Last night's needles line the sidewalks at dawn along the blighted blocks where Massachusetts Avenue and Southampton Street meet. People emerge from shelters and halfway houses and trudge toward the methadone clinics that lend this place its ugly nickname. An open-air drug market is in full swing on the corner outside a convenience store, where offers of drugs trill like music. "Clonidines-Clonidines-Clonidines-Clonidines!" "Does anybody need Xani Bars?" Phenergans, Pins, Johnnies? A man grimaces one chilly morning, unsteady on his feet. He opens his mouth to reveal a knotted bag of heroin, double-wrapped and ready to be swallowed should police wade into the crowd. "This is all I have left," he says. [continues 5437 words]
How much marijuana is being grown in Humboldt County? We've all heard some store porch supposition on the subject, but there's little actual data to back it up. A recent article, published in the April edition of Environmental Research Letters, may help fill this vacuum. University of California Berkeley research specialist Van Butsic, and Jacob C. Brenner, a professor at Ithaca College, spent almost a year analyzing satellite imagery from Humboldt County, counting greenhouses and extrapolating to come up with a figure of 4,428 grow sites spread over 60 watersheds. The project was inspired by what the researchers called "an urgent need for systemic empirical research." [continues 377 words]
New proposed rules for medical marijuana grows led to anger on Tuesday as some medicinal cannabis proponents said they couldn't support the new recommendations while urging supervisors to compromise. County officials, however, said they had to consider environmental concerns and secure four out of five supervisor votes on July 26 to pass interim grow rules and repeal the existing outdoor grow ban. An ad hoc marijuana grow committee met Tuesday for the third time in its attempts to craft an interim grow ordinance in the wake of Measure W's failure. An advisory committee is expected to help write a permanent ordinance over the following months. [continues 458 words]
County Has Permitted About 800 Growers The destruction left by the Butte Fire was still evident Thursday morning in remnants of charred, leafless trees and gaping holes on hillsides, but vegetation does grow from the ruins: marijuana. In an area hit hardest last year, not far from Baker Riley Way in Mokelumne Hill, lies a pocket of cannabis cultivators. Among them is Max Cirello, 19. He said Calaveras County officials told him he was among the youngest in the area to obtain a commercial license last week. [continues 935 words]
It's rare that Osoyoos town council splits on an issue, but that happened Monday on the issue of medical marijuana outlets. The issue arose as council debated a staff recommendation to bring in a zoning bylaw that would effectively prohibit all marijuana operations except medical marijuana grow operations on land zoned as industrial. To be clear, none of council opposes medical marijuana for those who need it, and none support unrestricted retail outlets. The debate was whether the town needs a bylaw that Alain Cunningham, director of planning and development services, described as "a temporary and transitional zoning amendment" until the federal government clarifies the law on sales of medical marijuana. [continues 620 words]
Union leaders are talking about normal union concerns in a dimly lit Arcata bar. There are cocktails all around. They talk about safety, protecting jobs, keeping wages high, changing laws and providing training and education for workers and employers. Although these sound like run-of-the-mill union concerns, this is not your typical union. This is the Humboldt Medical Cannabis Union (HMCU), a group working to protect cannabis jobs in Humboldt County and bring farmers and workers out from the underground and into legitimacy. [continues 1226 words]
Since his election on October 19 last year as Canada's 23rd Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau has ushered in an astounding shift in Canada's political atmosphere. No longer are we enjoined by an angry, suspicious, and hateful government to live in fear and loathing of those who might trigger our xenophobic tendencies because of different beliefs, customs, or even methods of preparing foods. We are no longer asked to spy on our neighbours and rat out 'suspicious behaviour or, God help us, have 'Barbaric Practices. Age-old habits of homophobia and loathing of other gender identities are no longer encouraged by a fundamentalist leadership and scientists are no longer gagged, filtered, and silenced, Natives are no longer ignored or despised by government and generally, the air of oppression that hung over the country during the Harper decade has vanished into thin air. [continues 965 words]
Mendocino County is back in the marijuana business. Not that its citizens ever stopped growing, and not that the Emerald Triangle's cash-rich economy found another cash crop. But after a few years' hiatus, Mendocino is again using cannabis as a funding source - - for law enforcement, with the county sheriff taking in $150,000 from marijuana in a single day, and all of it willingly paid. Tired of receiving 911 calls from neighbors complaining about the pot garden next door, only to send a deputy out to investigate what turned out to be a legal grow - wasting an hour's worth of time in the process - Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman came up with a novel plan in 2010. His office would inspect and license legitimate grows, and charge the growers for the privilege. [continues 808 words]
It was Benjamin Franklin who famously wrote in a 1789 letter that "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Well, California pot farmers have largely skirted the second of those for decades and now fear the looming certainty of taxation may bring death to their businesses. The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors is moving forward with putting a marijuana excise tax on the November ballot that, if passed, promises to bring in millions of dollars in revenue to county coffers. Staff recommended a complexly tiered progressive tax that would give breaks to small, outdoor farms and operates under the basic premise that the larger and more environmentally damaging a grow the larger its tax bill. [continues 565 words]
Ahead of a Statewide Vote, Supervisors Extend a Ban on Cultivation and Distribution Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to extend by one year a temporary ban on medical marijuana cultivation and distribution in unincorporated areas. The vote came ahead of a statewide vote to legalize recreational marijuana and over the objections of medical marijuana patients and growers. The county put in place an initial 45-day ban earlier this year and then extended it by another month. County planning officials said the moratorium was needed so they can study how to regulate the marijuana industry. [continues 327 words]
SACRAMENTO (AP) - California voters will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana after Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Tuesday that initiative proponents turned in more than enough signatures to place the question on the November ballot. A successful vote in California would mean one in every six Americans lives in a state with legal marijuana sales, including the entire West Coast. The initiative is promoted by a well-funded and politically connected coalition spearheaded by former Facebook president Sean Parker. "Today marks a fresh start for California, as we prepare to replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself," Jason Kinney, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. [continues 362 words]
SACRAMENTO - Californians will vote in November on whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use, after the secretary of state's office certified Tuesday that a proposed initiative had qualified for the ballot. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act would authorize the state to license, regulate and tax marijuana. Backed in part by venture capitalist Sean Parker, the initiative will be the second in recent years to go before California voters asking if they want to legalize recreational use of the drug for people 21 and older. A similar measure was defeated in 2010. [continues 629 words]
Medical marijuana advocates bristled at a Monday meeting over suggested grow regulations, saying the proposed plant count restrictions go too far. Grow supporters also opposed the creation of a per-plant, per-day fine for violators of any new marijuana ordinance, though some advocates indicated they'd support the fines if their implementation was postponed a year. "We're trying to find a balance," Supervisor Nate Beason said. County officials on Monday presented possible regulations to the ad hoc committee that will help craft an interim grow ordinance. The committee is scheduled to meet again on July 12. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote July 26 on the new ordinance. [continues 531 words]
When James Silver and his wife bought their Vancouver home about a dozen years ago, it was in need of a major renovation. That suited Silver, a handyman who over the next decade reduced the former marijuana grow-op to its foundation and frame, then rebuilt it into a stylish five-bedroom, three-bathroom home plus suite. It was nearly brand new by the time he was finished with it. But when he and his wife tried to sell the home this spring, banks balked at lending to prospective buyers. [continues 1346 words]
I SHOT heroin and cocaine while attending Columbia in the 1980s, sometimes injecting many times a day and leaving scars that are still visible. I kept using, even after I was suspended from school, after I overdosed and even after I was arrested for dealing, despite knowing that this could reduce my chances of staying out of prison. My parents were devastated: They couldn't understand what had happened to their "gifted" child who had always excelled academically. They kept hoping I would just somehow stop, even though every time I tried to quit, I relapsed within months. [continues 1180 words]
Calaveras Adopts Rules That Allow Commercial Cannabis Farms in Region Ravaged by Butte Fire Worried by Pot Speculators Buying Scorched Properties, Officials Set Restrictions on New Cultivation Residents Expected to Vote in November on Marijuana Tax That Could Bring in Millions in Revenue MOUNTAIN RANCH - Before the sky rained fire last September, Thomas Liberty figured he knew where he wanted to be for the rest of his life. A former Air Force psychiatric technician and group home counselor for emotionally disturbed teens, Liberty lived with his wife, Lauren, a hospice care social worker, in a modest wood-frame house with a wrap-around porch and a small marijuana garden. [continues 1868 words]
Commercial medical marijuana cultivation and sale will not be allowed in unincorporated Placer County, after the board of supervisors on Tuesday voted 3-to-2 to limit marijuana cultivation to small, indoor grows by medical marijuana patients only. The board directed county staff to return with an ordinance codifying the approach they approved for their consideration in the coming weeks. The individual right under California state law to marijuana for personal medical use is unaffected by Tuesday's vote. The board voted in January to approve a placeholder ordinance asserting the county's authority to regulate. [continues 493 words]
Mendocino County announced Tuesday that it had settled a lawsuit with a local wildlife group over recently passed medical marijuana regulations. The Mendocino County Blacktail Association alleged the Board of Supervisors passed its medical marijuana urgency ordinance last month without first considering environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. The board approved an agreement in a closed session portion of its meeting Tuesday. As a result, the county said it would stop accepting permit applications under the urgency ordinance as of 5 p.m. Wednesday. No new applications will be accepted after this time. [continues 130 words]
This is in response to the June 9 opinion piece in The Union by Jonathan Collier, spokesman for the California (Marijuana) Grower Association. Mr. Collier first comments on the sheriff's "inability to eradicate growing related challenges." He later says that marijuana has been here for decades and you just can't get rid of it. He acknowledges "a rising criminal element" and says that the county has had a "laissez-faire attitude toward land use." I take that to mean that the county has not tried to eradicate illegal marijuana growing, which isn't true. [continues 514 words]
The Feds May Be Moving Slowly, But There's No Turning Back I keep reading articles about new states with weed programs. How is this still illegal federally? I KEEP READING about them too. Last month, Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana. Last week, it was Louisiana. As of today, 25 states and Washington, DC, have legalized weed for medical use. That's sort of more than half. By the end of this year, a true majority of states will have legalized something that is federally illegal. [continues 429 words]
