Humboldt County worries about life after legal pot

stihgnobevoli · Mar 23, 2010

EUREKA, Calif. - Marijuana growing has long been a way of life in Humboldt County, especially in recent years as timber and fishing jobs have disappeared along California's North Coast.
Now some residents worry that their way of life is being threatened — not by law enforcement, but by efforts to legalize marijuana in the state.
Community members are gathering Tuesday night to consider the consequences. They worry about the ripple effect that a drop in marijuana prices could have on the county as a whole if legalization undermines the black market.
"We have to recognize that if we have something that is this big a piece of our economy that is subsidized by being illegal, that this is an unsustainable situation," Humboldt County Supervisor Mark Lovelace said.
In recent years, anti-drug agents have seized hundreds of thousands of marijuana plants in the county, mostly from massive gardens in remote mountain forests that have earned the region the nickname Emerald Triangle. Law enforcement estimates put the street value of the crop in the billions of dollars.
The eradication efforts have not halted marijuana growing in Humboldt, but the number of plants seized does give a sense of the scale of the industry.
Meeting organizer Anna Hamilton of Shelter Cove said she believes legalization could be "devastating" to the region and that Humboldt County should plan ahead by capitalizing on its name recognition as a marijuana destination.
"We have to embrace marijuana tourism, marijuana products and services — and marijuana has to become a part of the Humboldt County brand," said Hamilton, who describes herself as "intimately involved" with the marijuana industry.
Supporters of a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in limited quantities are still waiting for official word that they've submitted enough signatures to qualify for the November statewide ballot.
___
Information from: Times-Standard, http://www.times-standard.com
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
<script>var url=location.href;var i=url.indexOf('/did/') + 1;if(i==0){i=url.indexOf('/print/1/') + 1;}if(i==0){i=url.indexOf('&print=1');}if(i>0){url = url.substring(0,i);document.write('URL: '+url+'
');if (typeof FDCPUrl == 'function'){FDCPUrl();}else if(window.print){window.print()}else{alert('To print his page press Ctrl-P on your keyboard \nor choose print from your browser or device after clicking OK');}}</script>URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35991506/

wtf humbolt county whats with all the goddamn greed? you sound like the guys they portray us to be on tv.

can i repost the whole article? should i edit it? can someone edit it for me if i cant post the whole article.

sog army · Mar 23, 2010

I really dont understand how this is a bad thing.. IF they re=brand like they are talking about.

GrnMtnGrwr · Mar 23, 2010

I've heard from several commercial growers that would rather it not be legalized, as it would hurt business. Selfish greedy bastards IMO.

gomer · Mar 23, 2010

To read the whole article without searching the link in the original post: http://www.times-standard.com/ci_14729298

Leonard NeemOil · Mar 23, 2010

freaking greedy meth-heads worrying about how they will support their habit.

Yes4Prop215 · Mar 23, 2010

welp considering that these commercial growers are the ones supplyin most of the US are yall really surprised?

yea it would be nice if we could all just grow our own and share it for free and give shit away...yea it sounds nice on paper.

but do you really wanna waste all the time and resources to grow just so you could sell your extra meds for dirt cheap?

as clay davis would say....SHIIIIIIIIIIIET

all il say is ive grown weed il sell for 160 an ounce but thats the cheapest i will ever go, any lower and i swear im PAYING for you to smoke....and my Kush? forget about it, i dont even want to sell this stuff for less than 250 id rather just keep it. shit you could offer me 300 a z right now and i will say naww. took me freagin 3 months, hours of trimming, naw not selling this shit for cheap...

twiztidbudsmoke · Mar 23, 2010

leonards right it sucks but true greedy meth heads, why the fuck would you trade marijuana for meth! someones making more money out of this, the breaking bad guys! lol

GanjaPharma · Mar 23, 2010

i have spoken with many growers who are anti legalization, especially in areas where top notch herb goes for over $500/ounce. some of them see time in jail as an accepted cost of doing business, just like any other criminal enterprise.
This is alot like the people making hooch during prohibition (yes mr. kennedy I mean you) who went bust after the repeal.

I feel very differently. My herbs are among the kindest, cleanest, best tasting and most potent around. I dont make any money from my labors, but I have spent 15 years indulging a passion for cannabis and I have to believe there will be a place for me in a legal environment. and yes i will be happy to sell pounds for 1500 a piece!
you might not know this....but ganja grows outside too! lets do some math: 200 plants, under the big hps in the sky, 4-5 lbs a plant...am i missing something?
bring on legalization, put the gangsters out of the shitty bud biz, let a free market decide whats worth buying. I can brew my own beer (and now I can legally distill liquor too) but I go to a brewer and put my money down whenever i want the best. im not even gonna start on the fiscal viability of legally growing 120 day sativas and other exotic strains...
The anti-legal segment of this community are entitled to their opinion, some of them are the nicest most talented people I know but if I may borrow from bluebell ice cream "smoke all you want...we'll make more"

Hammerhead · Mar 23, 2010

I think Humboldt would get hurt but not to the point there economy would crash. The tourist attraction alone would be massive. The brand humbolt could bring in some serious cash. They should put there heads together and work with it. When we where young we use to drive to Humbolt and trade LSD,COKE, anything the locals wanted but had no access to for bud.

GrnMtnGrwr · Mar 23, 2010

I'd pay good money to take some farm tours in Humboldt. :yes:

stihgnobevoli · Mar 23, 2010

thanks for the second link gomer much more comprehensive than the msnbc article.

as for these humbolt county gangsters. weed is just about legal in the dam and no one there is hurting.

Moondog · Mar 23, 2010

Deleted

<~Hades~> · Mar 23, 2010

I voted for obama ~BUt i will be voting for the most cold blooded Redneck hillbilly anti drug Republican i can next time im at the polls~ one that will Bring the feds down so hard and spill Hippy blood all over California and Colorado ~for ruining the game~ :thank you:

guest2012y · Mar 23, 2010

I can see both sides of the fence because I've been on both sides.
You have to respect N.Cal for bringing weed to us all for years when things sucked back in the 80's,but then again,last year up here in the PNW there was way too much herb from Cali. tromping on the local guys turf.
Legal or not I'll always grow it.........price would go down,but that just means more freedom to grow more herb to make up for it. Also,if you know how to grow well....You'll have a jump on the competition out of the starting gate. Just my thoughts....not gospel.

meduser180056 · Mar 23, 2010

ganjapharma- If it gets legalized I seriously doubt there will be a place for you to off $1500 pounds of outdoor. Plus top quality outdoor can't compare to top quality indoor.

You'll have huge commercial warehouse grows producing good indoor and huge commercial farm like outdoor grows. The market will be so flooded the prices will plummet.

Shit outdoor pounds already go for $1500 in our currently flooded black market I can imagine them being under $500 in a flooded legal market.

meduser180056 · Mar 23, 2010

Plus IME the average joe doesn't give a shit about quality so much they just want it to be cheap. This is what I've been seeing all over the place. Peoples standards seem to be going down when it comes to buds.

When you can get a half pound of outdoor for $800 compared to $1500 at least for some good indoor well it doesn't seem to matter to most folks how bad that outdoor is I mean it's half price so it sells itself.

Yes4Prop215 · Mar 23, 2010

i can get Ps for 1500 but its straight garbage...il feel like im throwing my money away.

id rather up to to the 25 range at least the quality there is better...

my mindset is that id rather pay 50 an 8th and get weed id actually enjoy smoking, instead of getting a crappy 8th for 30 that i will hate smoking because its garbage..

just like how some people are satisfied with their geo metro but you wont catch me dead in one...

meduser180056 · Mar 23, 2010

I'm with you yes4prop215 Id rather pay more for quality, but I'm starting to feel like people like us are in the minority... It seemed like people were more picky about quality in the 90s and early 2000s now it's just flooded with subpar crap.

I mean people like us on ICmag are pretty serious about our buds, but your average daily pot smoker out there just doesnt seem to care about quality or even really be able to tell.
I know people that can't even tell the difference between the killer $50 eighth and the crappy $30 one and they smoke on the regular.

I think a lot of this is the dispensaries faults. Out of the 50 strains you might find at your local dispensary there might b 5 good ones. The rest are shit and I guess when you get fed shit for awhile you get used to it and can't tell the difference no more haha.

I gifted a buddy of mine some killer OG and next time I see him he's showing me some scary brownish/purple lookin outdoor with no crystals or smell to it str8 hay stuff. He traded some of the OG I gave him for it! I was like wtf thats the last time I give him buds.

meduser180056 · Mar 23, 2010

Well Humboldts startin to lose it's rep for quality IMO. Humboldt is pumping out tons of commercial garbage. There's still dank to be had from Humboldt, but in general the quality is dropping IME.

As far as legalization being a fact in cali... That's not gonna happen anytime soon you'll see. None of these bills/initiatives are gonna pass. The only reason 215 passed is cuz the public was duped into thinking it was gonna be only for the sick and dying.

For indoor growers there comes a point where the price drops so far that it is no longer worth it to grow.
That price point is around 2000-2500 per pound. Once it goes that low it's no longer worth it really to grow indoors unless you have a huge setup so you can make up for the low prices in volume. In cali the overhead is high mainly rent and electricity. I guess it'd still be worth it in the midwest or something where you can rent or buy a house for dirt cheap compared to here.

Tylor Durden · Mar 23, 2010

classic ant and grasshopper tail. if you think summer is never going to end, then when it does, you're gonna get caught without being prepared for a long hard winter. Anybody that produces there who did not diversify wasn't very smart to begin with.

It's a matter of time before state governments turn to this as a source of revenue. Caught an article recently that states are closing state parks in droves due to lack of funding. tax revenues are way down and the interest states made on that money is way down also.

I'd lay my money on the next presidential candidate winning on a legalize and taxit platform. It's one thing to hand out billions...it's quite another to make some of that money back.

Why should Amsterdam be getting all those tourist bucks anyway?

"One fight at a time"

Humboldt County worries about life after legal pot

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