Pubdate: Thu, 16 Jul 2015 Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA) Copyright: 2015 The Ukiah Daily Journal Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581 Author: Jonathan Middlebrook Note: In these interesting times, JM lives on the frontier, between Potter & Redwood valleys, freely donating language to the cause. IT'S ALL GOOD Medical cannabis >> I read in the UDJ's report (7/9) on the progress of Assemblyman Jim Wood's Marijuana Watershed Protection Act (AB 243) that he's basing his legislation on the estimate that "cultivators are making on a single plant, roughly $2500-4000."--Link that estimate or fantasy to Hezekiah Allen's "small medical cannabis farmer's" 1/4 acre under cultivation with 1000 plants and I get into an Ev Dirksen mood (he of "a billion here, a billion there" fame). We're talking about real money, here & now & in this county. (Itsall, 7/ 9&11, KZYX "The Cannabis Hour, 7/2-now on their Jukebox site.)--I hope Jane Futcher explores these numbers with supervisors McCowen and Woodhouse on "The Cannabis Hour" (TODAY, KZYX, 9 a.m.) and that Carol Brodsky has worked with the appropriate numbers in her 6-part UDJ series on the Pinoleville medical cannabis project. What are the projected Tribal, County, State, Federal bottom lines? And, out of neighborhood curiosity, what's projected non-profit income to the tribe? The taxable profits of a small cannabis farm? (If you have missed "The Cannabis Hour" on-air, it will be on KZYX's Jukebox link.) So far) most of the anecdotal information (and the high giggle street chat about "my medicine") suggests that the medical use of cannabis is for pain management. It's anecdotal information, because governmental drug policy makes it so difficult to carry on truly scientific research on cannabis. I suspect a fair amount of pain will disappear from street talk, once recreational pot is legal and the hypocrisy needle drops toward zero and the air quotes fly from medical. Miraculous!--Like everyone else, I also hear anecdotes about the therapeutic use of cannabis for glaucoma, ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), the pain of cancer, and the gentling of death. May the anecdotes be supported by clinical evidence! In my family, the anecdotage is ambivalent: Christina's burden of pain was lightened, at the cost of the mental acuity she cultivated, to the end. Focusing >> for a moment on actual pain management: Depending on whom you read (trade group or Huffington Post) OTC pain meds (N-saids) are a 4 or 9 billion-dollar industry, dominated by Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Bayer. As the OTC market shifts from Tylenol/Excedrin/Aleve to cannabis-based products (which may be shown to have fewer side effects), those drug manufacturers will not sit idly by. I find myself wondering how cannabis production on the billion-dollar, international scale will play out on our local stage. Back in the day, a fair amount of the tobacco-growing south was run by a few large companies which kept farmers' incomes low and investors' profits high.--Worth remembering that economic structure when thinking about our soon-to-be sort of legal cannabis industry.--I suppose it might be in our local interest to oppose Federal legalization: Philip Morris/Altria Group is not likely openly to buy into a (federally) illegal industry. Protect small farmers. Vote No on legalization!--My my. When >> legalization removes the quotes from "medical" cannabis, here's a branding brag for the Emerald Growers' Association: "Organic, sustainable-no pesticides, fertilizers or diverted H20 used in growing your toke."--Pipe dream?--Slogan's a free gift from Itsall to EGA. Trademark it, people, before Taylor Swift does. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom