Pubdate: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 Source: Redwood Times (Garberville, CA) Copyright: 2012 MediaNews Group Contact: http://www.redwoodtimes.com/Writeus Website: http://www.redwoodtimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5147 Author: David Brooksher LARGER MARIJUANA BUSTS MAY HAVE POSITIVE IMPACT FOR SMALLER GROWERS Dominic Corva is a public policy analyst from Sarah Lawrence College, in New York. He's been here in Humboldt County recently to research the realities of how American drug laws are playing out in the Emerald Triangle - arguably the home front in our nation's now defunct War on Drugs. Last Monday, Corva, who is the author of Requiem for CAMP: A Post-Mortem for a Drug War Institution, presented his findings to roughly 50 attendants in a lecture at HSU on the ways in which law enforcement efforts like CAMP have affected cannabis agriculture. While the threat of attention from law enforcement has had obvious impacts on the business of illicit farming - it also has had a direct impact on characteristics of the plants and gardens themselves. "Outdoor growers that previously may have grown tall, robust plants in the most favorable locations for sunlight adapted their planting locations to less favorable spots," Corva said. "All this meant smaller yields per plant, and more plants were needed to maintain income levels. Smaller plants were also increasingly grown indoors," Corva added. Despite any animosity over what many in the industry perceive as heavy-handed tactics, Corva credits the law enforcement community's tendency to pursue larger grow operations and higher plant counts with having secured a comfortable market-share for smaller "mom-and-pop" growers. Larger busts may also have a positive impact on the wholesale market, limiting the supply of marijuana without addressing demand. "Almost everyone I've talked to describes CAMP, sometimes nostalgically, as a price support system..." said Corva. He argues that the wholesale price of marijuana is rebounding this year. Corva estimates that last harvest season, growers were getting an average price of $1,500 per pound. This year, however, that number is up to $2,000. If it's accurate, that data suggests a boost in the marijuana market, which could have a significant impact on the local economy. As for where that data is coming from, Corva admits it's anecdotal. "It's knowledge of folks who are actually getting those prices now, that were getting $500 lower last year. It's from talking to people who are getting those prices." The Redwood Times pressed Mr. Corva about whether that data was coming from medicinal suppliers working with dispensaries or more traditional black-market producers, but he declined to comment in an apparent effort to protect his sources. He did, however, call this year's harvest a bumper crop. "There's a sense of optimism," Corva said. "Prices are up. People have been saved. The last couple of years, there's been total despair. There was a thought that it was going to just go through the floor - that the commodity bust was at hand, and that [growers] wouldn't be able to make a livelihood anymore." "Which actually is good," he added, "Because that means they're not doubling production every year to try to make up for it. They can grow smaller, continue to migrate into the sun, and so forth." The Redwood Times also asked Corva if this year's good news for the grower community might be in any way related to CAMP - which was discontinued this summer after more than two decades of eradication operations. "There's no telling how much CAMP ever really got," Corva said. "Certainly it was significant enough that prices were fairly high, but you're talking about a national cannabis market now. Production is rapidly expanding in Colorado, and virtually every other state with a medical marijuana law. So CAMP numbers, as a percentage of the overall share, have been declining since the 1990s." Corva was asked if he had observed any serious changes in the way the market is operating this year as a result of CAMP's discontinuation. "No, not at all," Corva said. "CAMP more or less had stopped being terribly significant in terms of affecting the market years ago." Dominic Corva's lecture at Humboldt State University was offered by the newly formed Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research. Their next event will take place Monday, Oct. 29, at 5:30 p.m. when wildlife disease ecologist Mourad Gabriel presents his findings on how toxic materials associated with cannabis agriculture are impacting wildlife on public and tribal lands. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt