Rising Taxes and Dropping Prices: Cannabis Farmers Gather in SoHum to Discuss Possible Actions
The initial call to action, put out by Chris Anderson, CEO of Redwood Roots, Inc., a cannabis distributor in Benbow, was to discuss a march on Sacramento to protest an increase in cultivation tax, effective January 1st, 2022. However, Chris admitted he may have gotten ahead of himself after speaking to other industry insiders. Instead, he encouraged the cannabis community to come together to effect change where they can by banding together with already organized efforts. Chris believes the three main problems that the cannabis industry is facing is over-taxation, over-production and lack of retail.
Ross Gordon, Policy Director of the Humboldt County Growers Alliance (HCGA), acknowledges the community’s need to gather, “It’s obviously a really heavy time, and a really important time, to try to think about what we can do on a community level to try to make some change.”
The “offensive” cultivation tax increase, according to Ross, was built into Prop 64 as a yearly increase to account for inflation… “which is funny because the price of cannabis isn’t inflating, but our taxes are inflating.” He believes a lot of the challenges the community faces stem from Prop 64, the legal framework for cannabis legalization.
Natalynne Delapp, Executive Director of the HCGA called for local farmers to band together to make policy changes. “Things are changing on a county level, …the political pendulum is swinging. …There’s a lot of work to keep doing on the county level, but generally speaking, we do have a very supportive county – supervisors and staff – you all pretty much know how to get ahold of them. Never don’t reach out to them.” She said the county officials can lower the Measure S taxes at any time. She said the community should hold the county responsible, “Don’t let them blame-shift away.”
Natalynne said the county is looking at revising Measure S, something that may go before the voters in June. She encouraged the group to be vocal, a sentiment shared by Tiffany Smith, Project Trellis Committee Member, who said the community needs to be speaking up to the local government at the Board of Supervisor Meetings. “Speak out! Public comment is very important and there’s not that many people that actually [speak up].”Roger Harrell, COO of Redwood Roots, does not believe there’s a one-step fix-all for the challenges the cannabis industry faces, but he is really pushing for the community to get involved as a whole to push back against the taxes implemented by the state. He encourages the local farmers to work with the local businesses that are also seeing a down-turn in sales. “I’ve never been under the belief that the community that made money here, didn’t reinvest it here.” Now, he believes that money is being sent to Sacramento in the form of taxes… cultivation tax on a pound of cannabis sold at $500 is about 32% tax. He wants to see farmers and local businesses demand that taxes be cut, or at least, reinvested in the communities that they were generated in. The state collected over 333 million dollars in cannabis tax revenue during the 2nd Quarter of 2021 alone.
Addressing over-production, Chris encouraged local farmers to do what they do best, grow incredible cannabis. “Quality over quantity,” he preached. For his part, he said that three years ago he was seeing approximately 30%-35% of the cannabis coming through his business being of AAA quality. Last year it went down to 20%-25%, this year, 10%-15%. Quantity doesn’t matter in today’s legal cannabis if farms cannot sell it, he explained. There’s a lot of cannabis on the market right now, according to Chris, anything below AAA is not selling.
Kyle Greenhalgh of Heritage Mendocino, a dispensary in Ukiah, said that retail shops are down 30%-40%. He says this is not just happening to the cannabis community but the country as a whole. The economy is hurting in all sectors.
There were numerous mentions about farmers branding their product or joining larger, umbrella brands. After the group discussion, Roger Harrell, discussed with us the retail distribution happening at their company. At present, Redwood Roots is packaging in 5 lb increments. Farms with quality flower should talk to their distributors about marketing their retail-ready products, packaging under their distro label or looking for white label opportunities to get more of their product on as many shelves as possible.
Another path forward suggested to the group was to join advocacy groups, like the HCGA, so that local farmers can break stigmas still attached to the cannabis industry and affect policy change. Linsey Jones, part owner of Aloha Humboldt, said, “Talking about coming out of the green closet, it’s really important we embrace the other sectors where we can be involved that are already existing; …Your local chamber of commerce, your fire safe council, …talking to your local CHP.” By networking with local agencies and joining local advocacy groups, communities can form alliances, aggregate resources and purchase power…Work with your local community, …do these alliances, then you can apply for Trellis funding together. And then each region can tell its unique, cultural story that’s authentic. And that’s what people want …creating a connection…that’s what your consumer wants.”
Leann Greene, Executive Director of the Southern Humboldt Chamber of Commerce, encouraged the group to join the chamber, stating that the chamber advocates for all their local members, including their cannabis farm members. “As an organization designed to support businesses and tourism in our area, the Southern Humboldt Chamber is here, [we’re] poised to help.”
Although there were no bullet-point presentations highlighting a path forward, camaraderie and cohesiveness prevailed. Sign up sheets and brochures were passed around, and Chris Anderson reminded the group that they were not just farmers, but businesses. In spite of the call to capitalism, the Humboldt vibe permeated. Like almost every Humboldt gathering, pot-smoke loomed above the crowd, tie-dye intermingled with Carhart, food and drink flowed, and kids’ laughter hung in the air. The event closed with a song about the Humboldt farmer’s plight performed by Aiyana Floreterna.
Perhaps some things do stay the same…
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Holy Beep, excellent article. Talk about putting a face on an industry that often I portrayed, and I do the same, as a bunch of bad cultivators whom only want vacations and brunches.
Again great writing, editing, and actually making the triangles weed sound tasty again.
Here on East Coast , only herbs that make it via ?, is from Nevada and So Cal, so it’s often looked down upon, when mom and pops from New England are doing deeps that are , and as always not a grader, is at least an A.
Their labeling is original, their customer relations, superior. I for one, when I smoke, only utilize one grower, until I receive a bunk nugget, then I fire them, often publicly, then bam, off to next eager supplier wier they get so stocked on a new crusty, that I definitely get spoiled as in free merch, nuggets, seeds, uck I even get an occasional clone.
And guss what, I brag, tell everyone who I got spoiled as uck, how the herb tasted like lambs breath, extc.
So my point is, awesome article, network with the county officials, pray for swirled peas , your friends and ouch, even the people you hate, because life’s to short, and it truly is a gift.
This weekly rant is not affiliated with this site, with reality, or with reason. Take what one may, and leaf the rest.
Lol… they all hoped on the bandwagon of legalization & got played by politriks… hold your own nuts! Anyone giving up their 2nd Amendment Rights to have a legal Cannabis business is absurdly foolish.
That would be very foolish indeed, given that in California no one asks you to give up that right to be in the legal business
um except cannabis businesses actually. You cannot have guns on permitted farms.
um except you’re wrong. There is no such state law and some counties/cities even *require* armed and licensed guards to issue cannabis licenses.
I suppose it’s possible that you can find a municipality/county which prohibits them, but it’s not the norm at all in the state.
Another problem this community faces is a lot of the legal farms around me are still run by gangs or black marketeers and they DO NOT hire local employees. I know a guy with 5 farms hires Hmong from out of the area. The [edit] do not hire anyone local. How do we move foreward with No jobs for the community?
Stop blaming other races and other cultures. Nothing stopped you from being the guy with 5 farms hiring who works best for you.
[edit]
But aren’t you sounding like a plantation owner in the cotton slaving south?
Extractive agribusiness is as usual a vanguard of demographic transformation.
Other “personality defects” like morality, sense of community, respect for your neighbors, compliance with environmental regulations, not willing to smuggle indentured servants from China….
The guy with five farms and his greed helped ruin the weed business.
I can think of a lot of things that would stop me from having 5 farms. It’s excessive, greedy, unnecessary, not sustainable, and totally goes against the spirit of the plant. My goal is always to have a flourishing food garden with a few cannabis plants in between. I don’t look at the plant and try to exploit and extract her wealth, I look at her with respect and adoration. You can taste the difference too.
You BET you can taste the difference, and the model of the Emerald triangle was not initially based on greed, it was based on a country lifestyle. Things ramped up with 215 in Mendo but legalization turned it into a balls-out green rush.
The initial culture, now 50+ years old has been overrun by pop culture and money grabbing. It seems it happens to every good thing eventually, and the world is suffering from that right now.
Too bad you can’t read before you call someone racist.
Re Panthera Once, it’s called hypocrisy & most of them are the same as corporate a$$holes, all about the bottom line. They prefer to pay less & profit more. Desperate foreigners will always work for cheap, always.
Government is the MAFIA. What you are referring to are jobs that have payroll taxes to an already spoiled bratty child in Sacramento.
Great point. I’ve noticed a lot more international thugs myself too. I used to think the cartel claims were an exaggeration, until this year. At the same time when they pay $60/lb to trim, it’s not possible for locals to sustain a life on that wage.
If there’s oversupply driving prices lower then why don’t farmers just reduce output to prop up prices, same as producers of other farm commodities have done forever? Oregon busted 500,000 lbs of commodity product yesterday so some producers may need to go out of business before supply aligns with demand. That’s how capitalism works – survival of the most efficient producers while the least efficient fail. Like someone else said, there’s opportunity to move boutique product but only in limited volume so choose your business model.
Exactly, that’s why I produce less then 4 onces, and charge 1000 per gram. People line up, just to laugh at me as I too, thought it was a brilliant idea.
That’s what nipsey hustle did. Made 100 cassette tapes and sold each for $1000. So it is a brilliant idea and works if you know how.
Ha ha! While asking mega corporations to produce less so the little guys can participate in the industry they are actively taking over, is obviously never going to happen, The commenter has a good point.
The only people I know who are making it this year are small scale medical with connections out of state, seed to sale top shelf. I’ve spoke to these folks about if they wanted to get a micro 2k sq ft permit (for free even) instead of a 400 sq ft medical and they explain the costs and risks far outweighs the extra 1600 sq ft of canopy .
Not to mention the legal or as I call it “in the red market” crashed so it’s worth half or less outside the “in the black market.”
Point is- the county has created an environment where Getting a permit is a bad investment and the only way to survive is to risk your life. It’s a loose loose for all involved. Legalization is corporatization only, it was never about equity or bringing relief to victims of the drug war.
The 500,000 pounds of pot came from local Oregon illegal growers.
When you vote for democrats you vote for taxes and inflation. It’s the price you pay for liberal policies.
Well I suspect that when criminal organizations run large enterprises, cost efficiencies and expendable labor elements will resemble the South US during slave times…
Occupying huge existing buildings, providing only subsistence food and accommodations to the laborers, and using bracero labor illegally brought to Oregon, it all fits the model that has made the wealthy even wealthier since 1492…
Humboldt, with its rudimentary slash and burn, poison, steal water, harvest and run model, simply can’t compete, and the idea to “band together” hey, “Travis, you’re years too late!”
Humboldt “Farmers” look like amateurs, and, gosh, there’s some nice properties for sale in Garberville, Ettersburg and Petrolia that will probably be purchased after harvest by Cartel Reps with plenty of cash…
Personally, I think that the future of pot farming in Humboldt does not include any more than specialty strains and extracts for aging dope-heads with plenty of spare cash, and jaded billionaire drug dilettantes who want to “corner the high end Humboldt Market”…
I have said it before: The farmer is getting screwed, squeezed out and marginalized, and the number of new “pot farms” being built nearly everywhere does not bode well for the industry…
IMO, the Cartels are behind the “buy all the single family dwellings for cash” deals as much as Zillow and the rest, and the inflation we are currently seeing in everything, is being caused by Venture Capitalists trying to be trillionaires by controlling large market forces for common consumer items like cars and trucks, houses and luxury goods…
Grab all you can, while you can, because everything is about to change! Especially for the “Pot Farmers” of Humboldt…
It’s like wine, and I have to ask:
How much wine and weed does the world need?
A lot, apparently…
Inflation and labor shortage was caused by vast increase of free $ by fed govt. COVID response also devastated business. More $ chasing around less product = inflation. Smart investors realized this early and bought property as inflation hedges.
Re: local small marijuana farmers, it was always inevitable that legalization would enable large commercial farmers (thru economy of scale, etc) to drive small farmers out of business.
Agree 3+
Spot on. Democrat policies ruin everything they touch and they never saw a tax increase they didn’t like.
The funny thing is that a bunch of people that never paid taxes before are now paying taxes and are like hey this is fucked up your going to tax us out of business. Well welcome to legitimate business in Ca. The most small business unfriendly state in the Union
The funnier thing is watching them try to comply with CA’s anti-harrassment laws.
Democrats are running business out of the state…
marketrealist.com › p › california-companies-leaving
Companies Are Leaving California Due to High Taxes and …
Democrats never saw a tax they didn’t like…
I would bet it’s no more than 1% of Humboldt cannabis farmers pay state excise tax. And the Distro’s the work with definitely are not. This problem far exceeds the hypothetical tax that these people aren’t even paying. You wanted a decriminalized free market and you got it. Don’t follow the group down the phony victim hole. They will take you down with their delusional thinking and step on your back to try and take their last breath.
Exactly
This is devestating when there is a buyer telling us what they pay I only wish I could walk in to a car dealer and pay what I want .. never has a pinto been same price as a Ferrari . AAA product taxed at 32 percent then a flat tax of 154 hmmm doesn’t sound like business .. there is absolutely only 3 distros taking more than 10 units wtf
Try the next buyer if you don’t like the price offered by the first, same as it’s always been
I been saying this for months… to much weed not enough buyers equal low low prices.
When an disto company is complaining about too much weed and very low prices…. It’s a huge problem coming
That song “get a job” comes to mind. Hahaha… Don’t be mad UPS is hiring
Lol good one. I own my own business, I buy personal smoke for 250 a pound. Bomb ass weed too, Def. Not mad. It’s a buyers market. I bought two zips of bomb ass indoor last nite @75 bucks each. I’m far from mad. I’m high as a mofo and I still have money for munchies.
I just traded a cord of fir firewood for a pound of beautiful OG Kush. I felt bad for my friend and gave him 2 cords of fir. We need to cap the number of legal grows…
Kick out the legal scenes and the Bums in office.
Puff on!!
Doing my best…
Nice to see this industry finally feel the pains of other legal industries… it’s funny to watch you all stress out about paying Taxes for once in your lives… thanks to many other industries and businesses, y’all had a gravy train of cash stuffed coffee cans in the hills, and now those stashes are long gone.
How does it feel to be legitimate now? How does it feel to be a real business person? How does waking up wondering if your Cash Cow is going to produce enough milk? Time for you folks to see the writing on the wall, you’re being out competed by larger out of the area Mega-Grows that are just better at the new game. Tax is a value added part of business, we’ve all dealt with for years and it’s extended to the consumer, but you guys frankly aren’t making enough on your Burgers let alone adding the tax to it all.
I’m happy to see that you guys are growing up to the reality of life in business, not driving your Denalis around like your special!!!
Cannabis producers pay significantly more taxes than most (possibly all) other industries
Your attitude is sad. Why would u want anyone to feel stressed and under pressure. You must have had a rough childhood or are unhappy about the current situation. Luckily a lot of the growers have saved a dime , myself included. It’s the same in any industry… a few are cautious and frugal and a bunch will keep the economy rolling along spending without concern. And for real dog. There were all these interesting businesses that popped up in the Greenrush. That made life interesting and tastey. Without all that activity you would be dead from boredom and rereading your bible or Dean Koontz.
Life events happen for a reason. And it provides us w experience and someplace to put our attention and people to gather and commune with. Your caught up in some weird play that needs a new director
I do feel sad about all the abandoned grows though. Trinity Pines is a ghost town now and was a real fun/ wild scene in 2010
Meh. next time vote Republican.
Trump legalized hemp his first term. He’ll probably Federally legalize weed in his second.
It’s amazing how out of touch with reality you are. There’s no way a Republican would ever legalize cannabis.
Two words: John Boehner.
Wanna bet…President Trump supports legalization of cannabis and has for years. This is not the republican party of your grandfather. Many are just conservative Libertarians…Republicans are warming to weed.
Nearly half of Republican voters support federally decriminalizing cannabis, and GOP lawmakers are now beginning to reflect their constituents’ view by increasingly supporting broad legalization at the state and federal level.
http://www.politico.com › news › 2021/11/21New GOP weed approach: Feds must ‘get out of the way’
The ESTABLISHMENT will never legalize, when the war is so profitable.
They’re all alike.
Let’s hope so…
Trump didn’t “legalize hemp”, congress did in the farm bill.
Historically Republicans have been a much worse choice of you wanted pro cannabis policy. They do seem to be coming around to it though, now that their PE buds are all in on it
People with big outdoor farms went legal thinking they were going to be able to back door the majority of their product on the black market and sell a little in a dispensary. Then the price dropped out the bottom of the black market that they sold out and they realize that nobody wants to buy anything from the club except for salt blasted LED grown crack weed. If you brought an outdoor/dep scene to the legal market, we all know what your actually doing. Go shed some more crocodile tears for us.
People will definitely buy outdoor from the clubs, the problem is that for some reason clubs thought that it should cost the same as indoor when the quality is not as good.
Yeah I agree, people will buy outdoor from the clubs. Not when it’s 30-40 and eighth though and indoor is 40-70. Most people go straight for the 40-50 dollar eighth of indoor.
And if you are anywhere in the emerald triangle nobody buys outdoor or dep from the club cause you can get it for a couple hundred a bow on the street.
Just calling people on what it is, if you permitted your big outdoor or dep scene your whole plan was to back door the majority of it on the black market while selling a little on the white to look good. Now prices are in the shitter. If you were business smart, which most growers aren’t, you would’ve said fuck the hills and built an indoor in town and permitted it. Indoor weed actually sells in clubs. Can produce way less and charge way more, don’t have to deal with the bullshit of the hill which destroys all of your equipment and vehicles eventually, and can automate the entire facility to cut down on labor costs. Meanwhile pounds are still worth thousands of dollars, not hundreds.
Like I said, go cry your crocodile tears over your “failed” business model. It’s literally a plant that people are paying hundreds of bucks for, one you can replant and grow again and again. Not hard to stay profitable, even at a couple hundred bucks a pound. People are just used to unrealistically high prices that provide massive room for error. Now that’s gone, now you actually have to be in point and make sure your expenses and yields match up. These crappy growers are just finding out the hard reality that they are just that: crappy growers.
I got you. Most people are bad at business and math, growers included.
Also indoor;
Of course you can do eco-friendly permaculture style cannabis outdoors, but it isn’t exactly a lucrative business model. And the law made it difficult for many people do to lot size restrictions.
oh really, i’m wordless at this concept on all levels
Geez, tell us you know nothing about cannabis cultivation without saying you know nothing about cannabis cultivation.
Organic, living soil, low input cultivators are the only ones making money this year. Their flower is better and their costs are lower
Lower than a $20 bag of grow more run through drip? Doubt it.
Then you also clearly don’t understand the power of living soil. For sure, the input costs of building soil from some rough clay will be higher. But for farmers that have been building soil for a while and have a living rhizosphere to plant into there is very little required for inputs.
We spent less than 4000$ to grow about 200 lbs this year. I expect our input needs will go down again and our yield will go up again next year. It is all tastier than anything grown with grow more and it will keep better in storage.
Of course it’s tastier and better but that’s the same jaded mind set that has all Humboldt farms circling the toilet. You also aren’t factoring in cost of labor to amend and take care of all that dirt, cover crop, amend, make your compost, which is my preferred method. You have to work year round turning and burning them compost piles! But people don’t care, the vast majority do not care at all, maybe you have a niche and that’s good for you, but a person is looking for bag appeal and nose, how it smokes and tastes is all post purchase.
And $4000 for 200 pounds? Dude you have not done your cost/benefit analysis. One bag of mendo producers choice makes 2500 gallons of food for 30-60 bucks. You can run it through drip. One person hitting a button on a pump. Lots of small plants, one strip that’s it. Don’t bother with a crew or spend your whole summer maintaining big full terms all year with all the organic goodness, it’s 300 bucks a pound, give the people what they want to pay for. At $4000 bucks in fertilizer the cartels and people in the know are doing at least 5-10 times as much as 200 pounds.
Also consistency is key in this age. Organic nutrients don’t provide that. Unless you sit down with a microscope and count your microbes to get an actual idea of what you are truly putting in your soil, then you are just shooting in the dark. That’s the problem with 90% of organic farms and why they grow small larfy plants, but but but it tastes good! HA!
Well for labor, it was just two of us and we don’t pay each other hourly. And yes, if I were to leverage economies of scale and invest a lot of money up front in infrastructure and labor I could definitely produce a lower quality product for cheaper. I wouldn’t be able to sell it any price though. Also, I don’t liquid feed. Just foliar. The drip just does spring water. It does make your life harder if you’re trying to liquid feed with organic nutrients.
I do agree that organic sun grown flower suffers in the market due to consumer expectations. The reality is that most consumers know nothing about cannabis and have often never even had actual good weed. Their expectations are shaped by Instagram photos of hydro grows and so their perception of quality generally relies on things that don’t actually correlate to quality of the smoke, flavor, or experience.
But, again, growing that cracked out centerfold weed isn’t accomplished by running grow more through some potting soil. Growing that stuff costs much more per unit than sun grown outdoor. The type of super cheap outdoor your referring to isn’t selling at any price. I recently bought some for the cost of trimming just so the guy could send the trimmers home. We will see if it works for the eastern markets, but out here it is only worth as much as trim.
Yeah and it will put you out of business still if you don’t adapt. You don’t think I hear what your saying? I agree that organic full sun is the best, but your cost of nutrients alone was $200 per pound, that’s not including your time and energy that you invested, as well as the cost of trimming, and if you take as much pride in your product as you say you do, you must’ve been getting it hand trimmed. Cheapest I’ve heard of people doing that for is $75 bucks. Your cost of production would be $275 a pound. I have seen many many decent looking pounds that are going for cheaper than you are producing yours for and they are turning a profit. That’s what will put people like you out of business unless you adapt and change as well. Most people have no problems knowingly giving people a lower quality product produced for cheap if that’s all the people are willing to pay for.
You did your math wrong, $4000/200 lbs = $20/lb, not 200.
And I do agree that trimming is a major cost that high end producers are going to have to figure out how to deal with. I think that shaggier trimming and some mechanical trimming is going to come into favor.
To be clear though, I don’t think high end outdoor is ever going to dominate the market. I do think that it will be an avenue for small farmers who are interested in making a decent living off of their land to do so in the legal market. I’m confident that the system we use could be refined so that our total cost of production, including labor and processing, is under 200/lb to produce a very high quality product.
I think that the farmers pursuing low cost salt nutrients are going to have to leverage economies of scale and accept lower margins per unit. They will be the dominate volume wise in the market, just like cheap industrial quality beer wine and spirits dominate. But I don’t think that model works for small farmers. And I don’t think it works for the emerald triangle, we can’t compete on the fixed costs of acquiring inputs and getting product to market.
lol, living soil, sounds weird. I heard someone say that at a bar, I chuckled. I thought to myself all soil is living if not it’s sand. Oh, kids these days, lol. Hmmm, so I’m a low input cultivator, sounds technical. I would love to see what a resume would look like for me. Might ask you for assistance you got the word smithing down.
If what you claim on this site is half true than you probably are a low input organic cultivator leveraging the many benefits of living soil.
This terminology all comes out of traditional farming where they have been dealing with issues of greenwashing and corporate piracy for several generations. USDA organic has been diluted toward meaningless for decades. Natural, regenerative, and wholistic have been seized by corporate farms to cover toxic practices.
Of course all soil is living. The unfortunate reality is that most farm land shouldn’t really be called soil anymore, it’s just dirt. Most farmers spend tens of thousands of dollars a year destroying their soil life. So the terminology “living soil” arose to help differentiate farmers who were doing the opposite. Other terms that I appreciate are “biotic farming”, “biological farming”, and “ecological farming”. But each of these is a broad term that people can interpret many ways.
Kind of like how many people interpreted your claims about pricing as if they were claims about local wholesale pricing when they were clearly small scale out of state pricing. Precision in language is important, and that’s especially true if we are hoping to convey to the global consumer why true emerald triangle cannabis is worth a premium.
Soooo, are you gonna help me with my resume or not, lol? Damn you take a long time to say I am right. It was funny to me guess you “large” scale movers don’t know humor. If ya understood business better maybe wouldn’t be so serious.
Wouldn’t think a king of hill like yourself would need a resume. With 1500$ pounds flying out your door you should be able to make it to retirement just fine
Thanks for trying to educate the ignorant on living soils. I rely on the microbiology as I am organic and use top dressing and teas. It’s true that the consumers don’t seem to give a shit and it will take years for them to understand the difference.
Like the difference between Jack Daniel’s and Glenlivvet, it takes a connoisseur to understand the value. All the true connoisseurs are growers unfortunately, but most growers aren’t even connoisseurs nowadays.
LOL! You are probably the only person in the world who claims growing indoor is more environmentally sustainable than growing sun grown cannabis. What a joke!!
Is “salt blasted LED grown Crack weed” just high THC weed or concentrate? Those THC crystals on the internet probably knock a guy to his knees
It’s exactly what I said it is. Weed grown in a soiless medium, ie. coco or rock wool, and fed salt based nutrients and pgr’s, grown under lights of your choice.
been there on many occasions and the time invested is far higher than in a soil operation…
Ya waaay too many folks in here who clearly never learned the basics of natural farming. It’s cheaper, easier, lower risk of catastrophic failure, and produces a generally better product.
Us consumers love yall. Thanks for making are days blur into one after an other with these prices. Its econ 101 pretty simple. Make it legal so every body gets A free shot. I am waiting for CA to go the way of or and make all drugs legal. Then are hole society can quit working and live in nervauna. Thank y’all again for voting to make lettuce legal. Too bad that guy doesn’t go to potus and make it legal at the federal level to. Our you going to put up with these prices driving m and p out of business. You’re followers want too know. FBM
Enjoy salt fed pgr blasted cancer weed then! Growers have no issue with the tanking prices, it’s the consumers’ health that is going to suffer long term. One day all the consumers will be asking where the good weed went and growers will just respond in our little corner of personal organic fire in our massive garden of salt fed crap.
👍going to be a lot less chronic next year and a whole Lotta shitty corporate weed on the market.
I heard Michigan blew it up this year on outs and it’s in the A league. Here in Cali people got tired of paying $50 an eighth from the dispensary so they grew their own 6 plants now they are giving the extra away to their friends. I tried to communicate with county but they hit me with a $3000 dollar bill in the mail for a conference call that lasted only an hour. When you email them they charge you 1/4 hour at $180 an hour to read it. Then if they have to talk to a higher up you get charged $180 an hour for their time. When I called county about my bill they said- “every time we touch your permit, you get charged 180 per hour.” Is this even legal, that a salaried employee can charge independent contractor wages? Talk about double and triple dipping….
Moral of the story- I can’t afford to talk to county!!
Michigan outdoor is almost universally seeded boof. There are some people doing an alright job with deps. I grew up there and have lots of friends there in the industry. It is a second tier cannabis state.
The employees aren’t charging those fees, the County is. The Planners see very little of it, making between $20-$30 an hour (they aren’t salaried). After their wages, the other $150 goes to administrative costs, building overhead, & manager salaries.
Some of you posters need to slow down and try to write a legible post. You aren’t texting your buddy, you are trying to spell out an opinion. Use proper grammar and spelling, then drop the slang, otherwise you might as well keep it to yourself.
So how do we keep prices up w 500,000 lbs hitting the market in Medford. Lol. This game is gonna be a moving target for years to come as the country begins to work out its relationship w the product. Seems as though the only game for the small players is to move product right to the retail shelves. Your not getting the $ any other way.
Band together and open some stores. Farm to “table” style. Vertical integration.
So…the people in the groups are saying that the growers should join more groups? Not sure more membership fees is the answer! If only anybody could have predicted this predicament!! BTW-just came back from a trip to the northeast. They are blowing it up back there and some of it is AAA indoor. They will not be buying your west coast hyped product for many more years, nobody cares about your terroir or nifty brand. It is over. Get real…
I got the world’s smallest violin playing over here. They had 20 plus years to make a fortune with little risk while the rest of us slaved away at our jobs . And now it’s time for these greedy lazy selfish hippies to go get a real job .
20 years to make a living with little risk. Tell that to the 900,000 POW’s per year that went to jail for a weed.
Cannabis taxes are bogus.
Maybe you should pay 75% of your billed hours in taxes.
My property pays the county $16,000 a year.
What do you pay to Humboldt County?
Taxes should be fair for all industries and they aren’t.
How much is your license per year?
Mine is $17,000 to the state and county.
Are you even close to helping our community like that?
Probably not.
Maybe stay in your Lane and support other local businesses or you won’t have many clients.
It’s not just the worlds smallest violin you are playing with!
Hey it’s cool you guys got to wash your money and all but you literally paid a few hundred grand and gave the keys to the weed market to the government so you could be “legal” for two years.
Lol , tough luck. Maybe don’t buy into what big government is selling.
You guys fucked the weed market along with the county. Small growers and mom and pops had a good thing going until your greed got in the way of your vision.
You reap what you sew
Not really. The prices were dropping steadily before legalization came along. If you could see it on a graph…it was predictable and inevitable. More and more people jumping into the game. Supply and demand, as it always has, determines the market. Now we have a buyer’s market. They can name their price and choose only the best. No mystery.
Taxes on growers should be based on a percentage of actual sales, not some arbitrary, usury upfront fees.
Growers made the mistake of thinking that growing good pot was rocket science and that they were doing something that required a level of expertise that no one else could attain. In fact, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time, historically.
People were getting 1700 a pound last year for ice cream cake.
Astute observation about just being in the right place at the right time. That happens in many industries around the world.
Absolutely. I’ve said this a few times before about the black SUVs pulling up to gather the tax money at the dispensaries it’s not a joke. Everybody thinks they can be a cannabis farmer, yet, anymore it takes a strong backbone, wicked, sharp teeth and well rounded shoulders for everything to roll of of and a fat ass cash stash for the LAWYERS! Add that in around 10% of the gross might hit the permit owners hands
Kind of odd that I dont recognize any of these people. I grew up here. Went to school here. Worked in town, and out of town. Own a business here that has catered to many of the farms here. But, still dont recognize names or pictures. I’m on a board of a non profit, and do multiple youth projects in our community. Still I dont recognize anybody. Maybe we have the wrong faces representing our counties future. Why would I and others like me join the team?
Really, why are these people the ones representing the (growers of SoHum/and SoHum residents).Did they grow up here? Do they represent the true feelings of those who have lived here for decades? Odds are, probably not.
You don’t know Chris Anderson? Natalynne Delapp? Leann Greene? Those are pretty well-known locals.
He’s got a point, Kym.
I’ve lived here almost 50 years.
I know of Chris Anderson.
My wife’s lived here almost 60.
Same thing, she knows only of Chris.
Off the top of my head so don’t hold me to it, while Natalynne wasn’t born here, I believe she went to high school in Humboldt. She certainly went to HSU. So she’s been here at least 20 years and she’s been involved in the forefront of the marijuana community since 2015 for sure. Probably earlier. She came to our community and spoke about issues involved over the course of multiple years. Leanne has worked at the Farmers Market and the Chamber of Commerce in Garberville for at least the last five years.
‘Forefront of the marijuana community since 2015 for sure”?
Which marijuana community would that be?
I’m not sure that would be the forefront…
More like the beginning of the end.
Sounds like followers, not leaders.
It’s the tail end lately.
And the tail is wagging the dog
The end for sure.
Natalynne is a parasite
I’ve never heard of any of these people.
That’s usually a good sign. Ha
You grew up here and never heard of Chris Anderson?
Andersonia sure. Perhaps he is one of the Anderson kids..
Hard to imagine, that’s comparative to Barnum being the head of Sanctuary Forest..
Hope you old timers get a laugh.
Wait until banking reform passes ..EXTREMELY high Interest Rates and no bank loans are actually helping holding the market from going bupkis. FYI : Trulieve has the industry leading rate of 8% on a 300,000,000 +million loan.
You’ve never done cocaine with Chris Anderson? You must not be local.
Lol, niiiiiiccceeeeee !!!!
Lmao! Or smoked ready rock with him?
Don’t be harsh. 1996 is the line for the industry. “Them” still doin what they been doin, lol. Quietly, year after year. I gotta say I am liking the cleansing. Get back to growing a dank ass plant. It never mattered really how long you was here prior to 96 or where ya came from. Anyone who could grow proper was welcomed. A few years on a hill ain’t for the timid or weak. Anyone who lives out here knows that.
Its true
Even if tax reform is accomplished it benefits everyone in the industry equally. How can this possibly benefit a community of criminals with 5th grade educations over Ivy League MBA’s that are already eating their lunch?
What I see in most of the messaging is an entitled elitist attitude around “heritage” and other baseless ego points that have nothing to due with someone’s ability to develop, operate and scale a successful company.
Again, maybe 1% of Humboldt farmers are actually running a legitimate company in the first place. They have no idea how any of this works. They’re scared because the illegal market is crashing and will continue to crash and they have no idea what to do with a 5th grade education.
They’re all gathered around looking lost for answers from their peers who aren’t qualified to give any answers nor have the abilities to formulate a viable solution.
Best of luck with your identity politics and socialistic better than tho ideologies.
There’s always the welfare system to fall back on.
Wow, impressively lucid.
Hi, those Ivy League dudes. Well they are only good at stealing grandma and grandpa’s retirement. As far as the weed industry the Traditional Market is 70 to 75%. Not bad for “criminals with a 5th grade education, IMO.”
Wow Janice, [edit] Stereotype much ? I feel like you may need to have yourself a lil smoke of product from us backwards, ill bred, uneducated farmers 😂 😂 😂
It was stupid for state regulators to set the tax on quantity of product instead of value. A per dollar tax would allow farmers to survive the inevitable ups and downs of the market and stay legal. The per pound tax only encourages the black market. When the tax rate was set, the pound price was what? $1500, maybe even a little more. Now it’s half that, or worse, but legal farmers still have to pay the same tax amount with only half the gross revenue, with expenses still the same. It was a stupid choice.
True seems like a percentage of revenue collected would be a no brainer for a product that always has such a flexible price range.
Thats Cali for you. Taxing people to death and morons to boot.
Do legislators and regulators ever do anything smart these days?
It’s working just as intended. Destroy the smaller outfits then buy out the larger outfits for pennies on the dollar. That was always the intention of the corporate masters running the show based on the Napster dude “legalization” scheme. Watching the unelected state board of regulators throw out the 1 acre limit immediately- by that point is should have been obvious to anybody with a lick of sense of history and business. It’s all been an inevitable shitshow and well…now, here we are. Thanks, everybody!
Farce – Thanks for reliably and concisely stating this. It is the truth.
The greenrush brought down prices, so everyone grew more (and worked longer hours) to maintain their income level. Growing more increased supply in proportion to demand, so prices fell further. Then prop 64 passed and as you noted, it was designed intentionally. (Would you rather try to regulate 50,000 micro farms run mostly by long-time outlaws or a few mega farms?) Anyone who was paying attention and knowledgeable saw this coming.
It’s so obviously over… what would actually be helpful now, for all us small fish losing our shirts, would be some way to withdraw from the permit “process” with some last shred of dignity.
For example, my understanding is that if you quit the humboldt counties’ little pay to play scheme that you will be required to remove all potting soil, since the perlite is considered toxic! Which it is not…I have a bad feeling that getting out will be even more of a nightmare than getting in.
The only winners will be consultants and engineers who will continue to drain us to the last drop… then they too will fade.
I would support just about anything that let permit applicants who realize they can’t make it off the hook, but I will be very surprised if they get it. They are caught in a regulatory glue trap.
Why not sell your operation?
To who? There’s not a lot of interest in permitted farms in rural Humboldt
Soon the Feds will legalize it and the tobacco companies will put the dispensaries out of business by selling it on store shelves like liquor. The reservations selling it cheaper without the high taxes?
Just my guess.
‘we want to bring Big Ag to cannabis’-Steve DeAngelo (Harborside)
So none of them mentioned implementing a cap on farm size, interesting?
I have an idea, why don’t you all go f*** yourselves.
Greedy mega growers and carpetbaggers didn’t say a peep when the cap on farm size was removed, screwing all the small people. And you didn’t say anything when minimum lot sizes were implemented for people who wanted to grow their six plans.
“And you didn’t say anything when minimum lot sizes were implemented for people who wanted to grow their six plans.”
Yep. That’s how it all started. That’s when it was obvious what was going to happen. Very few complained about that at the time. Then it became everyone else’s turn. No stopping it now.
I don’t grow weed, I just smoke it. I do produce a commercial crop of citrus and two avocado crops down here in SoCal each year, conditions permitting.
I’m only taxed on my income, at the same rate the rest of my income is taxed. I didn’t have to apply for any permits or ask permission from anyone to grow avocados and oranges. The closest thing I’ve had to a site inspection is when sometimes El Jefe from the packing house pays me a visit (I suspect he just comes by for a pint of my homebrew, though)
I suggest y’all simply grow a different crop. A good farmer should be able to produce more than one type of crop. If the State and the Counties want to kill the goose that lays golden eggs for them, let THEM shoot themselves in the foot – you go and do what you’re good at, and choose to produce a crop that doesn’t overwhelm you with all that non-agricultural nonsense that you can’t handle. (I couldn’t handle it, either, I’m just a farmer)
Great advice. We are growers though not farmers. Weed is a bit different cause growing is just one piece to the weed pie. Most of the bitching is from those trying to cut corners in the production of the product. The reality is you cannot. You must perfect each step. Growing, dry/curing, storing trimmed properly, storing and nowadays presented well. (Yes, I said storing twice on purpose, knuckleheads!)
So what happened is a failure in curing and trying to cut costs trimming. Both issues started during medical legalization. Both issues affect the customers experience. Those who do cure and trim properly are not on here bitching. More importantly it caused the area to lose some of this knowledge and experience. We are going through the have’s and have not phase in this industries growth period. The under 10k legals are definately in a nasty situation. Grow dank sticky stanky weed properly and you will be fine.
//”Grow dank sticky stanky weed properly and you will be fine.”//
Add to that – ‘with a careful eye towards controlling production costs’, and you’ve nailed it.
Agreed. Especially if ya gotta pay taxes, lol.
One key note is that legal grows are extremely regulated as to what products can be used in your soil and on the plants ! If you don’t test clean, it’s a negative for resale on the legal market. It’s quite a bit easier to control pm, bud rot, mites ect. When you have numerous choices. Makes it easier to produce AAA .
I will just say true traditional market growers don’t need pesticides. If you are legal and don’t test your soil, water and weed well that is on the farm that fails. You should be disgraced if you fail testing I mean anything detected. The industry should have a zero tolerance for even a .001 detection on any pesticide. Unbelievable to give a customer a product laced, never in my life.
Thanks for that comment.
Just like every product that’s been put on that corporate track, the people who do the work are systematically squeezed to produce more profit for the middlemen. At some point the quality is going to suffer, and you know inner workings of the wine industry, it’s brutal to the independent producers.
Everything is geared towards squeezing labor, then the market is transferred just far enough away to deliver it like fresh cut flowers from Colombia…it’s hard to compete with cheap industrial labor machines.
Well comrade weed is not your typical product. So when I say the traditional market is not gonna go away in my life time I have good reason. Weed don’t fit the corporate model and it’s why the traditional market after 5 years still dominates not just the country but every state that legalized as well. I know, I watched 5 boxes get loaded up for florida that should of been taxed. They got triple duty free dollars by skipping corporate dominated distributors and retail outlets. Now that is capitalism at its finest and the best way to stick it to the man and the corporate overlords.
The question is how that will play out following national decrim/legalization. Right now most states, includingCali, are not allowing sufficient retail to meet demand. That could change if it is federally legal. At that point I’m not so sure that commercial scale traditional farms will dominate. But perhaps, especially if the regulated market continues to deliver sub par products.
One thing I’ve gathered from talking to people is that the regulated products get absolutely brutalized in terms of handling once they leave the farm. I’ve heard reports of folks packing up great flower to send out to distro only to find its then stored in an uncontrolled climate in a warehouse for weeks. A friend recently told me (in september) that all the flower at a dispensary he visited was packed in March. That’s an area where the traditional market still absolutely dominates. We’ll have flower in the hands of the retail sellers across the country within a month of final dry every time
Wild to think about though. Like, will I be able to go to the airport and ship it like an emergency part and have X pick it up, Same day delivery, lol. If the state is not legal like nebraska does that mean I can’t get off the highway til I am in Missouri. Oh man, I got a ton of questions. Talk about saving the postal service in this country. I’d imagine all the UPS/FedEx drop off sites would increase 10 fold. We’d get our first national trucking company to locate here.
Anyways, the feds will fuck it up some how and the war will rage. Dreams are nice though.
No doubt the feds will continue to try to fuck it up.
The realitythough, is that you can get beer and wine shipped direct to many residences in dry counties. I’m not aware of any legal spirits shipping.Regardless, you cannot be barred from possessing alcohol on these dry counties either. I do believe that is where cannabis is headed as well. Hemp is doing the legwork for us, normalizing fields of the stuff, normalizing cannabis for sale in gas stations all over the country. Hell, I’ve seen a sandwich board advertising “$2 CBD dabs!” on the sidewalk in a medium sized mid western city. This shit is coming.
The question is whether our community will be able to maintain our rightful claim to the throne as premier producers of all natural cannabis. Out supervisors and our cultural choices have not made that inevitable, unfortunately
Wow these comments are unreal.
Let’s raise the permit fees for all industries. Let’s see I pay $10,000 per year to the county for the right to do business.
How about we make all business get a county permit at the same rate.
Handyman = what do you pay to be licensed?
Gas stations shouldn’t they pay $10,000 a year to be able to open in Humboldt
Retail stores are they paying $10,000 per year for the right to open up for business?
Who else. Let’s tax every business the same.
Or do you people just hate cannabis?
Why is cannabis a demon?
All in all cannabis farms pay $20,000 in permit fees (small outdoor)
And on top of that they also pay a tax on the production of their goods.
If I sell a pound of weed for $300
The tax rate is close to 54%
If I pay a handyman $200 to fix a water heater their tax rate should be $108 plus don’t forget to pay your annual license fee of $10k
How does that sound?
lol, This is what happens when you sign a treaty with the US Government. Be thankful they didn’t give you blankets with smallpox. It’s called the war on drugs for a reason. You get to stand in a field of weed safely for 10k, take your win. Many before you never had the opportunity to have even that experience.
Blankets of Covid?
The opportunity is still huge for all small farmers if they play the game right.
Corporate America will dominate the shwag market just like Budweiser but we all know bud is wiser and the small batch farmer will have his time.
It may take another 2-3 years but don’t give up.
Reduce cost to a minimum and stay in the game.
Humboldt will prevail on the national level
Making a deal with the devil was unavoidable. We had to get in bed with the government 900,000
Pow’s per year for weed was unacceptable.
I agree. I am gonna make sure they stay in the game. Well, those that were prior to ’96. After ’96 show me some skillz first but my priority is to support those elders. I fault no 10k and under for goin legal but don’t compromise our plant in selling your soul just to stand in a field. Being legal means you should grow a better plant than me. As we speak I am trimming up my fat nugz and they are sticky stanky yummy triangle dankness. Your competeting with me and I would be very happy if I was the low bar but I am not.
My stuff would go to to toe with yours.
We assume the other guy doesn’t know what there doing because the only thing in legal stores is shwag.
Retail is a monopoly right now.
Open up 5,000 stores and give Humboltians a chance.
Unfortunately retail right now is owned by corporate America.
Five year permitting process killed mom and pop shops.
How could we afford to pay rent while the county and state took their sweet ass time.
Public records from Humboldt show new cultivation sites were approved in less than a year.
Pre-existing sites are still getting approved.
It took me five years for 10k SQ ft
I saw 18 greenhouses built on hwy 36 prior to them opening my application.
If only the food industry could be put through the chemical testing so it was safe.
Or if the mass industrial meat and dairy outfits were regulated for “run off” or water contamination.
As it stands now in California there is no waterboard Or CDFW oversize for dairy or meat cattle; they are allotted 300 gallons of water a day per cow diversion -year round – and can graze/run /relieve themselves in active waterways.
Let’s see $70-100 for decent 1/8 at a dispensary and u get maybe 6 tiny joints from an eighth then a few days later u have to come up with another $70-100 for another eighth of six tiny joints then again a few days after that and so on and so on. I don’t feel too bad now u know what it’s like for a poor person that smokes weed and must get ripped off every few days in order to do so. All them nice things u have ripping people off at $70-100 a pop no I don’t feel too bad
Maybe buy local outdoor.
Farmers are getting $2.34 per 1/8th
Then ur left with the option of buying a $100 oz of basically lawn grass that just tastes bad, does not get u high, and leaves u pissed that u spent ur only $100 on dirt weed. At least at $70-100 per eighth u might actually get high. I’ve tossed so many $100 oz’s out after purchase cuz they’re just a waste on ur lungs and do absolutely nothing. Not even worth smoking and another $100 in the hole. How about good weed at a decent price oh wait then growers can pay cash for 10 pairs of Uggs!!
“Can’t pay cash”
Stop buying corporate weed.
Ask for a local farm.
Humboltians don’t grow shwag
Grow something worth buying then
That’s a slippery slope….just look at what passes for government.
Quit your bullshit. Contradicting everything you typed. You got no friends in Humboldt. None that grow good weed. You don’t know any growers in the area who grow the dankness. If not, look within. Pretty simple way to figure out if your a part of the community or not. If ya gotta buy zucchini you are not. If that is the case I suggest engaging with the community. Go get you some zucchini like every other community member.
I do. It’s just nearly impossible to get it into a shop.
Local Government throughout California has banner shops in 75% of the cities.
We only have 838 retail stores.
Look into Humboldt Premium and research the farms they offer.
Maybe if you look who owns what they buy you would ask for something else.
I don’t want weed from the supervisors farm. I would prefer a veteran to the hills. Research is key when supporting a product.
Sorry I can’t get a store to carry my brand but I am working hard to change that.
Sorry we can’t form a farmers market and cut 50% of red tape cost.
Us farmers are lucky to get $3 an 1/8 if the Distributor wants to move our product.
Sadly, most Humboldtians now do grow swag. Mids are the norm in the triangle -pride in product is not. This is why the mid’s market is being hit so hard… Mids can be grown anywhere.
Maybe those big corporate farms that got approved.
Anything over 10,000k can’t be produced organically.
Funny thing is I looked into organic certification and it cost $8,000 per year and more depending on sales.
So ask this. How come we don’t charge those who use chemicals on their plants to get certified that they use toxins but low enough for safe consumption?
Instead they want to charge is who grow clean.
I know many many Humboldt farms growing organic.
No. Not talking big approved farms. Most traditional market cannabis now coming out of the Triangle is mids. Good cannabis is hard to grow and hard to find. Hats off to the traditional Emerald growers who have perfected their craft, but that’s not the norm anymore.
You can definitely grow over 10k Sq ft organic. Drying and curing do become a challenge.
Unfortunately JayBeigh is right and most local producers are just focused on putting out shwag for as cheap as possible and preferring to spend their budget on marketing their royal gold and mills terroir.
Lotsa boof pax coming out of the triangle these days
100% correct
Any size farm can still be organic.
Drying and curing gets harder and harder with a big size grow.
I meant to say. A local can manage and handle a 10k grow by themselves.
They can touch and handle everything on that size. Once you go bigger you need employees.
Employees don’t grow AAA weed.
Owners grow AAA. Workers grow mids at best because it isn’t theirs
I totally agree
Beating a dead horse won’t help.. Weed game of old is done.. Prepare accordingly or suffer consequences.
Prohibition prices are NEVER EVER coming back.
K,
Please stop censoring, its fascist!
Please understand that there are rules and comments that don’t follow the rules will get deleted. However, you have not been deleted. You are commenting with a new email/ip so my commenting software holds you to ensure that you aren’t spam. Your comment is now up.
And be careful! If you cross any of Kym’s shifting lines, no warning! And henceforth -and indefinitely- you will molder “awaiting moderation” long after the discussion winds down. Fun times!!
Come on people wake up. The price for weed was going to tank. Why because its a weed.. Meaning its easy to grow. Sure you can spend more for higher quality but the bottom line is, its supply and demand. If supply outstrips demand the prices will tank. That is exactly what happened and will continue to happen. Weed is cheap and easy to grow.
The other issue is how they did taxes in your state. Its a crap model it should be based on the dollar value you sell not a base price per gram/pound etc. That is just garbage and the people who came up with that are morons. It needs to be fixed. If you think prices are going to go back up think again. Lots of people are in the market and can produce the weed cheap. Prices will go lower expect them to level out around 20 dollars an 8th give or take based on quality. While there is a healthy demand for it, there is still a finite amount of demand and the production has outpaced the demand significantly in some places.
The definition of a weed is a plant that is unwanted , usually in a garden but ok
Your theory sounds great. That’s 2560 for an lb. Growers should be able to see revenue north of 1000, or they will continue to fail. No farms, no product, no distribution, no dispensaries!
At the current model distribution and dispensaries are getting product for 500 marked up to 800 then charging 7- 10 a gram. The math is 3178- 4540 after sale at the dispensary.
So the question remains where is the concentration of greed. I think you should be able to answer that now.
good weed is def not easy to grow
Why didn’t California limit the number of legal grows like other states have, to help with the issues of over production?
Why didn’t California limit the number of legal grow like other states have, to help with the issues of over production?
The market will sort it out, and the efficient producers in all segments will thrive.
We don’t limit the number of grocery and hardware stores. We don’t limit the number of tomato growers. Competition saves the consumer from supporting inefficient operations.
Problem is they did limit the retail stores in almost every city it’s allowed.
I agree with everything you said.
Competition is great for the consumer
Santa Monica home 900k people and a few million tourist per year has 2 retail stores
A bunch more talk from HCGA but no actual action. More of the same. Natalynne is really full of it
Hi Ally, were you there yesterday? No. If you’re interested in the actions of HCGA, you can check out our website https://hcga.co/advocacy-state/ and here is last year’s policy strategic plan, https://hcga.co/2021-hcga-policy-strategic-plan/. This is the time of the year when our membership and policy committee formalizes its strategic plan for the coming year. At this time, the state legislature is NOT in session and will not return until January 3, 2022.
It’s nice that y’all finally put the board on the website instead of keeping it secret, but I don’t see much of value that you’ve been doing. Natalynne, I got no respect for you. Your pay to play approach to cannabis advocacy on a local level works against the community as a whole, and your disregard for the Wiyot tribe with that wind turbine debacle was disgraceful.
Ally, our board of directors has always been visible. Every annual report is posted to our website going back to 2017 along with all our financials. I’m not sure how you think lobbyists and full-time professional staff are paid, with karma?
So Ally, are you in support of the Wiyot’s coal train? If you’re not, there’s a word for that, it’s called hypocrite.
Thanks for twisting my words and making assumptions about what I believe. Great stuff; very typical of your argument style. And the HCGA board was secret and not on the website for a longtime, so that’s a straight lie. I disagree with your shady tactics and the community is worse for having you in it.
And way to keep spreading misinformation about local tribes, Natalynne. You’re starting to sound racist on top of everything else https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2021/sep/29/coal-does-not-align-our-values-wiyot-tribe-executi/
Ally, our Board of Directors has always been published on our website. As noted they’re also published in every one of our annual reports, which are also listed on our website. Our original board members were Cody Stross, Jessi Bergsma Rockenbach, and Nathan Whittington. It grew to include Scott Davies, Patrick Kanzler, and Scott Vasterling. Since 2017, that entire BOD has transitioned off, new board members have come on, including Kaylie Saxon, Aaron Lieberman, Stacia Eliason, and David Dickinson and we are once again holding open board nominations. Our board is comprised of our membership and board members serve three-year terms. Transparency, access, and democratic process are our values. If you have a problem with our work, you’re welcome to reach out directly and let us know what we are or are not doing for our community.
I wonder how much of the price drop is from the continued preponderance of black market growing in the Triangle? I’ve seen various numbers that only between 10-25% of known grows were permitted last year.
Seems like the permitted growers and their suppliers and buyers need to step up their game in calling out (i.e. reporting) black market grows to reduce the overall supply. Simple tweaks could help such as requiring showing a valid permit to buy the bulk supplies needed to grow.
You worked for the permits and paid for them, so put them to use where it might help make it a lot more expensive for black market growers (e.g. by forcing them to buy supplies out of state and shipping it in).
I can’t imagine this working to be honest, because of the long history of winks and nods towards the black market cannabis in this area.
By the way, you aren’t the only local industry that has expensive permitting requirements. You should see what it takes to complete a Timber Harvest Plan.
I see, so your solution is snitching and narking. It might work only if the state had a central location for the narks and snitches to call, like a tip line maybe. You should suggest satelitte photos and helicopters as well. The pigs can save some money by ride sharing with PGE and bust’in those environmentally disastrous owl killing illicit grows that are draining our rivers dry. I am all for it we will have this industry under control in a few days if not hours.
Yes or to mine aggregates
One minor point though….the drought is caused and maintained by DEFORESTATION… this is global not just here. Almost everywhere it used to rain regularly 75 yrs ago in forested places like here, SE Asia, Amazon basin, Congo basin, have been logged into clear-cut disaster zones and it Doesn’t Rain Regularly Anymore in any of these places. And yes it’s science that figured out it doesn’t Rain on deserts mostly because there’s No Vegetation.
So yes a DEFORESTATION plan in this day and age is insane. But not everyone thinks so. The compromise is regulate it sufficiently.
The OG pot growers are not causing the rivers to dry up. They’re just using the river water (like 40 mil other Californians) that DEFORESTATION has caused to be in short supply. Without environmental science we would have never learned that.
Just remember that there’s a difference between deforestation and timber harvesting. Deforestation is the conversion of forests into some other use like agriculture or development. Timber harvesting as practiced according to the Forest Practice rules requires maintaining tree cover on the site — with the exception of the 3-acre conversion permits for building a house.
Deforestation is bad and it needs to be stopped everywhere. But timber harvesting in sustainable forestry isn’t the same thing as deforestation, even with clearcuts.
Tim you have a valid point. The problem is that timber harvesting creates a landscape where the harvesters in accordance with the law are able to destroy everything and start over. Where you once had large stands of old growth timber you now have a Christmas tree lot which takes 100 years or better to get back to the original stand. These stands are riddled with problems, erosion, infestation, chemicals to defeat unwanted species, degradation of animal habitat and a litany of other problems. These so called sustainable stands are usually cut again before they are considered old growth. I used to work for the forest service and saw first hand the rape and pillage mindset they used on their timber sales.
It would seem, misery does love company. Its a good match, pairing the SoHum Park with broke ass growers bitch’n about the price of weed. For years, Southern Humboldt has been known as a very low-income disadvantaged community in Humboldt County and does not exceed 50 percent of the median family income across the state. So its nice to know the cannabis industry is catching up to this reality…
“The “offensive” cultivation tax increase”
All taxes are offensive because they are all targeting our ability to cultivate family, and a respectable life.
Taxes are weapons, which are best used strategically to fund necessary, minimal government.
Growing the government as a JOBS PROJECT, is done at our expense, on our backs, and to the extent the government thinks it doesn’t need to engage in fiscal responsibility, we must not allow the government to send our money overseas while our citizens suffer.
Maybe y’all distracted because of these Pandemic brush fires that take all the oxygen out of an economic discussion.
Many people can see the crisis of a government that is unaccountable to its citizens.
Got FBI itchy fingers?
Root4America,
I was thinking about you today on my drive to Eureka as I was listening to a podcast. Or, to be more precise, I was thinking about you as the character that I have made up in my head, “Root4America” because I don’t know you, or at least I think I don’t (?).
Anyway, I don’t know if you are into podcasts or crypto, but if you are you should check out the What is Money? show with Robert Breedlove.
It has blown my mind on so many occasions. And while he is a HUGE Bitcoin proponent, his podcast really gets into the philosophy of money and ties it to our current day problems. But he goes all over the place in his various series and it has pushed me to the edges in some places, shifting my thinking.
It is obvious to most that many of our social problems (if not all?) are tied to money/economics. When I first heard Robert Breedlove on another podcast he was talking about the social decline that has occurred since we switched from the gold standard to fiat currency in 1971. Check out what has happened since then: https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
You may already be aware of his work, but putting it out there for others who may be interested. Because I know there are a lot of people struggling financially in our community, and I think the conversations Breedlove is having on this podcast are so incredibly important for people to be thinking about. REGARDLESS of your political orientation. But I’d say you’d have to be into (and understand) some principles of economics, philosophy, psychology, and history to find interest in this podcast.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-what-is-money-show/id1541404400
https://substack.com/profile/1629894-robert-breedlove
I will absolutely check it out, Shelby, thank you!
This is one of my favorite interviews about the system that we can’t see.
https://youtu.be/YUYCBfmIcHM
(Let me know if you find the connection to modern education)
One of my favorite eductors. I’ve listen hours of this guy, in different ways over the years , and I’ll send you a clip from the tragedy and hope interview.
https://youtu.be/96tEE8XoC0c
You can also visit altruits.org and download hours of his lectures
https://www.unwelcomeguests.net/The_Underground_History_of_American_Education
Thanks for these links. I watched the Norman Dodd interview from 1982–wow.
“(Let me know if you find the connection to modern education)”
Well, it was already pretty clear to me that many of these tax-exempt “foundations” are just ways to launder money and look good while doing it.
I mean, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Carnegie Foundation both claim to be massively invested in supporting public education. But this is SUCH A FARCE. These people have so much power and money and if they truly cared about education they have the lobbying power AND the money to create change.
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/our-work/programs/us-program/k-12-education
https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/our-work/ilead/
It’s interesting that the Gates claim to have a vestment in supporting the education of black and Latino students yet those populations continue to struggle the most and continue to have the least access to solid public education. Segregation continues to this day in schools, for complicated reasons.
The picture on their site shows students of color in Chicago smiling, claiming that these students “need safe nurturing, learning environments where they are equipped to meet high standards.” I have a good friend in Chicago whose daughter is in the public schools. She claims the schools are in the worse shape they have ever been. I’ve read numerous articles that support what she has shared with me.
Things that make you go hmmm…..
I have followed some of John Taylor Gatto’s work but have not read The Underground History of American Education. I will check it out. One thing that is coming to mind is a paper I wrote while working on my MA in Education. I started digging into the pledge of allegiance and the history behind that. How the original pledge was not a hand over your heart, rather, it was the hail Hitler salute, which Hitler co-opted from the US. The US had to drop that salute because of the Nazi association. Such fascinating history that few know about. https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/school-children-pledging-their-allegiance-flag-southington-connecticut
I am NOT OKAY with the movement we are seeing that more or less is aimed at “erasing history” in the name of social justice. I think this is a grave mistake. We understand the world around us through history–our personal and collective history both help us to understand and situate our experiences in this world.
Also, what is altruits.org? I can’t find this site.
It’s a site that hosts lectures in mp3 form. I found they are upgrading their site after I posted it. I was able to download lectures, free, just a few years ago.
Shoots, apologies, its
https://altruists.org
Are you even American? WTF are you talking about go learn some US history! Americans have been paying a tax on earnings since the civil war. FFS, gain some knowledge before you play in this sandbox. This is a different rural community commie your spew has no effect in these mountains. Might work in West Virginia but won’t work here.
You are the same guy talking about the number of covid deaths?
Taxation without representation is my main concern, and why should we be sending billions of dollars to other countries?
Probably a sign of priorities at the top.
From the other farmers sounding off on this story, it sounds like there’s unequal unprotection under the law. ..
Once an outlaw, always an outlaw, stay on your backcountry road and your mountain retreat, why should you bitch about unresponsible spending?
It matters.
I am pointing out inaccuracies in your spewage, comrade. You ain’t from here are you?
Income tax started in 1913. And it was not very commonly applied until after the great depression
Oh geez, no wonder we fail nowadays. You are referring to the 16th Amendment that is not the beginning of the feds taking earnings from citizens to fund, war, bridges, education, roads and railways.
During the colonial era and through the Civil War it was mostly corporate taxes and bonds that funded infrastructure. Regular people engaged in typical local commerce faced little to no taxation.
The North deduct earnings to support the war and raised 30 million dollars. Ya never know it might be a jeopardy question. After the war they began to use the funds for roads and reconstruction. Kept using excuses like needing the deduction for railroad lines, bridges, roads. public schools, colleges and the military until passing the 16th Amendment in 1913. Making the temporary deductions taken since the civil war permanent.
Thought I’d finish for ya to make sure we understand root4america’s narrative surrounding the meme is incorrect.
Trimmers takin over. They walk around the scenes now like they the boss… cause they are the only ones making a living!
What trimmers?
These trimmers.
Wasn’t there a county program that gave cash assistance to growers who were having difficulty staying financially afloat? Basically giving money to make up for the high fees and taxes the government put on the growers. Closed loop economics, perfect government policy.
Also being charged for seeking assistance via phone or email? Paying a government agency, for service by a salaried government employee? Kind of like me writing a check to the postal carrier when they deliver my mail.
// “Kind of like me writing a check to the postal carrier when they deliver my mail.”//
Yes, some private party did exactly that – you if you’re sending.
“Tiffany Smith, Project Trellis Committee Member, who said the community needs to be speaking up to the local government at the Board of Supervisor Meetings. “Speak out! “
oh for fuck sakes, Tiffany Smith is Michelle Bushnells long time grunt worker on Bushnells 50,000 sq.ft mega grow in Kimtu Garberville . Bushnell set Tiffany smith up on paper for “chronic creek “(where the grisly killing took place a few years ago. ) but it’s one of many mega grows that belong to bushnell. Now bushnell appointed her grunt worker to the project trellis committee to get some $$$ for herself and “friends” This is about , what, the umpteenth example of a corrupt conflict of interest from bushnell as “supervisor”. plus there is no water on bushnells chronic creek grow, and her grow is outside of the Garberville Sanitary district water district, but that hasn’t stopped bushnell from trying to pressure the district to give her the water anyway. What a self serving dishonest corrupt pos.
Woah! Keep up the transparency please!
Oh please that is just one dead body. Dude killed 2 people off of titlow cause he is racists and didn’t wanna pay them. Both shot in the back but it was determined it was self defense. Shouldn’t be any surprise round here how justice works. Couldn’t even prosecute the cornerer with overwhelming evidence.
When did that happen, Legal? I can’t remember a story that fit that situation.
Long time ago. The details weren’t reported the way I describe it wouldn’t of been self defense. The last witness died this year. Funny, I am a firm believer in justice and it will prevail yet we are considered outlaws.
Sounds like a horrific story. I would be interested in looking into it…(If I could squeeze the time–My hunger for answers surpasses my speed at writing stories)
I’d like to know more about the homicides in Blue Lake recently.
Me, too.
Sounds like he’s referring to this all to familiar, familial, horror story In kneeland /titlow. https://www.courthousenews.com/heartless-murderer-gets-life-plus-35-years/amp/
While Tony Serra’s defense was utterly lame the evidence was overwhelming. Word in private conversation was a weak “self “defense “argument, though there was all but no mention of that in the trial.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/calif-pot-grower-life-prison-murdering-migrant-article-1.2247176?outputType=amp
Yes that’s the one Mikal Wilde. By the way the incident occurred by Jack shaw 20 miles from titlow as the crow flies.
Was that the two central American guys that got shot?
That would be similar to the story I know.
Wasn’t that in maple Creek? Off mtn view road at the end by Jack shaw. Two Latinos were shot because they wanted their paycheck. Turns out they were buried on the property and later found by HCSO. The owner was convinced and jailed. He supposedly killed himself while incarcerated.
Have you heard or seen the latest waterline piping project that has been submitted to the County, which plans to pipe water from the Lost Coast Elixirs grow (APN 222-092-003) up on Old Briceland Road down to Jeffries water bag farm and grow operation (APN 223-061-011), that is next to the proposed new Studebaker grow and existing bulk soils operation on Sprowel Creek Road (APN 222-241-006). If you check out this water piping below, who owns those properties they plan to run all that piping? And it makes you wonder if that piping is already in place:
Suck it up like the rest of true agriculture businesses do. You people drove the timber and cattle industries off the land by paying high prices for land to grow on. Then you dam up streams pollute the streams carve up the hills to make room for your green houses. You are terrible stewards of the land. your industry has brought crime to once peaceful hills. your ugly green houses and grows have ruined the views from the mountains. I hope you all go broke. Suck it up and act like real business owners.
All the old time folks tell an opposite story to yours. I’ve heard time and again that they moved to the hills because they could get land super cheap after the timber companies had their way with it
This (the story & comments) is why I’m pretty much just about homegrowing my six plants & gifting weed to all my friends
Change is hard.
JB
lol, change, no brother we ain’t changing. Getting back to our roots would be more appropriate. The cleanse will be tough for some but those who ain’t complaining are doing fine. 2022 is an important year those loans come to term, lol. I am sensing many mergers using toilet paper transactions with wall street funny money. Who played who my friend. Attrition in this industry has always been high plus we illicits kill two birds with one stone. We illicits were hoping the corporates would help provide us a better marketing strategy. They couldn’t even accomplish that simple task.
May 2022 is important it’s gonna tell us a lot how we executed our strategy. So far all goals have been attained.
YOU are not the industry LL. Only one willfully blind loudly proclaims there is no change.
The industry is changing dramatically, right before our eyes.
JB
Who’s eyes JB cause in front of the customer it’s not. Changing dramatically for me was the late 90s. Let’s word it correctly from my vantage point which is what I have seen year in and year out. I see that dude who’s gonna make 5 million bucks grow’in weed is how I view legalization and that’s all it is. There’s no change other than the dude learn’in it ain’t all rainbows and unicorns. I am not the industry I just know my industry very well. I also am not the only one who grows dank ass weed and a shit ton of it. This industry has been running long before you and I and if you think for one second it’s not highly organized and efficient then that would be foolish.
It’s definitely changing for the consumer as well. Street level prices are as low as they’ve ever been in every market that I am familiar with.
Dispensaries are a different story perhaps, but I don’t have any first hand knowledge of that.
In the traditional market, consumers around the country have access to more, better, and cheaper bud than they ever had before. In addition tothat, they have easy access to cannabis media that allows to become (or have the illusion of becoming) more informed consumers and thus make more informed requests of their suppliers.
Places that historically embraced any flower sent their way are starting to demand certain strains. Expectations around appearance and potency have changed dramatically. Production has exploded in regions of the country that historically did not produce any local product. All of these things are dramatically reshaping the nationwide cannabis landscape
Anyone who knows the first thing about late stage capitalism, which is where “we” (the global world system) are at now, would know that neolib “legalization” (which I refer to by its real name: neo-prohibitionism) would lead to the various causes of the current local/regional/national/international canna-industry crisis (actually, a series of crises)…. Good job Prop 64!
Furthermore, the painful and asymmetric reformism promoted by those cited in this article, will merely attempting to stave off the bitter end (for the remaining remnants of the traditional industry at least) for a few more biz cycles. At this point, a requiem for canna-culture is in order.
Rising taxes??? In Kalifornistan??? Say it ain’t so!
Hint: anyone can grow marijuana anywhere.
Progressive leadership folks!
[2nd attempt at posting this comment…] Anyone who knows the first thing about late stage capitalism — which is where “we” (the global world system) are at now — would know that neolib “legalization” (which I refer to by its real name: neo-prohibitionism) would lead to the various causes of the current local/regional/national/international canna-industry crisis (actually, a series of crises)…. Good job Prop 64!
Furthermore, the painful and asymmetric reformism promoted by those cited in this article is merely an attempt to stave off the bitter end (for the remaining remnants of the traditional industry at least) for a few more biz cycles. Unfortunately, at this point, a requiem for canna-culture is in order.
The other comment is there still, Fred. It can be hard to find with this many comments though. https://kymkemp.com/2021/11/22/rising-taxes-and-dropping-prices-cannabis-farmers-gather-in-sohum-to-discuss-possible-actions/#comment-1451727
Been trying to get the word out. This missing comment thing is usually caused by not using refresh arrow or in androids case use new window the three dots upper right gives access. Or leaving web site coming back works sometimes
Commenter the trimmers are taking over holy crap have you ever seen this s*** that comes out of those machines??? Destroyed almost 500 pounds of bud because they didn’t know how to run it correctly. Even after ran it correctly the residue on the inside of the trim cylinder and trim container was ridiculous. I magine how much was stripped off of those buds 100% swag afterwards. Taxation is not just excess in cannabis has anybody noticed how a gallon of gas has over $1 worth of taxes added to the price? The $80 for 2 steaks! Consider the black market middlers there used to be a lot more middlemen flipping pounds and those were pretty much driven out of business by the dispensaries and dispensary Black Market. Before Taxation and legalization would speculate that many Growers didn’t keep the tightest books so the amount of money that was thrown away or nonsense household items, excessive clothing, tan, titties and trips was not always seen at face value. Carrying a wad of Benjis in your pocket all wadded up who counted?
Hand counting mass cash. The smell in the room…oh I miss it truly do. Once the accountants and the counting machines arrived it wasn’t fun anymore.
♥️♥️♥️