Marijuana Grows

[Dave E.]

Your California Fish & Wildlife.

War in the woods, taking back our public lands.

https://vimeo.com/212713167


Dave

[JayDubP]

If you look closely at the tax structure for the legal commercial grows, it gets stepped on twice with excise taxes and once for sales tax. There are some who feel the end retail pricing will be so high that the black market will flourish, especially with the expected increase in usage, amount unknown of course.

That has been disproved in Colorado. The longer legal pot is sold, the legal prices have fallen as demand increases...and the less people consider the black market... think of cigarettes or whisky and how few people really buy on the black market.

Other factor is that seller of non-legal pot in CO have increased their prices so they are only slightly less than the legal prices.

Jim

[flyfshrmn]

I have found 2 illegal growing sites around Lewiston, both on NF land. One was below the road on Trinity Dam Blvd between 299 and Lewiston, and the other in the foothills NW of Lewiston. The Forest Service and Trinity Sheriff took care of the first and the other was already harvested. Many years ago, I found one near Bollibokka Mtn. at Lake Shasta, but it had been harvested and abandoned. I think you are much more likely to find one while deer or quail hunting than when fishing. Best thing to do is go back the way you came immediately. If you think it's an illegal grow on public land, call the Forest Service. Most local Sheriff's in the north state are fairly tolerant of this activity and lack the manpower to pursue every illegal grow. The runoff from herbicide and fertilizers, and illegal water diversion are the biggest problems. The growers also knock down trees surrounding the grow to allow the sunlight to reach the forest floor.

[Bob Loblaw]

I was camping with the family a few years ago at Avenue of the Giants and went down to Riverbend Winery to pick up a couple of Cabernet for dinner. While I was there tasting, a BMW convertible roars into the parking lot and two young guys get out in dirty coveralls, walk into the tasting room and ask "whats the most expensive wine you sell?...we want two cases." One guy produces a roll that must have been $10K, peeled of eight $100 bills, they took the wine and left.

The lady in the tasting room said they'd be back in LA in a couple of weeks once they'd harvested their crop....leaving behind fertilizer bags, pesticide bottles and all sorts of waste and trash. f**kers.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

With California pretty much run by Liberals the legalization of pot is coming very soon.

Then it will go wide open.........better buy a boat.

[JasonB]

With California pretty much run by Liberals the legalization of pot is coming very soon.

Then it will go wide open.........better buy a boat.

Ummm, California has already legalized both medical and recreational use of Marijuana. Many conservatives favored this move as well as liberals, for a wide variety of reasoning. In theory, it certainly could help quite a bit to bring everything above board and more out in the open (and taxed!). The problem isn't the plant, it's uses, or one's politics ... the problems have always been the crime that surrounds the the industry, mostly due to it's illegal status.

Time will tell of course how it all plays out. Probably not quite as simple as most of us would like to remove the criminal element, and environmental disaster that accompanies some of the large scale black market grow operations. On the other hand, I really don't see that things can get much worse than they have; our previous policies and efforts have pretty much amounted to failures of growing proportion. I'm hopeful that the legalization here could be a helpful step in the right direction; at this point something really needs to be done and trying to play "whack-a-mole" chasing down countless growers has proven to be financially and logistically impractical if not impossible.

[Bob Loblaw]

Agree with JasonB. This issue doesn't have a political bias. We had a Republican inspired War on Drugs for a generation and saw nothing but more drugs and more violence.

I know some very law abiding church going people who smoke pot socially. They don't like alcohol and prefer pot. I don't see why i can buy beer in Safeway and they have to pretend to have glaucoma and go to a shady medical clinic to get there recreational buzz of choice.

Legalizing weed and taxing it will put an end to the illegal grows and it will create a source of funding to clean up the mess that has been created in our forests. That is already baked (pun intended) into the legalization proposal.

Of course there will always be people who will grow a little illegally out in the back 40, but the big industrial cartel grows will be gone and it will be grown on agricultural land not in forests.

[Scott V]

The illegal growers will continue to grow marijuana in California as long as it remains illegal federally. California marijuana is the most prized marijuana in the United States. What costs $1,000 in California, easily sells for $3,000+ in other states. The further you move California marijuana east, the higher the price goes.

Until federal legalization happens, the criminals will continue to grow in California because we have the best weather for it. Legalization in California will not stop any of the big illegal growers. I know this for a fact! California legalization will only help those that prefer to smoke marijuana than drink alcohol.

As for the religious smokers, the bible clearly states it was put here by God for our use.
Genesis 1:29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food."

[BobVP]

In answer to your question, I have known two people personally that have been killed. Very sad. Both very good folks.
Statewide? Not sure.

[cyama]

According to the newest Fly Fisherman Mag there is a statute in the regulation (Prop 64) that 20% of the tax revenue from the sales of Marijuana will go to environmental restoration. This includes damage from illegal grows and restoration of steelhead waters. It is estimated that $200 million dollars per year will be generated for environmental restoration. Sounds good to me, but will have to see what really happens....