Cannabis Cultivating Re-Visited
Readers of this reporter’s August local and national articles on un-permitted cannabis growing expressed both appreciations and appropriate criticisms. Their feedback has made me aware of how complicated this issue is.
I am a patient at Peace in Medicine and appreciate its CBD cannabis. It is essential to my health here at 73-years-old, as it is to other elders and those with a wide variety of health issues for which cannabis is an appropriate plant medicine.
Cannabis can be more healthy than some of the chemical medications to which people get addicted; it is better for one’s health than alcohol. Medications such as opioids can drastically worsen one’s health, create addictions, and even cause death.
“I got my cannabis card not to get stoned, which I am too old to do,” commented businessman Andy Cohen. “I use CBD topicals, as well as tinctures, because of my arthritis and gout. It works better than Tylenol or Ibuprofen. It doesn’t damage my liver or put a hole in my stomach.”
This article seeks to promote dialogue among cannabis growers, users, critics, government officials, and others. Participants in the expanding cannabis business have educated me about some of the complications, especially with respect to applying for permits.
I support cannabis growing by locals on appropriate sites that do not damage water use by humans, other animals, and plants or harm nature in other ways. Such operations provide good agricultural employment for people. These small farms literally “keep families afloat,” as one cannabis farmer expressed.
Cannabis Growers and Allies Speak Up
I have visited small and medium-size cottage cannabis operations and been informed and impressed by responsible growers. Among the things they said are the following:
“The legalization of marijuana has opened a Pandora’s Box, which will have many unintended consequences.”
“We started growing high CBD medicinal cannabis for my cancer. We could not find it anywhere and realized we needed to grow it ourselves to insure purity and viability for my health. Unfortunately, we will also quit after this year’s harvest because of the severe and expensive regulations of the county. It's heart-breaking that this vital medicine is being capitalized on and forcing intelligent, experienced growers out of the market.”
“I understand your frustration and anger with the recent opportunistic, irresponsible "wildcat" growers you are encountering, but I think it is a mistake to lump them together with people who have devoted their lives to improving marijuana strains and who feel strongly about the benefits it provides.”
“An impediment to getting small growers to apply for permits is that marijuana is still illegal as far as Federal law goes. Long-time small growers fear that by applying for permits they will become sitting ducks when and if the Feds decide to hold raids. Given the current political climate, this is a reasonable fear.”
“Mom and Pop cottage growers are being marginated by corporations.”
Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American Waris a recent book byJonah Raskin. In a September article in the AVA (Anderson Valley Advertiser), from Mendocino County, he writes the following: “The cannabis story is a story of freedom and incarceration, a rags-to-riches story, as well as a tale about American capitalism, which will capitalize on anything and everything that’s profitable. Weed brings in big bucks.”
Sonoma County--along with the nearby Northern California Mendocino, Humboldt, and Marin counties--are the four largest growers of cannabis in the U.S. We are experiencing what some call the “green rush of capital” and the “corporatization of cannabis.” Multi-national corporations from outside that show little or no respect for the local environment or communities concerns many locals.
A Sept. 10 New York Times article on Mendocino County reports that investors from Russia, China, Jamaica, Mexico, and Bulgaria are involved in marijuana growing there. Seven times more marijuana apparently is exported from California than used by the local market.
An estimated 5,000 cannabis cultivators exist in Sonoma County. That number may expand, since growing cannabis only became legal in 2016. Yet as of Sept. 12 only 115 cannabis applications had been submitted. The Aug. 31 deadline to submit an initial one-page application was extended to Oct. 31, with the complete application due June 1, 2018.
“We want to see more cultivators coming out of the shadows and into the light,” said Supervisor Lynda Hopkins. “The solution is to bring all these growers into compliance,” said cannabis attorney Omar Figueroa. “A crackdown doesn’t work. We don’t need more prohibition. We need regulation.”