Pot-onomics 

Editor:

There's a lot of talk lately about the marijuana business (Blog Jammin, Oct. 20), with some suggesting it threatens our small town atmosphere and values. That got me thinking, suppose the dirty hippies didn't come here and didn't create a new resource economy (wink, wink) to replace the old one. Where would we be now? Of course, I know I would probably still be in the Bay Area, because I would never have tried to talk my family into moving here if it was the Baja Coos Bay it would be without the pot industry. Why come here, to drink Schlitz at the Moose Lodge with laid off mill workers on Social Security, and listen to them bitch about their kids and grandkids spending all day ripping each other off for crank?

Without the pot industry there'd be few outsiders, and precious little money coming in, and therefore no Morris Graves, Kinetic Race, Brio's, Dell'Arte, Sisters, Co-op, etc. Probably not even a McMurray and Sons, Piersons or Opie's, and definitely no Humboldt Hydroponics or Trim Scene Solutions, Inc. Just Winco and McDonalds and "gaming" at the casinos, with welfare checks deposited directly into the slot machines. Just like in Turdpie, Texas, Lynchville, Alabama, Stench, Mississippi, and everywhere else the Company turned everything to slag and left.

The trees are cut, the fish are caught, and the trains aren't coming back. So we're all dependent on pot production, either directly (merchants, landlords, trimmers, brewers, dreadlock maintenance professionals, etc.), or because it supports everything from the schools to the homeless programs. I know it's hard for people to stomach -- with pot being illegal and disincentivizing and all -- but it could be worse. Our dominant industry could involve driving people off land they've used for centuries in order to wash away the topsoil and cut down all the trees.

Bill Hassler, McKinleyville