Pubdate: Thu, 05 Dec 2013
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Copyright: 2013 North Coast Journal
Contact: http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Author: Grant Scott-Goforth
PROBING POT
HSU's Marijuana Institute Tends a New Crop of Research
Ten years ago, the premise for a marijuana institute would have been
laughed off of even Humboldt State University's fertile and
notoriously weed-friendly campus. Even one year ago, despite changing
political climes and the increasing call for daylight on the North
Coast's shady marijuana industry, the academic minds who created the
institute were unsure if it would ever emerge from the bulky stigma
of "weed college."
The Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research was
the butt of late-night jokes then, and it faces continuing
significant challenges. Money. Time. Misconceptions. Acceptance.
Diversity of research fields. Regulatory hurdles. But the directors
of the Institute are optimistic and say that things are already changing.
Humble Beginnings
Four stories up in HSU's Behavioral and Social Sciences Building,
institute Co-director Josh Meisel unlocks the door to HIIMR
(pronounced "himmer") headquarters - a sparsely appointed office not
much bigger than a closet. Outside the door is a small shared meeting
room adjoined by the offices of other campus sociology associations.
Inside, Meisel and Co-director Erick Eschker chuckle sheepishly as
they show off the office's furniture - a chair, desk, filing cabinets
and large bookcases containing a few books and binders sent to them
by an upcoming speaker. There's not much to distinguish it other than
the green and tan nameplate on the door. At this point, the institute
doesn't need a lot of space. Not much research is being done in this
room - it's being carried out by faculty members on and off campus.
Those researchers are working on a bevy of continuing projects,
ranging from estimating the economic size of the local and national
marijuana industries, to the change in attitudes toward pot, to
marijuana use's effect on communities and much more.
So what's the purpose of all this?
Eschker and Meisel see themselves on the frontier of a new area of
scientific inquiry. Imagine an astronomer discovering a new star, a
geographer stumbling upon a lost city, a biologist encountering an
unknown species - that's the excitement that bubbles out of the
institute's co-directors. While the subject matter may not be as
exotic (to Humboldtians, at least) as a Borneo rainforest or distant
galaxy, the untapped potential for scientific discovery remains.
For Eschker, part of the excitement involves trying to get real data
about the economics of the local marijuana trade. Anyone can look up
how many bushels of tomatoes or grapes were grown in California last
year - not so with pot.
There are "proxy measures," like the sales of turkey bags used to
store marijuana, that give economists like Eschker an idea of how
much pot is being grown and distributed. ("We have the juiciest
poultry in the nation," Eschker jokes.) But those just aren't the
same as reliable, quantifiable numbers that could only be gathered by
the growers themselves.
Meisel - whose background is sociology and criminology (he recently
founded the criminology major at HSU) - is fascinated by the legal
controls on marijuana, and looking into the best ways to prevent
social and environmental damage. The harms are there, but are they
compounded by current regulations, he asks. The focus of the
institute, Meisel says, is "What should we be doing?"
The institute's other members - mostly HSU faculty - are researching
topics from the geography of marijuana prices around the U.S. to the
labor market for traveling pot industry workers.
Misconceptions
Meisel and Eschker still deal regularly with misconceptions about the
institute. People assume they teach cultivation or advocate for
marijuana. Eschker says he receives email inquiries almost weekly
from young men in Italy, Russia or the U.S. who want to enroll in
marijuana growing school.
At recent conferences Eschker says he got a "cool" reception, until
he was able to explain the institute's mission in one-on-one
conversations with attendees. "It just happens to be what we're
studying has a lot of baggage to it," Eschker says, but once people
understand the nature of the institute they typically warm up to it.
With national and international press and a continuing speaker
series, more people are coming to understand the institute's mission.
Just last month, HSU's marketing and communications department
approved, for the first time, a HIIMR-promoted event poster with a
(gasp) pot leaf on it.
But the university's administrators were never against the institute.
When President Rollin Richmond came to Humboldt County in 2002 from
Iowa State University, no one told him about the North Coast's
underground pot economy. "It did surprise me a bit," he says.
As he became aware of the scale and importance of the cash crop on
the local economy, community and environment, it became clear to him
that more scientific research was needed. When Eschker and Meisel
proposed the institute in 2012, Richmond was behind it immediately.
"I was delighted," he says. "As a scientist, I'm all for getting more
research on it."
Talking across a large wooden desk in his bright campus office,
Richmond says he still has some doubts about legalizing marijuana,
and marijuana abuse by college students and youth concerns him -
though he doubts it's any worse than alcohol if it's used responsibly.
The institute gets him some teasing in the CSU Chancellor's Office,
Richmond says, but it's all in good fun - the university system's
administrators see the potential for the institute. "It's good for
Humboldt State and the state universities as well," he says.
Neither Eschker nor Meisel are afraid that a new CSU Chancellor or
HSU president will sink the institute - or that it would even come up
in introductions to the school.
Where Are the Biologists?
Though more than a dozen researchers are working with the institute,
they're mostly sociologists, economists, anthropologists and
geographers. Meisel and Eschker lament the lack of participation from
one important field: natural sciences.
That's particularly frustrating with the increased awareness of and
questions about the environmental impacts of pot. Farmers drying up
streams, leveling forests and poisoning wildlife is nothing new,
Meisel says - in fact CAMP (the multi-agency law enforcement Campaign
Against Marijuana Planting) broadcast those effects in the early
1980s to gain support for its war on marijuana - but there's a
resurgence in reports of those damages, and some have suggested that
an increasing number of marijuana farms are spreading the damage more widely.
That assertion, though, is just another part of the pot puzzle that
needs more study. Reports that the number of marijuana farms or the
number of acres in marijuana production have increased in the last
few decades are largely anecdotal, Meisel says. Satellite images of
clearcut land and dwindling water flows imply a growing grower
industry - but satellites don't show for certain what's in a
greenhouse, and dried up streams could indicate resurging
second-growth timber is sucking more water from the watersheds. The
need to rule out other factors is precisely why the institute is
seeking more natural scientists.
Meisel is frustrated that few natural researchers are expressing
interest in the institute so far, particularly because HSU is known
for its strength in those areas.
"Given the outstanding work in forestry, fisheries, environmental
studies, wildlife - given the news of energy use, water, diesel
spills - we have yet to hear from faculty members who want to get
involved," Meisel says. He's actively courting (or "facilitating,"
Meisel says) a couple of HSU researchers to join the institute -
though he declined to name them.
Why aren't natural scientists already involved?
Meisel fears it's the stigma of studying marijuana, but the campus'
top biologist says it's just logistics.
Steve Smith, the dean of the College of Natural Resources and
Sciences, says that finding time to plan out and begin new research
projects is the biggest barrier. "I don't think it's anything about
the stigma. I think our folks fully understand this is a legitimate
area of research and should've been [considered legitimate] a long time ago."
Water quality engineers, wildlife professors and others from his
college have expressed interest in marijuana research, Smith says,
but unlike University of California schools, CSU professors are not
given independent research hours - they're expected to perform their
research while balancing their teaching workload.
Wildlife professor Rick Brown is interested in the effects of
herbicides and pesticides used to protect marijuana crops and
maximize profits. "They have potentially dramatic effects on
wildlife," Brown says. "We don't know what those effects are."
But one problem for researchers representing the university, as Brown
sees it, are the hazards of being out in the field.
"I do worry a little bit about safety, especially if you have
students anywhere involved." People haven't been attacking wildlife
biologists, he says, but he knows of field researchers who have been
confronted by marijuana growers. Still, Brown's quick to point out
that doesn't mean stumbling upon every grow is dangerous. "We tend to
lump people together. I don't know that's appropriate in this case. I
don't think it's right to classify a grower as a grower as a grower."
Marijuana research is also inherently more complicated than other
subjects, requiring approval from federal and state governments,
Natural Resources Dean Smith says. "Do you want to spend six months
filing paperwork to get permission to do some simple thing?"
Three or four years ago a student was interested in studying hemp's
ability to remove heavy metals, Smith recalls. The college looked
briefly into the logistics of getting marijuana plants and harvesting
hemp from their stalks, but the controls from the university and both
the state and federal governments made it nearly impossible. "It's
illegal," Smith says. "Stupidly, perhaps."
Bruce O'Gara, chair of the biology department, studies the effects of
drugs on the brain and understands how difficult it is to research
illegal drugs. To work with pot, he explains, you need
government-approved sources of pot, a comprehensive paper trail and a
drug safe bolted to the floor. The regulatory hurdles and costs have
kept him from studying pot's effect on users, which is something he'd
like to do.
"If you have nice big grants you can handle those sorts of things,"
he says, but "funding is very tight for all research right now. The
government is very leery of funding research on almost any drug that
could be used for enjoyment."
That doesn't mean that nobody's doing such studies. Brown points to
Dr. Mourad Gabriel, a UC Davis researcher who co-founded the Integral
Ecology Research Center in Blue Lake and is currently studying the
effects of pesticides on fishers, the weasel-like mammal found dead
near marijuana farms this year.
Gabriel was one of the HSU institute's guest speakers last year and
has become a source for national news media, scholars and law
enforcement agencies who seek to learn more about the environmental
effects of pot grows.
The Money Hunt
While Eschker seeks hard figures for the income that the pot industry
brings to Humboldt County and beyond, there's little doubt that it's
a lot of cash. Researching marijuana, so far, is far less lucrative.
When Eschker and Meisel submitted their charter in 2012, they asked
the university for nearly $60,000 in support - money for travel,
website development, student research assistants, office and research
supplies, and for the two co-directors' increased workload.
They didn't get any of that money. Eschker maintains the website.
There's no funding for research, and the time to manage the institute
and complete their own studies is piled on top of their other duties
as professors.
"It isn't something that the campus has money for," says Rhea
Williamson, the dean of research and economic and community
development. Her organization provides the most direct oversight for
the institute's funds and is helping it seek funding from grant
sources and the community.
A small budget from the HSU Advancement Foundation, which solicits
funds from private donors, pays for the travel and lodging costs of
the institute's speaker series. And Eschker did receive some in
incentive funding, which allowed him to take some time from his daily
duties to work on a "major proposal." Neither Williamson nor Eschker
would discuss the proposal, saying public disclosure could give
competitors for grant funding an advantage.
The institute is also seeking community support - an endeavor its
directors are approaching with caution.
"We have to navigate concerns about how we present ourselves," Meisel
says. "We are not to take any advocacy positions. We can't accept
support from growers."
With more funding they can support more research projects and,
ideally, pay the students who assist them.
Meanwhile, the political climate surrounding pot seems to be
changing. Just three years after Prop. 19 failed to legalize
recreational pot in California, polls both statewide and nationally
indicate upwards of 60 percent of the public favors legalization.
That puts the institute in a good position at a good time to become a
source for the nation's adjustment to legal pot. If all goes well, it
could be weighing in on public policy that will dictate how pot is
grown, sold and consumed, and the impacts it will have on ecology,
economy, social science and public health and safety.
"People are already looking to Humboldt for the product," Meisel
says. "Let's be a source of knowledge. Not on cultivation, but on
public health, economics, the environment."
That means being relevant in an ever-changing landscape, Eschker
says. "We also can't be too provincial about what we're looking at.
We have to ask how to be helpful to people across the nation, not
just Humboldt County."
The institute seems to be reaching that goal.
Just Google marijuana institute and dozens of online "colleges" offer
seminars in everything from growing to delivering marijuana and
avoiding getting caught. Then there's legitimate, science-based labs,
like the University of California's Center for Medical Cannabis
Research, which studies the effects of marijuana use for medical
treatment. Or the RAND Drug Policy Research Center, a national
nonprofit that brings "an objective and data-driven perspective" to
the "often emotional and fractious" area of alcohol and drug law.
Beau Kilmer is a co-director of the RAND drug research center, where
he researches the size of black markets and the effects of marijuana
legalization, among other topics, and is often interviewed by
national and international publications out of his Santa Monica-based office.
Kilmer says HIIMR could provide information that would help his own
organization, which employs about 70 researchers in three countries.
"As the conversations are starting to get more serious, people need
real data," he says. "We're now having discussions about 'how do you
regulate production?' [and] 'what kind of taxes do you apply?'"
Reasonable people can disagree about policy, Kilmer says, but
everyone needs hard facts. In his own line of research he tries to
estimate the size and scale of black markets. "I think the institute
at Humboldt is really going to help us get that kind of information.
That's going to be really helpful in making policy decisions."
And if legalization ever does materialize, Humboldt County will need
all the information and analysis it can get to make smart choices
about its future identity and the marijuana trade.
Who is HIIMR?
HSU faculty make up most of the membership of the Humboldt Institute
for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research with at least one associate
member from the community.
Here are some of the areas of study HSU faculty and others are
pursuing through the institute:
Economics professor Beth Wilson is seeking ways to measure the size
and scale of the marijuana economy in Humboldt County, and use those
numbers to predict the potential economic impact of legalization.
Assistant business professor Michelle Lane is examining the economic,
social and environmental impacts of large-scale cannabis production in the U.S.
Sociology lecturer Anthony Silvaggio is trying to determine the
ecological and public health impacts of marijuana production in the
rural portions of the county. As part of his research, Silvaggio used
Google Earth satellite images to identify possible cultivation sites
and compare historical images to show when the farms developed.
Sociology professor Elizabeth Watson is looking into the medical
marijuana ethical issues faced by local physicians.
Anthropology lecturer Fred Krissman is interested in studying labor
markets for cultivators and dispensary workers, particularly
immigrant agricultural workers.
Psychology chair Gregg Gold hopes to determine how marijuana use
affects health and how social perceptions of marijuana change
attitudes and behaviors.
Geography assistant professor Monica Stephens is exploring methods of
studying the "shadow economy" and marijuana pricing.
Community member Edie Butler is an associate member of the institute
and a board member of the 420 Archive, which seeks to collect
artifacts, oral histories and ephemera of Northern California's
"marijuana phenomena."
Scheduled Events
The institute's speaker series has three scheduled events for spring
2014, including talks by Dr. Sheigla Murphy, who studies drug policy
and effects of the war on drugs for the Institute for Scientific
Analysis; San Francisco State University professor Martin D.
Carcieri, whose most recent article in the Akron Law Review was
titled "Obama, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Drug War"; and Sunil
Kumar Aggarwal, a New York doctor who studies the pain relieving
effects of medical marijuana.
For more information about the institute, and to watch archived
videos of past guest speakers, visit www.humboldt.edu/hiimr.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom