Pubdate: Wed, 24 Sep 2014
Source: East Bay Express (CA)
Copyright: 2014 East Bay Express
Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page
Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131
Author: David Downs

HARVEST SEASON IMPACTED BY DROUGHT, RAIDS

An increasing number of people are growing pot these days, but the 
lack of water and stepped up enforcement by police have made it a tough year.

The 2014 outdoor cannabis cultivation season will draw to a close in 
Northern California during the next few weeks, and in the Bay Area, 
the arrival of harvest is often met with trimming parties and 
bargains on gorgeous, fragrant "sungrown" bud. But beyond the Bay, 
growers are battling almost-Biblical drought conditions this fall. 
And across California, law enforcement agencies have stepped up 
eradication campaigns against marijuana growers with little regard 
for whether crops are meant for the medical market.

In the Emerald Triangle, a decades-old pot-growing region a few hours 
north of the Bay Area that generates billions of dollars in revenue 
each year, the three-year-long drought has punished area growers, 
said Tim Blake, a veteran farmer and founder of The Emerald Cup, the 
largest annual outdoor cannabis competition in the world.

The growing popularity of cannabis has encouraged more folks than 
ever to try their hand at a little home-growing. DIY weed costs 
pennies on the dollar compared to store-bought bud. "You got crops 
coming in from all sides," Blake said. "It's an explosive market."

But the market has been booming just as California's water supply has 
plummeted. The once-mighty Eel River has run dry in several spots 
this year, and unregulated cannabis cultivation has played a part in 
it, experts say. Many private creeks and streams are dry, and many 
growers without wells are without local water supplies. "The water 
situation has been so critical," Blake said. "It's been tough on people."

Some savvy growers are managing to get through the drought because 
they stocked up on rain tanks last winter and planted less this year, 
said Hezekiah Allen, executive director of The Emerald Growers 
Association. "So far I haven't heard anyone who actually lost a crop 
due to water," he said.

But Blake said drought-related problems have impacted growers in a 
major way. Mites, mold, and fungus "have attacked people at a level 
nobody can even imagine or comprehend." And the dry weather has 
prompted animals to come out of the forest and go in search of water 
and food, he said. "More animals - gopher, deer, bear - are attacking 
crops than ever before. It's massive.

"We have a huge hornet problem - there's no water for them and no 
food," Blake continued. "Where are they going to go? People are 
feeding skunk off their backyard porches. Bears are coming into 
people's backyards. A friend lost half his crop to deer that came 
through. It's an amazing thing."

Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt counties have also been hammered this 
year by law enforcement. After years of busting illegal grows on 
public lands, authorities this year have targeted private medical 
gardens with raids funded by state, federal, and private grants. 
Patients report that private contractors hired by law enforcement 
agencies have been going after pot gardens, cutting plants at the 
root, and then leaving without making any arrests. "They've been just 
going after small people - 25, 40, 60-plant gardens," Blake said. 
"They're dropping in and cutting 40 crops a day rather than just 5 or so."

The action is a throwback to the old days of "heavy-handed ... 
extreme .. brutal" enforcement, said Allen. "The best farmers leading 
the way are getting busted," he added. "That's a problem.

"It's more extreme, but going back as far as the early Nineties, this 
is absolutely nothing we haven't seen before," Allen continued. 
"Certain factions of law enforcement have been terrorizing this 
community for decades."

Blake said that many growers, however, managed to avoid the raids by 
harvesting their crop early - thanks to the new trend in "light 
deprivation," which involves using tarps to black out the sun and 
trick pot plants into thinking that fall has arrived so they start 
flowering early. The first "light dep" crop hit the market in August 
and early September - before the raids began.

In the central part of the state, years of federal eradication 
efforts in the Sierra foothills have pushed growers into the Central 
Valley. Counties, including Fresno, have responded by enacting 
blanket bans on medical cannabis cultivation and levying hundreds of 
fines of $1,000-per-day, per-plant. On Monday, the Fresno County 
Board of Supervisors heard appeals from folks whose 2014 fines total 
nearly $1 million. Lawyers for those fined often say that their 
clients either didn't know pot was being grown on their property, or 
didn't know that Fresno County could ban medical marijuana-growing.

Fresno-area resident Michael Green, who is suing the county as the 
Fresno Cannabis Association, said the Central Valley has a real 
problem with profiteers. But authorities are treating nonprofit 
medical gardeners like criminals, he said. "It's a hot and heavy 
harvest: The police are out in force and the lawsuits are flying," Green said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom