Pubdate: Thu, 28 May 2015
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Column: The Week in Weed
Copyright: 2015 North Coast Journal
Contact:  http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Author: Grant Scott-Goforth

BOOM AND BOOM

Arcata's Medical Marijuana Innovation Area got an enthusiastic 
thumbs-up on May 20 from the city council, which ultimately voted 
unanimously in favor of the proposal, but not before an antsy, 
standing-room-only crowd stood by while the council spent two hours 
wading through the night's consent agenda. When a speaker made a plea 
for donations to support a two-week summer camp sponsored by a young 
woman's foundation, several people approached and handed her hundred 
dollar bills. She had come to the right meeting.

With legalization pending - and with it the specter of the city 
losing businesses to neighboring communities, Economic Development 
Director Larry Oetker told the council, "our role is quickly 
diminishing. ... We're on the brink of having significant issues in 
our community and having a great number of people and business who 
will lose or have their incomes diminished."

Oetker was recommending that the city set aside three parcels on West 
End Road - the former Humboldt Flakeboard mill, owned by Bob Figas, 
and a city-owned property across the street - for a cultivation and 
processing center. (Read more about the proposal here.)

While he declined to say from whom, Oetker said "there is an 
immediate desire to get in there and start growing medical marijuana 
on site," a point made clear by the dozens of people in attendance 
for the agenda item.

Oetker also called for a moratorium on dispensaries (the city has a 
four-dispensary capacity, and two are currently operating) outside of 
the innovation area - though it would allow the two current 
dispensaries to continue operating.

Ultimately, Oetker said, the council needs to answer some basic 
questions about the future landscape of marijuana in Arcata, 
including how it would regulate marijuana consumption at the site, 
how legalization might affect lease rates for commercial space and 
whether Arcata should seek to become a cannabis tourist destination.

Councilwoman Susan Ornelas said she was concerned about the 
moratorium - comparing it to limiting Silicon Valley's tech business 
in the '70s - and saying the "cultural bias" toward marijuana was 
driving council members to try to keep marijuana under wraps.

But Sofia Pereira, the council's newest member, said she saw the 
moratorium as similar to the city's limit on chain restaurants - a 
way to promote local businesses and keep marijuana conglomerates from 
popping up all over town, should legalization strike.

Several members of the public spoke, raising minor concerns, but the 
overall reaction was positive.

The council's approval starts a public hearing process at the 
planning commission level, where there will be further discussions 
about how to move forward with the proposed cultivation, warehousing 
and processing facility that will likely include a community kitchen 
for marijuana-infused foods.

At the end of the night, the council voted to give the remainder of a 
loan originally issued to the now-defunct Flakeboard mill to Bob 
Figas. The loan will allow Figas to work with potential cannabis 
tenants and the city to develop the innovation area.

An Oregon man who was badly burned when his garage butane-extract 
hash oil lab exploded has sued the gas station that sold him the butane.

Kevin Tveisme is asking for $11 million from importers, distributors 
and the nearby Shell mini-mart, "alleging that they failed to warn 
that butane vapors are highly explosive, especially in enclosed 
spaces such as a garage, and that other people who have tried to make 
hash oil with butane have been badly burned or killed," according to 
the Oregonian. Tveisme's longtime friend died from injuries sustained 
in the blast.

Butane extraction, of course, is the super-dangerous and ridiculously 
wasteful method of concentrating THC from marijuana plant matter. 
It's led to massive explosions all over the country, including 
numerous ones in Southern Humboldt and a van fire on the Arcata Plaza in 2013.

Tveisme said he learned how to make butane-extract hash oil from 
YouTube, and told the Oregonian that, while the butane canisters warn 
about overfilling lighters, there were no warnings against using it 
for the unspoken real use of the butane canisters - hash extraction.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom