Pubdate: Sat, 01 Sep 2012
Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA)
Copyright: 2012 Times-Standard
Contact: http://www.times-standard.com/writeus
Website: http://www.times-standard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1051
Author: John Myers
Note: John Myers resides in Arcata.
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n427/a03.html

MARIJUANA GROWS AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE

Articles like the recent " 'We can't turn a blind eye' " 
(Times-Standard, Aug. 26, Page A1) are getting ridiculous. Many valid 
points were made in the article and if they were presented 
responsibly, it might get a lot more support from the community.

Let's be frank here, the reason that local officials are seeking 
federal help is because California has stopped funding marijuana 
eradication and now local principalities have nowhere to turn except 
the feds. The state Attorney General stated that no more funding for 
marijuana eradication is going to be dispersed and all that money is 
now going to "white collar crime." It is not because the state is 
broke. And I fully endorse this stance.

I have a computer science degree and worked for a subsidiary of 
Global Crossing and lost everything I owned in the dot.com crash.

It's about time someone starts going after corporate thugs who are 
robbing and pillaging our middle class at will with no repercussions.

The intimation that one of the breaking points was a large-scale 
opium grow has absolutely nothing to do with marijuana and linking 
the two like they are connected is ridiculous. Large-scale marijuana 
grows are becoming a bit over the top; something does need to be 
done. But if you make your bed with the feds, then you have to lie in 
it. Do you think the feds are going to stop at large-scale commercial 
grow operations? Don't think of growers as so naive as to believe 
this line of propaganda.

The real problem is not marijuana grows.

The big problem is tax and regulation. The people in the state of 
California have voted for it and whether certain factions like this 
or not is irrelevant. They are as much lawbreakers as they consider 
growers lawbreakers. What really needs to happen is a tax and 
regulation system.

Now that doesn't mean whoever has the most money to spend on 
licensing fees can grow. That doesn't mean give big corporations the 
right to produce and leave all the "mom and pops" out in the cold.

Part of the reason marijuana is being produced on the scale as it is 
now is because the price is dropping so dramatically. Today you have 
to grow three times as much to make the same amount as growers did 10 
years ago. Maybe if Humboldt County would start supporting this 
industry instead of fighting it, we could come up with a solution. 
Case in point: Humboldt County won't give business licenses for 
marijuana-related businesses. So how is an individual supposed to 
operate a business and pay taxes if we are in constant fear of county 
and federal repercussions? Humboldt County's willingness to work with 
the feds just scares them all the more.

What we need in Humboldt County is more cooperation between the 
county and the grower, not the feds and the county.

The county only alienates itself more. If Humboldt residents could 
actually believe any of the political rhetoric that spews out of 
county officials' mouths about the growing problems with cultivation, 
then they would be much more inclined to follow some set of rules.

If they knew that the feds would stop at large-scale cultivation 
grows, much more support would come their way. It's ironic that it's 
the state of California that is pushing to protect the voters' will 
and Proposition 215 and not the county of Humboldt, which actually 
should be protecting the growers and our economy in Humboldt. The 
county of Humboldt has turned its back on the industry just when we 
need them the most.

The reality is that marijuana cultivation is going nowhere.

The state of California voted for it and it's here. State after state 
in the union is also falling, one state at a time. There is going to 
be no more prohibition, and to try to protect the jobs of those 
involved in marijuana eradication is ridiculous. Tax and regulate is 
the order of the day if they want cooperation. And the reality is 
that if it becomes a commodity to tax and regulate a lot of marijuana 
eradication jobs are going to be lost. The military industrial 
complex along with the war on drugs isn't going to give in freely. 
This is about money and who's getting it, it's not about the 
environment, morality, or any other facade that the feds and soon to 
be out-of-work "war on drugs" employees would have us believe.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom