http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...s-gone-to-pot-over-marijuana-cultivation.html
By Philip Sherwell in Arcata, California
Last Updated: 7:07PM BST 12/07/2008
The smell of marijuana hangs in the air in Arcata, California, a pleasant and well-kept town of 17,000 residents and 6,000 students.
The small northern Californian community has long been the heart of the Emerald Triangle in America's Pacific North West - a prime region for illicit cannabis cultivation because of its lush, rolling terrain and its relaxed attitude to drugs.
A decade ago Arcata's voters overwhelmingly backed Proposition 215, a ballot initiative that gave California the most relaxed medical marijuana laws in the US.
But now there is a growing backlash. Angry residents are increasingly questioning the abuses of the loosely-drafted law that have followed that decision - including the fact that the town has four officially-approved medical cannabis outlets, where the drug is sold, compared with just two ordinary pharmacies for all Arcata's other health needs.
They are even more irate about the way that illicit commercial marijuana growers and dealers have quietly moved in, exploiting Arcata's reputation as a liberal-minded town with an easy-going approach both to marijuana, and to law enforcement.
According to local counter-narcotics officials, up to 1,000 of its 7,500 homes have been converted into illegal "grow houses", where hydroponic watering equipment and high-wattage lighting enable large quantities of cannabis plants to grow rapidly indoors - in far greater quantities than are allowed by law.
Under the California law, marijuana may legally be grown and used in small quantities to ease pain among the genuinely sick, such as cancer and Aids patients. It can also be grown on their behalf by licensed "dispensaries", for sale to those whose doctors say they need it.
But some of Arcata's dispensaries are accused of paying little heed to whether their patients are genuinely sick, or have just obtained a dodgy doctor's note from a $200 "consultation", and last week town officials began hearings on how to regulate them more strictly.
One, the Humboldt Co-operative, which operates out of a disused car dealership, has 6,000 registered patients across northern California, 2,000 of whom buy the drug regularly. Carla Ritter, the general manager, said: "Whether someone is using marijuana for medical or recreational reasons can be a difficult call, but we make all the checks required that a patient has a doctor's recommendation."
Critics like Kevin Hoover, the crusading editor of the Arcata Eye, are sceptical. Inside the dispensary, a range of different marijuana products with such unmedicinal names as Brain Wreck and Purple Haze are on display - often bought, said Mr Hoover, by healthy-looking college students.
The marijuana is primarily sold as the distinctive dried flowering green buds of the female cannabis plant. The dispensaries operate a sliding rate for clients, depending on income and disability, but the usual rate is $40 for an eighth of an ounce.
The grass is generally smoked as a "joint" or through a pipe, although some prefer to ingest it in cooking. And at least one dispensary provides menthol-flavoured cannabis lozenges and marijuana inhalers – made from products distilled from the leaves – for those who might need or want to take their hit more subtly at the office, for example.
Meanwhile, he says, he has had death threats since launching a campaign against the town's flourishing illicit grow houses. "We are attached to our liberal heritage here and there is widespread support for medical marijuana," he said. "But what is happening here now is all about profiteers and greed. Our residential neighbourhoods are being turned into industrialised drug production zones."
The scale of the problem only became clear after fires caused by shoddy wiring broke out in two grow houses. There has also been a spate of armed robberies by cannabis thieves and an influx of outsiders with pitbull dogs and what locals describe as threatening attitudes.
Arcata's residents, who once turned a tolerant blind eye to the hippies and travellers attracted by their region's world-famous crop, are now banding together against the new invasion.
Wade DeLashmutt, a carpenter and lifelong resident, is a leader of this latest counter-cultural revolt. He became convinced his new neighbour, from Montana, was growing marijuana commercially after noting bright lights shining all night, an overpowering odour ("like a family of skunks", he said), a hyper-active outdoor electricity meter and a flow of nocturnal visitors.
"He gave off a nasty vibe and we had regular run-ins. It was very unpleasant," said Mr DeLashmutt, 43, who now regrets voting for Proposition 215. "How has this happened? We've let criminals into our town and nobody seemed to be doing anything about it. We're a very liberal community and the wrong people have taken advantage of that in a big way."
His neighbour's house was eventually raided by the police who recovered 600 cannabis plants, 27 pounds of processed pot and thousands of dollars in cash.
The loose and ambiguous wording of Proposition 215 has become an increasing bane. In particular, it allows anyone with a doctor's "recommendation" - not even a formal prescription - to grow cannabis for their personal needs, giving some people's planting efforts spurious legitimacy.
The mayor, Mark Wheatley, said problems unleashed by the explosion in grow houses ranged from a surge in crime and fire risks to soaring rental prices. He said the huge consumption of energy to run the operations shocked environmentally-conscious residents.
"Arcata is a highly tolerant community, but we have now reached the tipping point with the fires, the home invasions, the impact on housing and the environment." he said. "People have had enough."
Improvements in technology mean that each grow house can easily produce more than 100lbs weight of processed marijuana, from four harvests a year. The illicit pot is sold for about $3,000 a pound, and is usually shipped to buyers around San Francisco, Los Angeles and further afield.
The town's police chief, Randy Mendosa, is alarmed that his sedate town is rapidly gaining an unsavoury reputation. But he acknowledged that he did not have the resources to bust the grow houses.
"As a community, we need to make clear to these people that they are not welcome. There was a perception that Arcata was a safe place to come and conduct their marijuana enterprises, and that they were within the law. They are not.
"The problem in Arcata is outdated liberal policies and a shortage of law enforcement personnel. You are seeing the end result, but I think the pendulum is finally swinging in the other direction - and about time. It's not an issue of politics and medicine. It's all about greed and crime."
At last week's hearing, the most moving testimony came from Brenda Saavedra, 42, who was pushed into the room by her husband Michael in a wheelchair and uses marijuana to ease the pain and discomfort from Huntington's Disease, an incurable disorder of the central nervous system.
The couple were worried that the backlash might hit their ability to seek help. "Our support group consists of the medical marijuana dispensaries and the compassionate souls who staff them," she said in a voice slurred by her condition. "They are truly having a wonderful effect on our lives."
By Philip Sherwell in Arcata, California
Last Updated: 7:07PM BST 12/07/2008
The smell of marijuana hangs in the air in Arcata, California, a pleasant and well-kept town of 17,000 residents and 6,000 students.
The small northern Californian community has long been the heart of the Emerald Triangle in America's Pacific North West - a prime region for illicit cannabis cultivation because of its lush, rolling terrain and its relaxed attitude to drugs.
A decade ago Arcata's voters overwhelmingly backed Proposition 215, a ballot initiative that gave California the most relaxed medical marijuana laws in the US.
But now there is a growing backlash. Angry residents are increasingly questioning the abuses of the loosely-drafted law that have followed that decision - including the fact that the town has four officially-approved medical cannabis outlets, where the drug is sold, compared with just two ordinary pharmacies for all Arcata's other health needs.
They are even more irate about the way that illicit commercial marijuana growers and dealers have quietly moved in, exploiting Arcata's reputation as a liberal-minded town with an easy-going approach both to marijuana, and to law enforcement.
According to local counter-narcotics officials, up to 1,000 of its 7,500 homes have been converted into illegal "grow houses", where hydroponic watering equipment and high-wattage lighting enable large quantities of cannabis plants to grow rapidly indoors - in far greater quantities than are allowed by law.
Under the California law, marijuana may legally be grown and used in small quantities to ease pain among the genuinely sick, such as cancer and Aids patients. It can also be grown on their behalf by licensed "dispensaries", for sale to those whose doctors say they need it.
But some of Arcata's dispensaries are accused of paying little heed to whether their patients are genuinely sick, or have just obtained a dodgy doctor's note from a $200 "consultation", and last week town officials began hearings on how to regulate them more strictly.
One, the Humboldt Co-operative, which operates out of a disused car dealership, has 6,000 registered patients across northern California, 2,000 of whom buy the drug regularly. Carla Ritter, the general manager, said: "Whether someone is using marijuana for medical or recreational reasons can be a difficult call, but we make all the checks required that a patient has a doctor's recommendation."
Critics like Kevin Hoover, the crusading editor of the Arcata Eye, are sceptical. Inside the dispensary, a range of different marijuana products with such unmedicinal names as Brain Wreck and Purple Haze are on display - often bought, said Mr Hoover, by healthy-looking college students.
The marijuana is primarily sold as the distinctive dried flowering green buds of the female cannabis plant. The dispensaries operate a sliding rate for clients, depending on income and disability, but the usual rate is $40 for an eighth of an ounce.
The grass is generally smoked as a "joint" or through a pipe, although some prefer to ingest it in cooking. And at least one dispensary provides menthol-flavoured cannabis lozenges and marijuana inhalers – made from products distilled from the leaves – for those who might need or want to take their hit more subtly at the office, for example.
Meanwhile, he says, he has had death threats since launching a campaign against the town's flourishing illicit grow houses. "We are attached to our liberal heritage here and there is widespread support for medical marijuana," he said. "But what is happening here now is all about profiteers and greed. Our residential neighbourhoods are being turned into industrialised drug production zones."
The scale of the problem only became clear after fires caused by shoddy wiring broke out in two grow houses. There has also been a spate of armed robberies by cannabis thieves and an influx of outsiders with pitbull dogs and what locals describe as threatening attitudes.
Arcata's residents, who once turned a tolerant blind eye to the hippies and travellers attracted by their region's world-famous crop, are now banding together against the new invasion.
Wade DeLashmutt, a carpenter and lifelong resident, is a leader of this latest counter-cultural revolt. He became convinced his new neighbour, from Montana, was growing marijuana commercially after noting bright lights shining all night, an overpowering odour ("like a family of skunks", he said), a hyper-active outdoor electricity meter and a flow of nocturnal visitors.
"He gave off a nasty vibe and we had regular run-ins. It was very unpleasant," said Mr DeLashmutt, 43, who now regrets voting for Proposition 215. "How has this happened? We've let criminals into our town and nobody seemed to be doing anything about it. We're a very liberal community and the wrong people have taken advantage of that in a big way."
His neighbour's house was eventually raided by the police who recovered 600 cannabis plants, 27 pounds of processed pot and thousands of dollars in cash.
The loose and ambiguous wording of Proposition 215 has become an increasing bane. In particular, it allows anyone with a doctor's "recommendation" - not even a formal prescription - to grow cannabis for their personal needs, giving some people's planting efforts spurious legitimacy.
The mayor, Mark Wheatley, said problems unleashed by the explosion in grow houses ranged from a surge in crime and fire risks to soaring rental prices. He said the huge consumption of energy to run the operations shocked environmentally-conscious residents.
"Arcata is a highly tolerant community, but we have now reached the tipping point with the fires, the home invasions, the impact on housing and the environment." he said. "People have had enough."
Improvements in technology mean that each grow house can easily produce more than 100lbs weight of processed marijuana, from four harvests a year. The illicit pot is sold for about $3,000 a pound, and is usually shipped to buyers around San Francisco, Los Angeles and further afield.
The town's police chief, Randy Mendosa, is alarmed that his sedate town is rapidly gaining an unsavoury reputation. But he acknowledged that he did not have the resources to bust the grow houses.
"As a community, we need to make clear to these people that they are not welcome. There was a perception that Arcata was a safe place to come and conduct their marijuana enterprises, and that they were within the law. They are not.
"The problem in Arcata is outdated liberal policies and a shortage of law enforcement personnel. You are seeing the end result, but I think the pendulum is finally swinging in the other direction - and about time. It's not an issue of politics and medicine. It's all about greed and crime."
At last week's hearing, the most moving testimony came from Brenda Saavedra, 42, who was pushed into the room by her husband Michael in a wheelchair and uses marijuana to ease the pain and discomfort from Huntington's Disease, an incurable disorder of the central nervous system.
The couple were worried that the backlash might hit their ability to seek help. "Our support group consists of the medical marijuana dispensaries and the compassionate souls who staff them," she said in a voice slurred by her condition. "They are truly having a wonderful effect on our lives."
