It’s no secret Humboldt County has many, many of cannabis farms. It’s also no secret that the vast majority of them — between 80 and 90 percent by most estimates — have taken no steps to come into compliance with state or local laws. Not only does this mean that there are upwards of 10,000 […]
The Week in Weed
Posted inLetters + Opinion
My Hometown Has Changed. Or Maybe I have.
Maybe it’s because I had just finished re-reading a news story about a family member’s murder. Maybe it’s because I had just written up a press release about a homicide investigation. Maybe it’s just the road — it’s such a terrible, long, pock-marked, winding, bone-jarring road. Whatever the reason, I did not want to drive […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Tourism Bureau Takes ‘Separate but Equal’ Approach to Cannabis Businesses
As they sat huddled around banquet tables arranged in a U shape, tensely nibbling the remnants of a catered lunch in the conference room of Eureka’s Red Lion Hotel, the Eureka-Humboldt Visitors Bureau Board of Directors voted last week to welcome cannabis businesses into their midst and to use them to market the county to […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Dude, Am I Stoned?
The frat-boy favorite Breathalyzer keychain may have a new, laid-back little friend. Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a prototype smartphone app designed to answer its namesake question, “Am I Stoned?” The app aims to “improve the safety of cannabis by making users more aware of their impairment,” according to research team leader […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Canni-bias
Even as the Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau was taking a bit of a public beating about its lack of cannabis marketing during the April 3 Board of Supervisors meeting (See “Cannabis Convention and Visitors Bureau?,” Apr. 5.), a survey on that very subject was winging its way to the inboxes of HCCVB’s target […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Don’t Smoke Fake Weed
The science of why smoking cannabis screws with your memory is kind of fascinating. Memory itself is kind of fascinating. The current understanding is that our brains are kind of like computer processors that take immediate, short-term data and processes it during sleep’s REM-cycle to be stored as long-term memories. Cool, huh? Anecdotally, we might […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Cannabis Convention and Visitors Bureau?
Where’s the cannabis? That’s the question asked, pointedly at times, during an annual presentation from Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Tony Smithers to the county board of supervisors. Walking supervisors through a power point presentation touting his private nonprofit organization’s efforts to bring tourists to the North Coast, Smithers noted that the […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Starbucks of Weed Cometh
You’ll have to pardon California cannabis farmers if you catch them gazing longingly to the north, daydreaming of life on the Last Frontier, where moose abound, the night sky turns green and pounds of marijuana wholesale for $2,800 to $5,000. A recent article on www.mjbizdaily.com details pot prices across the Land of the Midnight Sun, […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Economics of Land Use
The reality that California is producing way more marijuana than legal markets can bear was in plain view during the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors’ March 19 public hearing on the county’s proposed cannabis land use ordinance. The question is what Humboldt County can do to protect the local industry, which was at one time […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
As Acreage Cap Lawsuit Plods On, the Stakes Grow
The California Department of Food and Agriculture is asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit alleging it acted inappropriately when it effectively declined to institute a cap on the acreage a single entity can get licensed for cannabis cultivation. Brought in January by the California Growers Association, the lawsuit takes aim at the emergency regulations […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
A Border Wall to Save Us All
President Donald Trump caught headlines earlier this month when he unexpectedly dropped into a White House summit on opioids and — in the midst of pledging to crack down on drug “pushers” — mused that some countries execute people convicted of drug offenses. It was a classic Trumpian throwaway line that drew applause from those […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Will Your Dispensary Keep it on the DL?
Imagine you like to smoke weed, or maybe you’re just curious, and you venture into one of Humboldt County’s handful of recreational cannabis dispensaries to make your first purchase. On the way in, an attendant checks your driver’s license to make sure you’re of age. You peruse the offerings, pick up a bag, some pre-rolled […]