[Crazy Chester]

"Surely you can just carry on growing illegally?"

Given the onerous licensing laws, con-artist local governments like Calaveras County and the change in the penal code that came with all that, there certainly is an incentive for illegal growers in California to continue operating illegally.

One can literally grow out millions of pounds, possess and sell it all, get caught and face only misdemeanors (unless they were doing business with a minor or it is their third or subsequent offense).

[calaveras]

" Surely you can just carry on growing illegally" ...... and formerly legal and never legal farmers will continue doing their thing. What has changed this year with the ban in place is high visibility registered farmers that were not concerned with law enforcement now must go back to guerrilla farming or risk losing it all. Guerrilla farms of moderate size can be hidden fairly easily in the forest unless you're growing in the burn area.
It is interesting to observe the changes here in Calaveras in the last 3 years. None have been particularly good. The big fire in 2015, legal registered growing 2016-2017 and the ban on registered growing recently.
The local once weekly newspaper is no longer dominated by marijuana stories. Calaveras supervisors are giving registered growers 2 years to rehabilitate grow sites or face penalties. It seems many farmers are just abandoning sites. Good deals here on land with plenty of water tanks and PVC piping. Spider mites included at no additional cost. It will be interesting to check out google earth when it is updated this year, usually around June. The county utilizes some other aerial mapping service that gives more detail than satellites.
P.S. Life and farming go on despite what the idiots in charge do

[Crazy Chester]

I'm sorry, Calaveras, my heart goes out to you. Everything the government touches turns to shit for 99% of the people on Earth and gold for everyone else.

[MountZionCollec]

I feel we have a 50% chance to continue legally growing this year on 1 of the 3-5 CCA supported lawsuits coming their way.

If that fails it'll come down to what happens with the board of supervisor recall races which I think could begin in June if they are recalled early but may not happen until the fall. Then it'll come down to the other elections and the likely sensible middle of the road cannabis initiative for the people to vote on in the fall which would let us give us next year.

Somewhere between 75-$90k of the needed $250k for lawsuits has been raised.

The CCLDF calaveras cannabis legal defense fund is where the money is going. Archer Norris is the Law firm being used, with the two leading people from calaveras and went to school here until college.

If u want to join the takings claim I believe their is still time. That lawsuit I believe only will help those who are apart of the lawsuit but the others, specially the 13 point CEQA lawsuit will benefit all legal growers.

[Crazy Chester]

MountZionCollec - sounds promising on the political front and a bit on the legal front - I like the idea of the takings claim.

[calaveras]

Calaveras chronicles #44= MAKE CALAVERAS GREAT AGAIN. It is surprising how quickly things revert to life pre- legalized commercial farming.
Registered farmers have until June 10 to finish off crops in progress before permits expire. A few greenhouses are visible running lights but not a lot of them. Calaveras cannabis alliance is gathering a large warchest of cash to hire a big city lawyer to help reinstate commercial farming. The lawsuits will be many and may bury the county in debt if successful. That's the way to integrate into the community, but they ( county) did it to themselves when the door was opened for legal farming. Big weed is hoping to get anti- grow supervisors recalled and the other side is gathering signatures to recall a pro-weed supervisor.
Most noticeable is the lack of trucks on the road. No 20 yard loads of soil, no 2000 gallon water tanks, no water delivery trucks, few new wells being drilled, no lines to get a sandwich at the deli, plenty of parking at the store, fewer smelly people in line at the store. Lots of people made money off the new farmers but overall it is a small percentage of the population that benefitted financially. The local newspaper rarely runs marijuana stories now.
I saw a T.V. show that highlighted Honeydew farms in Humboldt county. I used to think that the 1/2 acre , 300-500 plant grows here were big until I saw that operation. Holy crap, that operation is the epitome of big weed greed. Talk about putting the mom and pop operations out of business. Amazon drones needs to pollen bomb the sinsemilla up there.
So things remain almost shutdown in Calaveras county but growers are not going down without a fight, and remember the golden rule, In the peoples republic of California= Those with the most expensive lawyer wins, regardless of the law.Just ask Kate Steinles parents. That may not be the best example but with all the sanctuary this and that, releasing violent criminals out of prison because of overcrowding( rape a misdemeanor?wtf????) The middle class exodus out of Cali is only increasing. To quote Margaret Thatcher " Liberalism/socialism works good until you run out of money" To California, whatcha gonna do when when you are when you are left with a bunch of rich silicon valley googleheads and the middle class is gone? Shame on Governor moonbeam the fake environmentalist and his twin tunnels and bullet train to hell. He claims the budget has a surplus while shorting retirement funds by tens of billions.They want to balance the budget on the back of pot farmers. That was quite a rant.
P.S. It is time to start my 6( or so )plants.

[Crazy Chester]

"Amazon drones needs to pollen bomb the sinsemilla up there."

Hmm, very interesting. Now, that would throw a wrench in the revenue projections they're no doubt peddling to their investors.

More importantly, a credible threat of something like this happening might force them to become allies with the mom and pop growers.

It's like in the movie "Godfather" - the Godfather was eventually forced to give the other criminal families access to his politicians and media contacts simply to keep his own business going. If these big box farms faced a credible threat in the form of forced pollination, it might force them to actually help the little guy get started in the business. Better to help some competitors than to be put out of business completely.

[calaveras]

Something is going on out there, Last week I observed a medium sized olive green military looking helicopter circling over high-density registered grow areas. Yesterday a chopper that looked the same was making laps over farms across the street, left side door wide open, circling counterclockwise so they looked straight down on the grow sites.Local pot helicopters in the past tend to be smaller and not olive green. Looks like feds. are getting involved. Calaveras county, being in the news often may be getting more attention

[Mtn. Nectar]

hate those nosey sum-bitches..........back in early 80's a Viet vet was nuttin' up in Santa Cruz Mtn's and shot at copter that was hunting gardens making for a quick landing......kept them at bay for a bit..........ptsd the reason....he was gardening....

[bigtacofarmer]

Im sure a few male hemp plant placed on the right hill could work wonders.