotta stop sometime, so why don’t you quit
Get over it, get over it
Get over it
Songwriters: Glenn Frey / Don Henley
Get Over It lyrics © Cass County Music / Wisteria Music / Privet Music, Red Cloud Music
ED Voice Commentary Addressed to you below.
Not so true some.of the megas were very clean and compliant .. and all they do is give back .. jobs for many families never even removing a frog from land not everyone who gets busted deserves it .!!!
Yes it’s changed our area and not for the better..
Ah geez, another New York journalist attempts but fails to tell us who we are. Passes judgement about our future and what she thinks we ought to do.
The descriptive term ‘Black Market’ got tossed about as if the author understands the ramifications of “legalization”.
No mention of the voter fraud by Gov Newsom, but can we save our values? Not at the ballot box we can’t. They played us for fools.
At the least, Ms Witt cranked out a technical rendition of a New York attitude towards cannabis culture within the triangle. Distant, cold and far from the mark. I felt like I was reading a compilation of others’ work. Sort of a report of reports.
Excellent and I raised you one, below.
Most of us are headed to peril. Homelessness around the corner and financial ruin.the majority of good people weren’t mega growers so didn’t have the funding to make it through John Fords theft scheme. On the upside we got some candidates to replace the cannabis queen,and hopefully someone will step up to run against bone soon!!!!!
Those agribusiness entrepreneurs won’t be grinning quite so broadly once the poles melt and the Sacramento Valley becomes an inland sea. Just wait!
Oceans never stood in the way of world domination.
Difference between them and us, is they have such well funded plan B, C, and D.
The only thing we can do. Is throw our bodies into the gears of the machine, so we might put an end to this future without humanity.
There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes too odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part. And, you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels . . . upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! Mario Savio
~one would have to believe in a state of delusional insanity if one believes the creation can have greater authrity than the creator.
🙂
That’s exactly what I meant!
Who cares what some shitzone east coaster thinks? The New Yawker is an elitist rag for elitist losers.
You mean it’s intelligent writing by intelligent people? I love my New Yorker subscription- it’s a great rag. You may have been being sarcastic sparkleman it’s hard to tell.. you don’t usually come across as so provincial 😉
Shhh, “intelligent” is a dirty word lately. Brave of you to come out.
Uh, not really. Obviously you don’t read the magazine. Skip the arts and culture — that “New York” stuff is too sophisticated for your standards. But the politics and general reporting are strong.
Rod Gass has it right, as does Sparklemahn. Provincialism, or localism, is coming to all of us, btw, like it or not. The concept of globalism has been destructive of cultures as well as the environment.
Too many glossy words saying nothing in the end. It would be interesting to hear from the smaller 1st-2nd generation farmers point of view , or the disenfranchised women, all outside the permit process now, whose stories will be much different. There are many reasons some couldn’t attempt to navigate the permitting process, the snarky have, have-not mentality is getting so tiresome . Those groovy digs behind the electronic gate weren’t constructed and maintained on legal cannabis profits, or “fishing,” we have the black market to THANK for anyone doing anything in the regulated market. People act so coy, and I’ve yet to see a single mainstream article that reflects what’s really going on.
I am confounded by how many people don’t understand how serious a trainwreck we’re in right now- it hasn’t gotten bad yet, but it will. Dope was the only wealth in the area. You fools! What did you think was going to happen? This is tremendously sad and horrible for our community- most just dont know it, yet.
For the love of christ jesus, bring the 90s back or we are DOOMED up here.
~i wish it were about the economy, the doll-ears. June 30, 2018 is nearly a year ago and “The County” just can’t get it up enough to close last year’s books! Where’s the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for 2017-2018? No one is minding the store.
This is from 2012, so, we can’t even imagine the depth of the fraud, deceit an illusion going on now.
BREAKING NEWS: California State CAFR looked at; Fraud identified; Heads Roll
http://cafr1.com/headsroll.html
First Domino to fall:
It appears someone did a little digging into the CA State CAFR report.
It is not said in the Los Angeles Times News Article but it would be my estimate that the funds identified were sitting in a designated advance liability account. Now it is time to turn the same rocks over for all cities; county; state; enterprise; school district; and state university accounts.
For the CA State Parks it was 54-million. Collectively for all local government operations (tens of thousands of operations) it is a few trillion.
The department head resigned and the assistant fired. What cojones did they forget, or intentionally ignore to cut off? The state attorney who dotted the “I’s” and crossed the “T’s” setting up the hidden funding account for them in the first place (Emphasis added)
Every one of these stash accounts is signed off on by the city; county; or state attorney.. The true fraud begins there, and usually the same is checked off on by a local judge. (Again; Emphasis added) Attorneys running the show, the employee(s) following their instructions but then the employee getting the axe as the scape goat.
Per these types of situations: If “true” accountability came to play: Black robes and their cooperative suited shill attorneys should be forced to dress in orange jump suits and locked in an eight by ten cell for a very long time.
Have your local Sheriff investigate and arrest the true responsible party for the fraud involved in these matters. The attorneys and judges who structured and then signed off on it all.
Please share with all that you know, re-post, blog, and website post.
Sent FYI from,
Walter Burien – CAFR1
P. O. Box 2112
Saint Johns, AZ 85936
Tel. (928) 458-5854
“Bring back the 90’s”, yeah, that’s a possibility, if you know how to travel backwards in time. Perspective: if you see “DOOM”, that’s what you’ll get; if you see “OPPORTUNITY”, that’s what you’ll find. There are SO MANY things a person can do with their life, to create income, be healthy, thrive. But hey, if all you want to focus on is the “glory days”, weed, and money-money-money, moving forward is going to be a rough ride for you. This is a unique and beautiful part of the world, so much potential, if you have an open mind and a solid work ethic. You whiners make me laugh. Get over it, grow up, move forward.
Thanks for the perspective, Jay.
I agree that there is always potential in our lives and the opportunities to grow and make something work with this life span.
The statistics show a very real increase in the cost of living vs the amount of people competing for money via jobs and investment.
I’ve been trying to understand since I stood on the picket line, supporting my union brothers and sisters, why we have been so marginalized and pitted against one another in attempt to simply earn a living. I have personally witnessed the transformation of an industry that used to supply working men and women with careers they could raise a family and retire with dignity.
In the 20 years on the job, I witnessed the long slow squeeze of labor while profits continued to soar. While on the picket line, we had to deal with temp workers, and they simply needed jobs as well. What they didn’t realize, is that we were fighting just to maintain wages and benefits, that they would never see because we were doomed from the moment we walked out on strike.
The landscape has changed so the employee, who now qualify for government assistance, while being employed full time.
Do we really need more competition at this point in our existence. The general population is looked at as the scourge of the earth and resource to be burned through.
Government jobs projects increase the scope and power of the beast that needs more and more tax revenue to keep a certain segment of the population content with ever increased demand on the working class to maintain a dignified existence.
Clearly, there are more losers with every graduation ceremony. There will never be enough to keep the future workers gainfully employed, unless regulations and codes control every aspect of human life.
Welcome to the matrix.
ONLY egregious mega- grows became today’s wonderfully permitted mega-farms ..the “good players”…paying fees to eradicate their small neighbors.
In a nutshell.
Small farmer here under 4000 SQ feet have a permit ! It just takes about 2 years but we got it .. well just 28 of us so far …
I’ve wondered where Earth First! is with all the environmental destruction of late, now I know. In the back pocket of the growers. A lot of us were right all along.
The fbi infiltrated them two decades ago, after bombing the leaders, they completely stymied their momentum. Thats where earth first went locally.
Well, I actually liked the article. I echo the sentiment of an outsider trying to define us. Or tell us what our future may be. But, I still feel the Article was decently written.
“Those are the normal costs to anybody,” Ford said. “Whether you’re building a single-family home or beginning a business, or constructing a building, you would be expected to minimize and mitigate your impacts.” That is simply not true. I am sure Mr. Ford likes to reiterate that to himself.. but that is simply not the case.
This is another part of the equation that many have not really discussed largely in the community, and I found it interesting she brought it up…
“When I spoke to second-generation farmers about the obstacles they face in bringing their farms up to code and surviving in the legalized market, they often spoke about their elders, alternating between reverence and younger people’s general gripe about the baby boomers—that the older generation’s idealism was enabled by cheap real estate and a strong economy, and that younger generations were burdened with the fallout. The Old Guard has fretted about the decline of the institutions they created, such as the community center and KMUD, without acknowledging the stress the next generation is under. “Most of the old folks that have been surviving off fifty pounds could not care less about creating a legal industry, so now the legacy they left us is ‘All right, here’s your massive land payment, and good luck!’ ” a farmer named Rio Anderson told me. “There’s not a lot of participation in creating a local framework for a legal pot industry.” He went on, “And here’s a huge set of super-judgmental liberal issues, like, ‘You guys are greedy, you guys are capitalists, you guys are ruining the environment, you guys aren’t participating in the community,’ you know?” So the second generation tries to live up to its elders’ expectations even as profit margins shrink. Anderson feels a loyalty to Garberville, where he runs a combined natural-food store and restaurant with his mother and sister.”
Yeah you’re right, we should talk about it.
“… second generation farmers … burdened with the fallout. The older generation’s idealism.”
I, along with numerous others, somehow grew old along the way. I gifted my land legally to my youngest daughter ( 46). There’s zero land payment. She immediately stopped cannabis cultivation on the family farm. She says clearly … the reward isn’t worth the risk of loss. The land is very special. I guess there is some fallout that accompanies prime land ownership which is free and clear of debt.
The ability to work endlessly towards self-sustainability is in the final analysis idealism. It’s not possible in our world. So we just keep on slugging it out, fighting against the constantly encroaching mechanization of society.
Marijuana “legalization” didn’t arrive in California. Prohibition of cultivation did. I doubt that scant few voters read the #64 proposal prior to voting. Prohibition is described at length in the text.
I’ll go on record here, us oldtimers didn’t vote in #64, the youngins did. It’s gotten to be an embarrassment. We have handed-over everything our lives could produce, and the new generation has abandoned it’s Earthiness.
I suppose different folks are in different situations. That’s to bad your daughter couldn’t continue with the legacy, but it’s good of her not to risk the homestead for profit.
I think that it is common in most farming communities, where there is a real disconnect between generations… Society today is very mechanized. But, actually there are a number of people all across the nation who are still striving to be “off Grid and homestead”. Even w/o Cannabis.. It’s definitely not popular culture.. but it’s out there.
I don’t think most voters put much thought into the specifics of 64. Or how it would affect our community. And I think that most people here that voted in favor thought the county would adapt a reasonable approach. Personally for the record.. I didn’t vote for it. Idealistically I support legalizing Cannabis..but I knew it was bad for the community. But I think the younger people were hopeful for a better tomorrow. I had hoped it could have been good for the community as a whole instead of what we are seeing today. I knew there would be adjustments to make..
I feel like the older generations contributed a lot to make a better world. And I hope the younger generations start putting thoughts into how they can make a better world..I think that the reason why the younger generations are so disconnected from humanitarian or environmental issues is because it doesn’t really affect them on a personal level. Society is so mechanized, they are kinda buffered from the effects. And there isn’t much time to think about it.. But yeah, honestly, I don’t understand why one would run a “Health Food Store” if you don’t care about the environment..lol..
It’s like Earthyness is Bling Bling to the new generation. I know the next gen is up against a set of entirely different obstacles, but hopefully they can also hang on to some “HIGHER” ideals through the madness! And hopefully the older generations can give some support for them to do that..
But what if you, like me, are just trying to survive?
A medical grower, who over the years has paid the county a couple of thousand dollars to protect my tiny garden with a state card. And now the county wants me to get a permit for my little greenhouse, where I also grow veggies, AND pay them $600 to grow my 6 legal, medical plants. That is an 800% increase in county cost over my 215 days. I live on a small fixed income. An 800% increase in any expense is a genuine hardship for a non commercial gardener.
That sucks so bad. You should not have to pay them a dime! Absolutely usury, and Extortion.
Do you really think you need to pay $600 to grow your personal plants? First of all I don’t know where they collect, who is collecting that? I’ve never heard of this. Second of all fuck them you should just do what you want in your greenhouse.
If only it were that easy, now they can level fines and take people’s houses without any oversite… so it’s a very dangerous place Humboldt has gone..
Nobody should have to worry or look over thier shoulder like that for six plants completely legally protected. If that is the “law”to be enforced it is completely unethical and fraudulent!
~any one would have to be a little short of grey matter to want to use the fraud to get out of the fraud.
Stop reading and trying to understand Their Codes.
“Who is the man or woman with verifiable claim, who shall testify in open court, under Oath or Affirmation, that i their fellow woman do wrong to that man or woman”?
One of the better articles written about Humboldt. But it would have been nice to acknowledge that vacant parcels of land and tiny mom and pops are getting abated while the Bulgarians and other big timers somehow don’t get busted. I wonder how many paper bags full of cash Estelle, Rex, and John ford have accepted?
Rex bone,estelle fennel, and John Ford can be replaced.please somebody worthy step up to challenge rex.and for gods sake people show up on election day!!!!! We can end this tyranny, theivery,and corruption!!!!
Just puppets on a string.
Real power doesn’t play on stage.
Master of puppets
For once I’m impressed with the various comments in this thread.
One thing I can’t figure out- how are the Bulgarian mafia not brought up on RICO act charges? They’ve been around long enough now to observe. They don’t hide how they operate and have blabbed their mouths about their Chicago connections to anyone that befriends them. Their wives and children are sequestered in the Bay Area. They have no interest in local ANYTHING. The only people that like them are the real estate agents and the grow stores that give them unlimited charge accounts.
In whine country, we grow complaints:
Wahhhhhhh why can’t things stay like they were 30 years ago! Waaaaahhhhhhh!
Humboldt is so predictable, that, I can always tell you exactly what folks will say!
“We don’t like him, he’s not FROM HERE…”
“If you don’t like it, leave!”
“My plants are custom hybrids, 99% THC”
And, when, did you EVER hear someone refer to Marijuana, as “the plant”?
I read this piece of cheese article, and, just like after viewing “Murder Mountain”, I wished for a comprehensive and realistic treatment of the “Humboldt Culture”, and not just another “fluff” story, produced for payment, sensation and to sell product…
Reality is hardly a negotiable concept, or is it? Clearly, one needs to experience the place, and form their own opinion, or at least I hope so.
Garberville, on the other hand, is not a romantic location, and not a representative one. Garberville is a study in aberration, dysfunction, borderline thinking, and, a great example of what not to do, in your town. Garberville is not a safe place for anyone, ever, and stands as the poorest example of “Life in Humboldt”.
Anyone contemplating a tourist trip, to encounter “the real Humboldt”, should be advised that each town has a distinctly different flavor, and, “up a dirt road” is not the only place in Humboldt, that outsiders should not go…
Meanwhile, if people are having a tough time in “The Cannabis Industry”, they can always sell out to agribusiness, who are represented by well-funded businessmen, and are tooled up to bury the countryside in cheap, kick-ass flower and concentrate, and way sooner than you all think!
Smoke ’em while you got ’em Humboldt, times are changing…
Most of those people are in Socal, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada. Why navigate Humboldt’s back roads, weather , sketchy infrastructure and backwoods mentality when you don’t have to. Or, they are investing in local longtime growers going legal without having to navigate Humboldt themselves.
Billy, your constant negativity is definitely relatable, and I agree with some of your points. I’ve never heard mj called ‘the plant’ either. Yes, there are elements of this county that are a shithole, and there are plenty of stupid people… but there is a lot of good going on here too and it’s worth looking on the good side of things once in a while. Take a hike, enjoy the non-traffic… basically get out of downtown eureka or downtown anywhere and it gets pretty nice. It’s not good to be so negative all the time!
Oh boy Billy..seriously.. Billy be like.. “OMG..I cant believe it’s cannabis..Wahhh..Booo..Hoo..’ seriously I think your comments are the “biggest complaint patch” in the whole blog.. “Nobody Cries more than Billy.. Billy is like the biggest complainer ever..
His whining about Whiners is rich …
Pretty crazy that tara Carver of the Humboldt county growers alliance is helping john Ford our planning director spearhead a campaign to fine the smaller growers.even to the point that they met closed door last week after the hemp moratorium failed to get a 4/5 vote to write an emergency ordinance ,so they could waive the time for public review.
The countys biggest lobbyist is now assisting with making emergency ordinances .intended to only be used in the case of an extreme public emergency.
Yes times have changed.
And it’s being talked about at 1 PM at suporvisors chamber
what a cluster fuck this county has become. agree with willow creeker its beautiful out there in the hills, but really the supes (minus madrone and wilson) john ford and yes you terra are basically trying to criminalize and wipe out any sort of rural lifestyle using weed as the excuse, for fucks sake its a plant! anyone can grow it! you cant control it you fuckers, at the end of the day you will drive it back underground to diesel grows again, you’re already driving the price up, so keep up the good work! if you had any compassion you would clearly state what will trigger an abatement and start using a tiered system for these insane fines you want to clobber everyone with.
oh and hemp: let it grow! you cant stop it!
“urgent” it’s an Urgent Interim Ordinance. Don’t ask. idk.
(u)rgent
(i)nterim
(o)rdinance – all three – negative state of being words. Babble-on.
“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” Cool Hand Luke
At Switzer’s comment…wow,damn, wtf.
Billy black dodge what did REALLY happen to you in g-ville ???? Theres been rumors about your employment at the hospital and u not being able to live up to your expectations,but for such bitterness I’m thinking it was something more personal. Please enlighten the community on where this downright hatred comes from. Try to enjoy your life free of hatred and bitterness it will free you from your own chains.
Two sides to every story, and remember, SHCHD is the place where they make up their own truth daily.
I, on the other hand, only say things that are strictly true…
Your hospital decides almost everything based on costs and available cash. You can imagine the rest…
Meet me at Kome someday, and I will tell you the whole story.
Kome?? LOL! Enough said, LOL
As neighbors attack neighbors, creeping disasters lurk offshore.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-16/radioactive-nuclear-coffin-may-be-leaking-pacific
Plutonium, along with plastic, has recently been detected at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest place in the Pacific.
The melting permafrost in the Arctic tundra will TRIPLE the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
I really think worrying about our loss of rural lifestyle here in Humboldt….is not our number one concern.
“I really think worrying about our loss of rural lifestyle here in Humboldt….is not our number one concern.”
~if more of us don’t wise up soon and put our energies into stopping the anti-civilization cover-ups: man-made climate collapse being delivered via the military industrial complex and vax-a-nations, we won’t have a prayer.
If America goes down due to our willful ignorance, stuck-on repetition, backed up with fear (False Evidence Appearing Real), freedom and liberty will never be re-gained. The world will end as we know it.
~closer to home;
The average age of U.S. commercial reactors is about 37 years. The oldest operating reactor is Nine Mile Point 1 in New York, which entered commercial service in December 1969. The newest reactor to enter service is Tennessee’s Watts Bar Unit 2, which began operation in June 2016.
BEGAN operation in 2016. No where to dispose of the radioactive waste, so by all means, keep building nuclear power plants. Talk about mental health probs., this is beyond Einstein’s definition of nuts.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the piece addresses the question of the informal economy’s resilience.
From Kym’s review, it seems like it sounds a death knell.
It’s true that the common assumption is that big business, backed by regulation, crushes all.
But there are a couple wrinkles to this story: one is the decades-old networks of underground production and distribution. (Weed prohibition has lasted a lot longer than alcohol prohibition did.)
Another is the unique California climate, caused by the North Pacific High, which turns Northern California into a desert for six months of the year. That translates to higher quality and lower production costs for cannabis than can be achieved about anywhere else in the U.S., at least.
I like the New Yorker, and I hope they get it right on weed this time. They have sins to atone for after recently running the moronic text by Malcolm Gladwell about neo-Anslingerite Alex Berenson’s attempted resurrection of literal Reefer Madness theories.
We’ll see.
// “That translates to higher quality and lower production costs for cannabis than can be achieved about anywhere else in the U.S., at least.” //
If this is true, large producers will be flocking to the region en mas in no time at all. Sadly, if this is a broad claim referring to the triangle … it’s not true enough to save the local industry from devastation.
The triangle is always going to have some of the most revered boutique outdoor product, but the days of the region being the dominate provider of ‘mids’ to the state and the nation (and face it, most of the ‘green rush’ was all about mids) is coming to a close.
If you’re gonna larf, larf into this.
“If this is true”
It’s true, you just haven’t read the symptoms accurately. Property sales valuations, “legalization”, constant debate over future lifestyles, have been actively increasing, surely you’ve seen the same sorta stuff. The en mass participation is inflating the triangle’s bubble. When will it pop?
The en mass infiltration isn’t concerned with preserving our OG cannabis, they want to call it “mine”, they wish to own it and speculate as to where the best and easiest “takings” are available. It’s a part of the over inflated bubble. In Gov Newsom’s scheme, it’s all about maximum taxation.
~yes, tax us to death. Because why? WE WON’T LET GO OF THE OLD TO MAKE ROOM FOR THE NEW – or, the new as it is and should be. . . Heaven on Earth. What’s wrong with us? You’d think we’d been injected with man-made toxin excrement, eating Frankenfood shipped in from Timbuktu, and breathing in aluminum particles ‘deployed’ into the air.
T.H.E.Y. can print ‘money’ all dippity-doo day long
“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” Kissinger.
It’s about control thru taxation. It’s forever been on The Agenda as it comes around again in the form of nothing humanity has ever been under before. We’re in un-chartered territory, wasting our precious power discussing imaginary external authority figures. I guess “Know thine enemy” comes in at this point.
// “It’s true, you just haven’t read the symptoms accurately.” //
Oh, that’s funny.
The numbers have already shifted to the central coast. It’s not gonna stop.
Matt Meyers: are you referring to the article about high thc cannabis being linked to mental issues like schizophrenia and bipolar? I thought that was an excellent article. No fear mongering from what I saw; just good solid evidence that their is a possible dark side to too much weed use. I’ve seen it and I find it credible.
~too much anything causes unbalanced damage.
In 1918, at the end of WWI, inFLUenza ripped around the globe killing millions. The big lie worked then;
High aspirin dosing levels used to treat patients during the 1918-1919 pandemic are now known to cause, in some cases, toxicity and a dangerous build up of fluid in the lungs, which may have contributed to the incidence and severity of symptoms, bacterial infections, and mortality. Additionally, autopsy reports from 1918 are consistent with what we know today about the dangers of aspirin toxicity, as well as the expected viral causes of death. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091002132346.htm
It’ll work 100 years later;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3P6wVUH0pc vaccine autism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q62DcaNs_0M CDC Whistleblower admits MMR Vaccine causes Autism
Schizophrenia and bipolar – Babble On from the 20th century anti-civilization group.
You know one thing I was thinking about in this Article I kinda disagree with is that she state that she doesn’t see Silicon Valley types coming up to spend time at the Canno AIRBB while that may be true to an extent.. there is a whole nation of people who also do like to recreate and are very curious about the canno process, and who do actually like to spend a little time rugged. It may be a tougher market, but I don’t think it’s an entirely impossible dream either… just saying..
Bring back the squirrel!!!
Yes! That would be Awesome! So Awesome!
ED VOICE..
Stand up look around and
then scale back down too
See I believe in a revolution, I believe it is a hell,
I believe in it, take care of it daily daily on demand
because…
I am a blacksmith of metal and words and a sheep that pitch
black too,
and in this life spun short in the span of things I believe
there’s a bit more that we ought to be trying
Cause 500 hundred years ago, when these trees were more
dense,
and the colors pristine, so the chaos made sense.
There was no knowing of loss of a mountain,
the whole mountain that I call home and these same hills
roll on and on,
without mention of vanish or where fools belong and these
same mountains that go to peace
long before the noose, and now that soon is really gone, now
that too is nearly gone
so tell me what have we done as a civilization to destroy in
our own wake that
metaphorical hand that feeds us we are trashing our own
birthday cake
and I consider myself a skeptic but I’m optimist in soul and
we are all getting force fed,
we are led around like the bull and he is huge and rageful
and somehow subdued and hauled by those thick rings
so don’t you too shut out the filthy, nasty, sticky truth of
things
So here we go, get the fuck out your car, walk, it’s good
for you stop consuming blindly,
get by on what you do have and then scale that down too
Take a long hard look at you
It starts there, we all got a lot to say about everybody
else its our own transgression that always tends to melt
into
who’s fault who’s blame who’s wrong, but each and everyone
of us is doing something
its too hard, too fast, too long and there’s
none but ourselves to make this thing last, none but
ourselves to make this thing last…
Stand up look around and
scale that down too
It starts there, take a long hard look at you, you stand up,
look around and then you scale that down too
Rising Appalachia (2010a). Scale Down (video). Scott McKibben Photography and Captain Crazy Productions. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmr5rdaemYk
~nice.
“I consider my self a skeptic but optimist in soul”
More car accidents.
I think it is the best, most accurate article I’ve read ever about so hum pot scene. So does everyone I’ve talked to. Yes, small inaccuracies but she nailed it.
Not so true some.of the megas were very clean and compliant .. and all they do is give back .. jobs for many families never even removing a frog from land not everyone who gets busted deserves it .!!!