Some local marijuana farmers are feeling as though they’re getting it from all sides. New state and county laws have them jumping through a host of regulatory hoops, filling out paperwork and deeply engaged in the very bureaucracies many had headed to the hills to avoid. And now two tax men cometh at once, with […]
The Week in Weed
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Art of the Deal (With Video)
A trio of short videos taking aim at the war on drugs and the burgeoning legal marijuana industry have been tearing though the interwebs in recent weeks. (Watch them below.) First we have music mogul Jay-Z, who turned money made from selling crack as a teen into a career rapping about selling crack, which he […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Ho Ho, No
No, say several residents of the North Pole. No to pot businesses. On Oct. 4, residents of the Fairbanks, Alaska suburb will vote on Proposition 7, which would effectively ban marijuana-related businesses from the town. Councilmember Elizabeth Holm, who gathered the signatures required to add the proposition to the ballot, cited the “family friendly” atmosphere […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Storming the Castile
California’s new Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation launched a series of stakeholder meetings Sept. 19, beginning a seven-stop tour to gather input that will skip the North Coast entirely. The bureau will be looking to get local perspectives on licensing and regulation requirements for dispensaries, distributors, manufacturers, testing laboratories and transporters, but it looks like […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Week in Weed
It looks like medical marijuana businesses will soon be welcome in Eureka. And in the eyes of patients, those in the industry and even some proponents of good governance, it’s about damn time. A divided Eureka City Council recently voted 3-2, with councilmembers Melinda Ciarabellini and Marian Brady dissenting, to move forward with permitting and […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Under the Tuff Gong
Big Numbers The Aug. 23 deadline to register existing commercial cannabis activity with the county of Humboldt has come and gone, and the planning and building department is staring down a giant pile of paper. A final count, conducted partially by hand, came up with a total of 2,259 registered grows. Steve Lazar, senior planner […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Not Even From Around Here
I get alarmed calls every week about the Bulgarians. They’re paying exorbitant sums for property in Petrolia, Bridgeville and Alderpoint, I’m told. They’re jogging along rural roads with automatic rifles strapped to their backs, according to one woman at a recent community meeting. They’re buying out family ranches and slowly taking over the county. And […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Growing Pains
The backlash came fast and fierce. “Get ready for some hate mail,” warned one Facebook commenter about 30 minutes after the post went live. Within hours, the boycott calls began. On Aug. 10, the Lost Coast Outpost posted to its news site the full list of marijuana growers and manufacturers who have taken steps to […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
NOMRL
Damn, but we love our views. We love them so much that, back in 2011, some of us successfully levied this love into stopping the big baddies at Shell Energy from installing wind turbines on Bear River Ridge, just south of Ferndale. “Unsightly!” was the argument. OK, well, there were other arguments, like the prospect […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Insert Sensationalist Weed-related Headline Here
The longer I work in media, the more tempted I am to write a guide for the general public on how media works. And, given that I’ve only worked in media for a little more than a year, logic would imply that, at some point very soon, I’ll succumb to temptation, leave my job at […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Naked Truth
This week’s Republican National Convention was marked by the appearance of 100 naked women holding mirrors, a photography project by Spencer Tunick. Tunick has positioned the naked bodies of people in 70 different photoshoots across the world. In a statement prior to the RNC, Tunick said, “By holding mirrors, we hope to suggest that women […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Pot Not the New Almond
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 […]