Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jan 2016
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581
Author: Ben Gold

THE RIDE IS ABOUT TO END

To the Editor:

I have heard the remorse and desperation in the local farmers' voice 
regarding the impending legalization of the Herb here in California 
as it must be so in 2016.

"Vote no! No! No" they cry!

They have seen visions of the miles of neat green rows racing off in 
each direction from Highway 5, the seas of green crop destined to 
drop the price of the almighty pound to something along the lines of 
organic asparagus.

It is not their sense of righteousness which forces the issue of this 
yell, it is the anticipation of the death-knell of their way of life, 
cashing in on the inconsistencies of laws between states and 
governments silenced at last by a reasonable piece of legislation.

I am reminded of the slave owners who went to war over losing their 
cash crop. They were not necessarily pro-slavery as an ideal; rather, 
capitalism created the necessity of free labor to continue their 
luxurious way of life, one founded on an illegal precept (slavery 
was, after all, unconstitutional). Just as the slaveholders damned 
the liberation of their "property," the ganja farmer begs we keep it 
illegal, we keep the price, the profits, high. Even though they, more 
than any, know there is righteousness in this step - it is a 
necessity in our evolution to decriminalize something as mundane and 
a part, I believe, of our promised freedom to choose whether or not 
we care to light the spliff.

But be sure, life here will change in ways none of us can expect. 
Restaurants, clothing stores, and new cars will be a thing of the 
past and we will all have memories of a bygone era when people threw 
out stacks of clean $100s to buy, baby, buy.

This was our roaring '20s before the depression. This was our tech 
boom. And it was a beauty while it lasted. But soon, we now know, it 
will be a memory of central-American escapades for Christmas and 
construction companies that never actually built. Where will 
Mendocino county employ these new hordes of farmers and their 
families desperate to maintain the semblance of a standard of living 
they have enjoyed for 15 years? They will have to scrap and dig in 
and look for professions consistent with their job-skills and 
education - and what have those been? Thus the rest of the world has 
long toiled.

The party will soon be over though much is unknown to us all.

Happy 2016 and work that green thumb one last season. The ride is about to end.

- - Ben Gold, Ukiah
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom