In case you’ve been living under a rock — or just glaze over at the mere mention of Russia — the Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing last week for President Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr. While the vast majority of news coverage of the hearing focused on whether Barr would recuse himself […]
The Week in Weed
Posted inLetters + Opinion
On Murder Mountain
Repeatedly over the last few weeks, I’ve been asked for my impressions of Murder Mountain, the six-part docuseries looking at Humboldt County’s cannabis industry released on Netflix last month. The short answer? It isn’t worth your time. At this point, you’ve probably seen that the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has blasted the series as a […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
New House, Same Story
In one of its first acts, the newly seated House of Representatives introduced bipartisan legislation that would require the federal government to take a hands-off approach to cannabis and let states establish their own laws and programs. “The national consensus on medical marijuana is solid and bipartisan, but our federal drug laws continue to treat […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Don’t Bank on It
It looks like the California cannabis industry will remain largely a cash enterprise for the foreseeable future. The 18-member Cannabis Banking Working Group chaired by State Treasurer John Chiang issued a 151-page report detailing why creating a public banking system to accommodate the legal weed industry would be so expensive, difficult and legally iffy that […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Farm Bill Caps Historic Year for Cannabis
You may have missed it among headlines about the looming government shutdown and plunging stock markets, but when President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill on Dec. 21, he officially removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act. The legislation, pushed hard by Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), officially distinguishes hemp from marijuana, its […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Cannabis Pageantry
It’s been dubbed the Academy Awards of Cannabis, only instead of a red carpet there was a leaf blower modified to blow pot smoke in attendees’ faces. Yes, with much fanfare, the first post-recreational legalization Emerald Cup took place last weekend at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and Humboldt County represented. Hard. But to read reporting […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Marlboro Man Cometh
Just about every year I’ve worked as a reporter in Humboldt County, the rumor has made its way into my newsroom: Philip Morris is buying up local properties, looking to get into the weed game. It’s never checked out — until now. Kind of. News broke last week that Altria, the umbrella company under which […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Testing and Taxes
The state of California is in the midst of its first large-scale cannabis testing scandal. Sequoia Analytical Labs, based in Sacramento, was one of just 44 licensed testing facilities in the state until it surrendered its license to the state last week after it was discovered the company’s lab director had been falsifying test results, […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Canada Comes Knocking for Cannabis
Canadian companies are starting to show a lot of interest in North Coast cannabis. On Nov. 27, Vancouver-based Chemistree Technology Inc. announced that it has entered into a “strategic partnership” with an unnamed cannabis processing company based in Arcata. In a press release, the company announced that the partnership will see Chemistree loan the processor […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Weed for the 1 Percent
Americans have a tendency to take things too far. It’s true. That’s why Christmas decorations have begun to infiltrate department stores before their Halloween counterparts are off the shelves. It’s why large swaths of rainforest have been obliterated so we can have cheap hamburgers. (One might argue that it’s also why we have military bases […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Green Wave
If there was a clear-cut winner on Election Day, it wasn’t Democrats or Senate Republicans, and it certainly wasn’t The Donald. It was cannabis. Amid all the hand-wringing and consternation over whether a Blue wave was going to crash over the nation, national pundits largely have overlooked the fact that the nation is awash in […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Liening In
The county of Humboldt is beginning the process of imposing $900,000 liens on a handful of properties whose owners have not responded to abatement and violation notices connected with cannabis cultivation. Planning Director John Ford said the county’s controversial code enforcement approach — which threatens fines of up to $10,000 a day on properties found […]