the end of freedom

USbongLord · Post by **USbongLord** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 11:56 am

you take this any way ya want...im tellin ya to watch out,here it comes

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - After weathering the fear of federal prosecution and competition from drug cartels, California's medical marijuana growers see a new threat to their tenuous existence: the "Wal-Marting" of weed.

The Oakland City Council on Tuesday will look at licensing four production plants where pot would be grown, packaged and processed into items ranging from baked goods to body oil. Winning applicants would have to pay $211,000 in annual permit fees, carry $2 million worth of liability insurance and be prepared to devote up to 8 percent of gross sales to taxes.

The move, and fledgling efforts in other California cities to sanction cannabis cultivation for the first time, has some marijuana advocates worried that regulations intended to bring order to the outlaw industry and new revenues to cash-strapped local governments could drive small "mom and pop" growers out of business. They complain that industrial-scale gardens would harm the environment, reduce quality and leave consumers with fewer strains from which to choose.

"Nobody wants to see the McDonald's-ization of cannabis," Dan Scully, one of the 400 "patient-growers" who supply Oakland's largest retail medical marijuana dispensary, Harborside Health Center, grumbled after a City Council committee gave the blueprint preliminary approval last week. "I would compare it to how a small business feels about shutting down its business and going to work at Wal-Mart. Who would be attracted to that?"

The proposal's supporters, including entrepreneurs more disposed to neckties than tie-dye, counter that unregulated growers working in covert warehouses or houses are tax scofflaws more likely to wreak environmental havoc, be motivated purely by profit and produce inferior products.

"The large-scale grow facilities that are being proposed with this ordinance will create hundreds of jobs for the city," said Ryan Indigo Warman, who teaches pot-growing techniques at iGrow, a hydroponics store whose owners plan to apply for one of the four permits. "The ordinance is good for Oakland, and anyone who says otherwise is only protecting their own interests."

Council members Rebecca Kaplan and Larry Reid, who introduced the plan, have pitched it largely as a public safety measure.

The Oakland fire department blames a dramatic rise in the number of electrical fires between 2006 and 2009 in part to marijuana being grown indoors with improperly wired fans and lights. The police department says eight robberies, seven burglaries and two murders have been linked to marijuana grows in the last two years.

Reid and Kaplan also are open about their desire to have the city, which last week laid off 80 police officers to save money, cash in on the medical marijuana industry it has allowed to thrive.

Oakland's four retail marijuana stores did $28 million in business last year, and if sales remain constant, the city would get $1.5 million this year from a dispensary business tax that voters adopted last summer. A similar tax on wholesale pot sales from the permitted grow sites to the dispensaries would bring in more than twice that amount, the city administrator's office has estimated.

"Allowing medical cannabis and medical cannabis products to be produced in a responsible, aboveboard and legitimate way will be a benefit to the patients, to the workers and to the people of Oakland," Kaplan said.

Adding to the anxiety of growers - and the impetus Oakland officials have to get the grow tax in place - is a November state ballot measure to legalize marijuana possession for adult recreational use and authorize local governments to license and tax non-medical pot sales.

If it passes, Proposition 19 is expected to feed the state's hearty appetite for marijuana. Backers of creating the four big indoor gardens say the plan is not dependent on legalization, but would benefit from it.

"The reality is, this is an issue that is going to grow. I would like it to grow here. I would like it to be Oakland business and not the tobacco industry," Councilwoman Jean Quan said.

Regulating the supply side of the business would represent another turning point in California's complicated, 14-year-old relationship with medical marijuana. Although Maine, New Mexico and Rhode Island license nonprofit groups to produce and distribute cannabis, California's law is silent on cultivation other than for individual use.

Even as hundreds of storefront pot dispensaries, marijuana delivery services and THC-laced food products have flourished, the question of where they get their stashes remains murky: Inquiring is considered as impolite as asking someone's income or age.

Industry insiders usually say they rely on a variety of sources, including farmers who grow outdoors in the far northern end of the state, contractors who run sophisticated indoor operations, and customers who grow their own and sell the surplus.

Officials in Berkeley and Long Beach also are moving take the mystery out of medical marijuana production.

The Berkeley City Council last week approved a measure for the November ballot that would authorize the city to license and tax six pot cultivation sites. Companies running the facilities must agree to give away some pot to low-income users, employ organic gardening methods to the extent possible and offset in some way the large amount of electricity needed to grow weed.

Long Beach officials want to reduce the amount of medical marijuana being sold in the city that isn't grown there.

The city is in the process of trying to whittle its more than 90 dispensaries down to no more than 35 marijuana collectives through a lottery. License winners will be required to grow either at their retail sites or elsewhere in Long Beach and to open their books to prove they aren't growing more than enough to supply their members, said Lori Ann Farrell, Long Beach's director of financial management.

in conclusion..ya might think this is good,but wait till yer buying beasters at walmart....hope you all know a GOOD grower kids

buddy · Post by **buddy** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 12:58 pm

Sounds like a good reason to hone those growing skills. Hey bonglord, do you do classes? You should think about it. I've read a lot about growing. Tried it once with mild success. I'm sure I could learn a lot from you.
Thanks for posting that.

Willjay · Post by **Willjay** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 01:54 pm

Fast forward through time and we are able to by "a pack of panama red" at the local box store. Hopefully we will also be able to go to a "Grow Pub" and get that quality hand grown, properly cured, great genetics, gourmet bud, that you could\would\should supply

Uncle Ron · Post by **Uncle Ron** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 02:26 pm

buddy wrote:Sounds like a good reason to hone those growing skills. Hey bonglord, do you do classes? You should think about it. I've read a lot about growing. Tried it once with mild success. I'm sure I could learn a lot from you.
Thanks for posting that.

Just to name one...
http://www.oaksterdamuniversity.com/

Uncle Ron · Post by **Uncle Ron** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 02:38 pm

Thanks USBL.

Don't know what all the fuss is about. People can grow their own, easier than making beer or wine. Plant a seed outdoors, check on it once in a while, and harvest when ready. Oversimplified, you bet, and foolproof as well, and I mean that literally.

If I can do it, anyone can.

USbongLord · Post by **USbongLord** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 04:00 pm

been helping people get better for years...i hope everyone gets better and preserves the great strains we have..when the boys with the helmuts get involved we all know what happens...stay small..dont get greedy..enjoy yer smoke

bluelaru · Post by **bluelaru** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 04:06 pm

Can you imagine...

People who love WEED .... will be voting aganist makin it LEGAL

CRAZY ..... RIGHT

cantona7 · Post by **cantona7** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 05:41 pm

so how does this effect those outside California, or those who just refuse to buy it? surely just 2 factories in Oakland wont flood the whole California market or the whole united states? Oakland sucks anyway.

sh@dy · Post by **sh@dy** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 06:49 pm

fuck them. fuck you and fuck everyone who thinks legalisation is worse than the present situation

seriously. the majority on this board has a good source for quality weed/hash.
thats not the usual smoker. he struggles to get something decent at a good price and in a "good way". there are many people out there who would love to buy some MC Donalds-like weed.....I mean, I wont, but everyone as he pleases, right?

next thing is, if one state in the big Us of A LEGALIZES (man, I never thought this could happen......) weed, the rest of the world will soon follow.....at least there is a better chance from that point

I say, fuck them growers, they only worry they`d get less money.....that will only happen if they cant compete by quality

cantona7 wrote:so how does this effect those outside California, or those who just refuse to buy it? surely just 2 factories in Oakland wont flood the whole California market or the whole united states? Oakland sucks anyway.

yay!

USbongLord · Post by **USbongLord** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 09:04 pm

excuse me , theres a tank at the door....get it....nah, cause yer head just rolled cross the floor

Stanky Danky · Post by **Stanky Danky** » Mon 19th Jul 2010 10:04 pm

I posted an article similar to this a while back that voiced the same concern. If they do end up going through with these large scale operations it will definitely hurt the small scale growers, but it really isn't a guarantee that the quality will necessarily suffer. I'm sure if it does happen there will be a big backlash with consumers who demand their buds not be mass produced. In the end I think the flooding of the market with more weed will only bring prices down for the consumer across the board and the connisseur varieties from the mom and pop operations will become more affordable. In the end the only people who will really suffer are the small time growers. I highly doubt you would see a reduction in variety as well. The backlash from the consumers who refuse to buy mass produced buds will make sure of that.

USbongLord · Post by **USbongLord** » Tue 20th Jul 2010 12:14 am

sort of like moonshine eh?

FlyByNite · Post by **FlyByNite** » Tue 20th Jul 2010 01:55 am

Then there is also this slant to the story.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/17/how- ... rtels.html

Enjoy
FlyByNite

bleak · Post by **bleak** » Tue 20th Jul 2010 08:51 am

I think its true that legalisation will bring a flood of 'Mc donalds' weed, but that isn't going to wipe out all the smaller growers. It will eliminate those who are selling bad quality weed, or over-priced. And I say, good riddance.

It will be the same as with beer or wine. There are the large international conglomerates who make bland (but consistent) beer on a mass scale. But there are also tens of thousands of small brewers all over the world who make gourmet and connoisseur products. Microbreweries are a thriving industry. Perfect example here in Amsterdam is Brouwerij t'Ij. Just because Heineken floods the market doesn't mean every other brewer goes out of business. People know the difference and are willing to pay much more for a beer that has a special taste.

If there is a market for high quality weed (there always will be, this forum is proof), there will be growers to grow it

colinzeal · Post by **colinzeal** » Tue 20th Jul 2010 01:19 pm

Just let them legislate away any hope of rights you have.

Just let them get their tax claws into the herb and see where that gets you.

It was the tax man that brought capone down.

Legalisation, legislation yeah yeah bollox. Availability and not being arrested thats all people care about, they dont give a shit about the big picture, peoples sense of morals don't extend beyond their own noses.

Herer knew but nobody was really listening cos the big bucks are in charge of the "good fight" now.

Grow your own and give it away.
Watch them take control and it'll still be illegal to hand your friend a bag of bud on the street - progress? - maybe, maybe not.