Humbolt Co crash

I found this on Humboldt’s Craiglist.org, along with other grow related ads. It really sums things things up–or it’s the result of a really creative copywriter! Note that the advertiser was the investor in the project…

Can you GROW better than my Ex?

He’s gone; his equipment is not. I am not a gardener, but here is what I can describe: There is a complete set-up with a black tent, a large filter, a light with a hood, a different light that looks fluorescent to me, pots, chemicals, a large tub and a pump, etc. Basically everything someone would need to get off of their feet. It has all been purchased within the last year, and has been used twice.

I have receipts for many items and it was all purchased at local hydro stores, except the tent which was purchased online. I am not desperate and will not give it away… I know I spent about $4000 but any serious offers will be considered. I am a professional person and just want all of this out of my life, I don’t need more hassle, so please don’t respond if you aren’t reasonably mature and discreet.

Humboldt County’s marijuana crop brings in about $300-$500 million annually, while the rest of the county’s $3.6 billion dollar economy comes from cattle and dairy, education, forestry, wildlife, construction, lumber, fishing, media, non-profits, tourism, wellness, restaurants and retail.

The local community radio station KMUD gives reports of fixed wing aircraft, helicopters and law enforcement movements. They are supported by donations for the growers, as are numerous community service clinics, non-profits and businesses. One grower told me that many small businesses were opened by people who would have found a way to be successful no matter where they were. But the infusion of cash for start up didn’t hurt.

With legalization will come some problems as well as a potential economic downturn if prices don’t hold. And there’s a good chance weed won’t stay at $3,000 to $5,000/lb.

What Humboldt has going for it is a lot of what Napa and Sonoma Counties have with regards to wine, what the French call terroir, a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region belonging to a specific appellation and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions, grape and wine-making knowledge, all of which combine to give its specific personality to the wine. Can branding and appellation help keep Humboldt afloat?

Humboldt weed is legendary, whether grown indoor or out. Will legalization change that? Most plants are clones, so technically, Mr. Nice or any number of varieties could spread like, well, weeds. Is appellation possible? Co-ops could be formed like the dairy co-ops, organic certification is possible, outdoor vs indoor labeling…but is that viable?

Can Humboldt create a pot tourism industry like Napa’s wine tourism industry, and to a smaller extent Los Olivos, and build on what is already there in the gorgeous county? Does it want to?

Humboldt has a strong organic food and farming base, plus wineries and breweries. Loleta Farms raises its own cows and makes their cheese right in their shop in Loleta. Loleta also has an organic bakery that uses locally grown wheat and fruit. Cypress Grove Chevre makes Humboldt Fog and other goat cheeses. Grass-fed beef is the norm; pork and lamb are also raised, and yes, I saw “meat rabbits” at the county fair, but that’s not likely to be a major retail food anytime soon. Locally grown fruit and vegetables abound. Add in an art scene, a film festival, performing arts, the Victorian homes of Ferndale, and you have a really sweet area for vacationing, an hour flight from San Francisco, two hours from LAX–when it’s not fogged in.

Can all that–combined with the ocean, rivers, and lush mountain scenery, river rafting, surfing, and eco-tourism–plus legal artisanal pot help lure tourists? We’ll see in the next year or so. There’s still a harvest to be brought in before the election, and November 2 there’s a Legalize Pot rally at the Veterans Hall.

Female plants are valued in Humboldt; they produce the buds. The male plants are winnowed and yanked out. When it comes to trimming time, women are valued, too. They do most of the trimming, at about $25 an hour. Cash. Under the table.

Some people might think it’s sorta sexist that women do that work–and there is a sense that most of the trimmers hired for a harvest are young, perky and pretty, leading to grumbles among some of the older workers–but the logic was explained to me by a veteran grower:

It’s more fun and easier to sit around a bunch of women. They are in general better at removing the leaves.  And then there’s the matter of safety.  Women are less likely to organize rip-offs. It’s necessary to have a discreet work force, with some locals supervising and others who short term and not form the area.

An indoor grower gets three harvests a year, and may have the trimming done in a location away from his grow house, again for safety.  Music plays, food is supplied, and while it’s work, it’s more fun than WalMart and higher paying.  A trimming gig can cover the cost of school for a semester, a new car, a trip, or savings.

One woman I spoke to, along time Humboldt resident, had never worked in the ganja business, but after loosing her job was going to take the plunge. She said it was getting harder though to  find a gig because

the trust fund kids come up to earn money for their festival tickets, since their parents won’t give it to them

Gigs are found by word of mouth, through friends of friends, though having worked before for the same grower.

Along with the seasonal, primarily female trimmers, there are men and women who tend large grows and who perform specialized horticulture techniques. Legalization could change the pay for trimming and other related work associated with both indoor and outdoor growing.

For about $15,000 a grower can invest in a machine that turns out perfectly trimmed, standardized buds, a further encroachment on the underground labor pool.

So with legalization, whither or wither Humboldt?

There is supposedly a crime problem involved with pot growing. And not just because some of the people growing it here in Humboldt are growing more than their legal limit. No, with a pound of pot worth $3,000 to $4,000, there is a problem with theft. Grow houses get ripped off. Drugs deals go bad. And people will steal plants out of the ground.

Or at least try too. A grower told me about the one time a rip-off was tried at his place several years ago. He and his buddy had guns, a shot was fired into the air, the perps screeched off the property,  and the crop–which was too well rooted to get yanked out–was saved, end of story.

Crime as a side effect of indoor grows are an issue in this November’s Humboldt County District Attorney’s race.

In an interview with Eureka’s local paper, the Times/Standard, DA candidates Allison Jackson and Paul Hagen said:

home invasion robberies and fires associated with grows in residential neighborhoods are out of control, and that something needs to be done to rein in abuse of Proposition 215.

Jackson felt that the county’s recently overturned 99-plant limit, an ordinance drafted by incumbent Paul Gallegos,

brought a massive influx of people from outside the county, outside the state and outside the country into this community. And, it’s made residential neighborhoods unsafe.

Gallegos disputes Jackson’s assessment about home invasion robberies, calling them drug deals gone bad and said with regards to
non-medical pot growing and sales:

Illegal marijuana is accessible to anyone who wants it — that’s how successful the war on drugs is.

Opponent Paul Hagen–the only candidate who supports Prop 19 and said he will vote for the measure which will legalize marijuana– has a solution:

If we make it legal, we can finally control it above board. You’re never going to get rid of it.

If the initiative passes, the DA will be plenty busy, since there could be a new wave of local controls, regulations and ordinances. And then there’s the economic side effects.

According to reporting in the Los Angeles Times,

Humboldt State economists guess that marijuana accounts for between $500 million and $700 million of the county’s $3.6 billion economy.

I stopped at gas station and went in to buy a pack of double-A batteries for my camera. I asked the cashier which he preferred for my $4 purchase, a debit card or a $100 bill.

Either

he replied with a smile–everyone in Humboldt is really, really nice and friendly and smiles all the time–so I gave him the C-note since I wanted change, and he didn’t even check to see if it was counterfeit. What a change from LA where many businesses have signs posted saying

No bills over $20

and a fake-bill checking pen resides in the cash drawer. It’s like they see them all the time.

Oh wait, they do…

While one Colorado clergyman is fighting his arrest for possession of pot (claiming his status as clergy in the Ministry of THC allows for sacramental reefer use), a pastor in California is up in arms over the NAACP’s support of the November ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use.

Rev. Jason Wimler is claiming the cannabis found in his car by Colorado State Troopers late last year was for sacramental use for a ceremony he hoped to perform during the Christmas holiday. His attorney Daneyl Joffe was granted the right to file a brief on jury instructions specific to religious use of cannabis. Joffe’s point is that the Colorado Constitution allows for

the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination

though some might argue that Wimler’s pot possession fall under this part of the law:

but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed to dispense with oaths or affirmations, excuse acts of licentiousness or justify practices inconsistent with the good order, peace or safety of the state. (emphasis mine)

Meanwhile the NAACP in California has come out in support of the legalization of marijuana because as  Alice Huffman, the state NAACP president, says:

There is a strong racial component that must be considered when we investigate how marijuana laws are applied to people of color. The burden has fallen disproportionately on people of color and young black men in particular.

Sacramento minister Ron Allen–bishop of the Greater Solomon Temple Community Church in Oak Park and  president of the International Faith-Based Coalition, a Sacramento group representing 3,600 congregations–is not too happy about this:

Most African American pastors are disappointed, absolutely disappointed with the decision. If anyone should know the effects of illicit drugs in the black community, it should be one of our most respected civil rights organizations.

Yes, Bishop Allen, but if pot were legal, then it wouldn’t be illicit, no would it? Maybe Bishop Allen should check out the ministry of THC, which claims both Jesus and Moses used cannabis oil as for holy anointing. Hallelujah!

Los Angeles has some really awesome rolling food vendors: Korean BBQ tacos, Canters Deli, Indian food, crepes, cupcakes, gourmet coffee and of course the basic burger and burrito trucks show up where ever there’s a crowd. Today’s lake victory parade in downtown had a newcomer to the mobile munchie force: Weed World Candies.com, a van featuring bikini clad babes sorting buds.

Fans along the victory parade route who had their medical marijuana cards with them were able to buy prescription pot and received a get-high gift with purchase–a cannabis candy lollipop.

Weed World Candies’ van owner Bilal Muhammad told the Los Angeles Times that he was recently forced to shut down his store in West Hollywood, and had taken his business on the road.

Weed World Candies apparently has outlets across the country, but their website is not up yet.

(photo of Weed World Candies Atlanta truck: P. Pressar, creative commons)

for illustration purposes only - image not related to trial (via Just some dust)

Today Jacqui Getty’s attorney will introduce the March 16 deposition in which filthy, rich and filthy-rich Peter Getty discusses his drug use, including cocaine, marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms. In an earlier declaration, Jacqui claims her husband broke her arm when he was so high that his nose was bleeding.

In his deposition, Peter denies being high when Jacqui’s arm was broken. However he also states that cocaine made him a better writer. And didn’t impair his judgment. Okay, then. Where’s Bob Forrest and Dr. Drew when you need them?

Firedoglake has obtained a portion of Peter Getty’s deposition, focusing on his drug use and the circumstances involved in the breaking of his wife’s arm. In her declaration, Jacqui Getty claims that on June 15, 2008, Peter broke her arm at the house in Malibu, had been in his room using coke and when he emerged, blood was running out his nostrils. Peter denies this.

In his deposition Peter admits to doing coke nine or 10 times during 2008, but he denies being gakked when his wife’s arm was broken. Although he admits in 2008 he’d been so high that his nose bled only once. . . at least once.

Well, I’ve seen a photo immortalizing “at least once.” Getty sits at his computer, the screen reflected in the lenses of his black Buddy Holly-ish glasses, his hair greasy and unkempt, looking for all the world like a basement-dwelling blogger pounding away at his fapboard. Except instead of Cheeto crumbs, his sallow, unshaven face is stained with dried blood below both nostrils. Eeeuwww. Srsly eueew. Note to Peter Getty and men everywhere: If you are webcamming, someone will take your picture.

Here are some other deposition high points: When the lawyer asks if Peter ever used cocaine to the point where he had a nose bleed, he answers

Yes…probably back in 2008

He admits that the circumstance occurred probably more than once, then explains

I know it happened at least once. Beyond that…

He trails off. Several times when questioned about who was present and using cocaine, marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms with him, Getty’s attorney cautions him that he does not need to name his fellow partiers, citing privacy. So Getty doesn’t. More’s the pity.

The following excerpts are especially tragic displays of hubris and delusion that could have been lifted from an episode of “Intervention.”

Q: Do you think it impaired your judgment in 2008 when you were using cocaine?

A: Altered it.

Q: When it was altered, did you think it was impaired? You understand the word “impaired,” don’t you?

A: No, I haven’t the foggiest.

Q: Well, Mr. Getty, why don’t you tell me what you think the word “impaired” means.

A: Obviously I know what the word “impaired” means.

The questioning continues:

Q: So in 2008, when you used cocaine, do you think it reduced your ability to think logically?

A: No. Actually, that I wouldn’t say.

Q: Do you think it reduced your ability to act responsibly?

A: No

Getty goes on to say that he does not think cocaine affected his ability to recall and recollect events that happened while he was high on it, stating

No. I don’t think it had any effect on my memory.

Nor does Getty believe that cocaine affected his judgment in terms of language he used. Actually, Peter Getty thinks cocaine made him a better writer:

Well, it, you know, was euphoria kind of thing. I mean, just like the, you know, textbooks say, it’s, you know, causes a slight numbing sensation and a sense of well-being and, you know, self awareness…

I found, for instance, that when I was writing, I could get my ideas out better or more fluidly, you know. The same ideas, yes, but I could–I thought I could express them better…

…But, you know, my own views, my own opinions I thought I could–I’m speaking more here of writing than conversing, although it was also applicable in conversation. But it just made it easier to get my thoughts out in a, you know, compelling, understandable way.

And while a keyboard is a dangerous thing to use when blazed on wacky dust, at least Peter Getty didn’t get behind the wheel of a car, even though he felt he might be capable of handling it:

Well, I wouldn’t drive a car, you know. I–that’s not because I necessarily felt like I was incapable of it. It would just be, you know, a bad idea under the circumstances… Because I was on cocaine.