Anybody remember the diesel spill show on KMUD that resulted in so much screeching? Depending on the level of contamination, the diesel spill could result in more legal trouble than the pot bust, although a thousand plants is no small matter.
The Times Standard has the story, as does the Eureka Reporter.
Sohum really does have to come to terms with the potential impact of diesel leakages and spillages on the rivers, whether marijuana related or not. What I’ve encountered is a defensiveness, and silence from local environmental organizations apparently concerned about jeopardizing funding. They don’t say that it isn’t a problem. They simply don’t discuss it at all.
It’s part of what Rondel Snodgrass once called the “mill town mentality” about the local industry.
153 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 30, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Anonymous
Eric, I’m glad you bring this up. The local environmental organizations won’t touch this one or else they say it’s all BS, or the problem is exagerated by the cops.
Everybody in SoHum knows of the problem, as do many in NoHum. It doesn’t take a Phd to figure out where the fuel trucks are going night and day up in the hills of Alderpoint, Ettersburg, Dootyville, Salmon Creek, and so on.
The reason this subject is taboo is because THEY support, get support, are involved (directly or indirectly) or condon the massive indoor growing of marijuana using diesel generators. It’s all $$$$. They want to protect the environment blah blah blah but they ignore the diesel and oil contamination caused by the pot growers.
In comes that hypocrite Dr. Ken Miller. All his BS about save the salmon, the watershed council, but he makes $$$ by handing out 215 cards prepetuating the local marijuana industry. He is first to condem or attack the cops but sits back when hundreds (probably thousdands)of pot growers use diesel powered generators to light up their indoor grows and make millions. Diesel and motor oil cntamination flows into our rivers. Not to mention the air quality issue or the “fire” issue.
Makes me want to screem.
March 30, 2007 at 5:29 pm
mresquan
It would be nice to see groups like the Humboldt Watershed Council address the issue of the harmful affects of the pot growing industry.
March 30, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Stephen Lewis
And I didn’t write the above either even though I’ve been saying the same thing for two decades. Gross hypocrisy by environmental groups when it comes to environmental protection for homestead lands. Can’t have our enviros biting the hand that feeds them..
March 30, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Anonymous
I hate pot growers ! I hate what they have turned Humboldt County into over the past 30 years. Eureka is a hellhole? Well Humboldt County is a hellhole too.
March 30, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Eric V. Kirk
Well, some would argue that they’ve kept the local economy alive. It’s certainly the case in Sohum.
March 30, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Anonymous
This is one of those posts that will go ignored hoping that it will just go away. The dope growers / marijuana industry doesn’t want this taboo subject brought up.
March 30, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Anonymous
The net result of pot growing is negative for all of us. They tie up government resources while paying no taxes. They are largely responsible for the influx of hard drugs to our area. They have all but ruined a beautiful part of California, making it dangerous for hikers and tourists. Their children often turn to crime and end up either addicted, jailed or dead. Now we have the appalling damage to our environment to deal with too. I support turning these monsters in to the police. One phone call is often all it takes to rid your neighborhood of these criminal parasites.
March 30, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Anonymous
So that makes it OK Eric ?
What about other criminal activity? If the money helps the local economy it’s OK?
How many people have been killed because of marijuana in Humboldt County over the past 30 to 35 years? Just a couple of the recent high profile murders; Zack Stone, Larry Amsterdam, Rex Shinn, and so on. There have been dozens of murders locally (and that’s just the reported ones or the ones where the bodies were found) directly related to the marijuana industry. But that’s OK because the local truck dealerships, diesel sales business, gun stores, real estate / mortgage business and so are making money.
Interesting.
March 30, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Eric V. Kirk
I didn’t say it was “okay.” I’ve already written my thoughts about it. What I said was that it benefits the economy.
And they may not pay taxes, but they do increase the local tax base with the multiplier effect of spending.
March 30, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Anonymous
To think that all people will keep their scene clean by advising them to get secondary containment etc., as Woods did on his talk-shows, is completely unrealistic. What’s real is that more grows are being set up all the time because the easy money is so alluring. And thus we will have more spills, fires, etc.
There are only two ways to stop it. One is to set up 24-7 checkpoints on all roads to see who’s carrying diesel and if they are–make sure that the delivery point is a safe scene (if their even is such a thing)…
The other–is to decriminalize pot.
Nobody wants the first and the second is highly unlikely to happen … so there you are.
March 30, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Anonymous
Spin as you may Eric, you are defending and condoning the marijuana industry. You, by your own admission, have made money from the marijuana industry. Does that make you an enabler ? A supporter ? A co-conspriator ? Or just someone that prefers to turn a blind eye and doesn’t give a shit about the consequences to the community as a whole?
March 30, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Eric V. Kirk
Spin as you may Eric, you are defending and condoning the marijuana industry.
Of course. Black or white. “You’re either with me or against me.”
March 30, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Anonymous
The people who were snitched on in Salmon Creek will now have raise money for lawyers by setting up another, probably even sloppier, grow.
March 30, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Anonymous
11:22 am
What an interesting perspective. Are you suggesting it’s better to let them do their crime and contamination because they will do it again to pay for their lawyers?
March 30, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Anonymous
A 215 does not protect a large indoor grower, so that agrument is just plain stupid. There is a problem with large indoor deisel grows. Nobody is arguing that. The evolution of GREED. It seems it wasn’t good enough to grow some outdoor plants even though a pound garned a hefty prive in the eithies and nineties. Somehow that wasn’t enough money. Some people had to make it year round, Hence, the indoor scene. At first it was a few halide lights,but that wasn’t enough, so people had to increase the building size and the amount of lights. So now, the supply is so high, people can’t even sell the outdoor. And it’s all becuase of GREED. Nothing else.
March 30, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Anonymous
Eric
The rumor on the street is that they caught David Peurto Vallarta Bernal in mexico. (No details)
(the Jennifer Busnell murderer)
March 30, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Anonymous
11:14am, I do know what I hate. I know plenty about Humboldt county and the marijuana growing scum that reside here, too much.
Are you a grower? Do you make any portion of your living from the marijuana industry ?
March 30, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Anonymous
Turn them in. The number to call is 444-8095.
March 30, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Anonymous
Hard to feel sorry for anybody that needs to grow that much. 1000 plants That comes out to about sixty pounds. Make that four times a year and one can see that’s a lot of money. No tears here. You reap what you sow.
March 30, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Anonymous
215 is a fraud. 215 is used by growers to avoid prosecution and used by the chief prosecutor to avoid prosecuting crinimals.
March 30, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Anonymous
As said, I hate marijuana growers.
March 30, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Eric V. Kirk
Yes, you did say that.
March 30, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Anonymous
Was it really better back then. That’s like saying America was better in the fifties. Yeah, if you were white. The county now is much better even with the industrial grow scenes. They are a problem that needs to be solved. Whether with police enforcement of community pressure. People shouldn’t be quiet about it. GREED and it destroys communities whether it’s pot, lumber or coal.
March 30, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Anonymous
“215 is used by growers to avoid prosecution and used by the chief prosecutor to avoid prosecuting crinimals.”
Huh? 215 doesn’t cover a 1000 plant operation. That is a Federal offense, which doesn’t recognize 215. So, once again…. huh?
March 30, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Anonymous
Spare me. I supposed you’re one of those “non greedy growers”. You grow outdoors only enough to keep from having to work and to sustain you in the maner in which you have been acustomed?
And yes it was better then. Less murders, less violent crime. I’d call it better.
March 30, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Anonymous
1000 plants can be a fed case, doesn’t mean it will. Not in Humboldt. In Idaho, Kansas, Utah, or Montana 1000 plants would put you in prison for 10 years.
March 30, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Anonymous
Like I say, if you were white. Isn’t that so, Mr. Whiteman? Your” good old days” are gone and thank God for that.
March 30, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Anonymous
Most of the big grows I read about that get busted seem to say the Feds are involved in some way.
March 30, 2007 at 7:01 pm
mresquan
Eric,I don’t believe that growing does anything positive for any local tax base.Growers spend their money buy running up here to Eureka to shop at the big boxes for their personal items(Costco,Target,Winco,etc.) which provides little benefit to anyone but those big boxes.Other than that,money is spent on fossil fuels to provide power for generators,again only benefitting big oil,or in a given number of out of area vacation spots.It is non growers and the working class taxpayers which are left with the bill for the environmental damage that growing can cause.Add to that,Sohum is one of the most classist societies that one could imagine largely due to the pot industry(one good reason that raggae on the river needs to continue,less reliance on pot to keep the social and community aspects afloat).Hey I smoke the stuff,so call me a hipocrite,but I’d sure appreciate a good analysis by a well funded and sincere organization which better knowledge than myself,of the harm I’m doing by smoking pot.
March 30, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Anonymous
When Humboldt had virgin forests to ravish, a man could work hard and live well with his family. We ran out of forests and forest jobs. The boom-and-bust resosurce-based economy we’ve had since the Gold Rush wobbled once more, causing visible problems. Please help me to understand how you blame this on potheads? Oh yes, greed chopped down all the trees, *damn* those diesel dopers!
March 30, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Anonymous
Yup I’m a “Whiteman”. So what? Lots of people are white. Does being white make me a bad person? Kind of pins you down as bit racist! Or are you one of those that think it’s not racism if it’s against whites?
But what does being white have to do with the marijuana industry, the diesel contamination, and living in Humboldt in general? How did you make this a racial issue? Explain that Mr. Non-white, other than white, or whiteguy that doesn’t like being white?????????????
March 30, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Anonymous
11:28:00 AM
I’m not saying it’s better to let them do it, I’m just saying that it doesn’t make any difference as far as the environment is concerned. For every grow that’s busted another ten pop up.
In these hills, greed is the mother of invention.
If pot were legal there wouldn’t be any indoor grows because you’d have to pay more to grow it than you could make off of it.
BUT, not many people around here are interested in that, because then they’d have to get a job.
March 30, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Anonymous
Yo retard. You’re making a jump from the declining timber industry to the marijuana growers. I’m not blaming the marijuana growers for the declining timber industry, for the lack of trees, or for the war in Iraq. I blame the marijuana growers for being the criminal scum that they are.
March 30, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Anonymous
Pot growers have also driven UP the price of cars in Humboldt County, making our local dealerships greedy for those who will pay cash (in exchange, perhaps, for “soft” paperwork on the title)
March 30, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Anonymous
Growers pay asking prices for cars, in exchange for soft paperwork on the title. Happens every day.
The rest of us are stuck with inflated car prices, if we try to buy locally.
March 30, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Anonymous
I knew it! Harvey Harper supports the marijuana industry! Just like Eric Kirk!
(j/k)
March 30, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Anonymous
Beyond not paying taxes… Outside of the paperbags of money dropped off during the recall attempt of the DA, pot growers are the cheapest people politically. Couldn’t get them to donate to political causes that would benefit our community if their life depended on it.
March 30, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Anonymous
What’s soft paperwork? Do growers not have title to their rigs?
March 30, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Anonymous
This morning (Fri), between 10:30-11:00am, a crowd of about twenty to twentyfive people gathered, at a clump at a time, at the Church Street Community park, then immediately they dispersed.
The park must not have agreed with them that well, for them to have left so fast. Some of them didn’t even sit down. One person, that showed up late, seemed to be annoyed that he missed the party.
This happens often. Is that were they go to find work? I don’t get it. You don’t need to gather in a group to find Marijuana, it’s everywhere. I watched a street person comb the sidewalks the other day, and he came up with three joints in less than ten minutes.
So what was it? These don’t seem like the kind of people to keep appointments. So why are they being so punctual? Does anyone have a hint?
March 30, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Stephen Lewis
When we first moved into the hills at Salmon Creek in 1975 you could walk for miles and miles without ever worrying about walking into a pot grow. The Salmon Creek community was awesome, barn dances, school fund-raisers, a real community in formation. But within two years all that changed and walking anywhere in the hills not your own property made for suspicion in your neighbors. Now you’re likely to get shot.
Pot growers truly have created a two-tier class society of SoHum and I’m surprised eric can live with himself, making money as he does off of pot growers, and yet claiming a political background most opposed to classism. Hypocrisy abounds in Prog circles..
Legalization is the answer but it will doom SoHum’s already feeble local non-pot economy. If activists were serious, they’d go after the greedo pot growers and demand taxation from them and turn ‘em in if they didn’t give substantially to the community.
March 30, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Anonymous
they should turn them in because it’s the right thing to do.
March 30, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Anonymous
1:15pm They’re being picked up to go trim or manicure weed. $200.00 per pound. That’s why you can’t fill regular jobs in Garberville.
March 30, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Eric V. Kirk
I have a hard time believing that growers actually pick people up from the street. Seems like a sure way to get busted.
March 30, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Anonymous
It’s worse than that, Eric. Word is out in the prison system, that there’s easy money in pot cleaning/growing in Humboldt. We now have hitch hikers heading north from the release bay of San Quentin!
March 30, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Anonymous
“I have a hard time believing that growers actually pick people up from the street. Seems like a sure way to get busted.”
Are you a lawyer in Humboldt co.???? No one, without VISIBLE assets, is ever arrested for a nonviolent crime in Humboldt Co. I challenge you to name one person that has ever been “busted” that didn’t have substantial assets.
March 30, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Anonymous
Bob Wurster.
March 30, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Anonymous
What did he do, piss off the wrong cop?
March 30, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Anonymous
there’s a diesel grow above me and if its ever in my water, thats it, gonna, gotta SUE…has there ever been any lawsuits of this type? successful ones? on the public record somewhere?
March 30, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Anonymous
Gee, thanks! I’ve been paying $119.95. Those damn Rotarians have been keeping this to themselves?
Bastards!
March 30, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Anonymous
Eric
Seems like you’re sorry you opened up this can of worms? I’ll bet some of your neighbors and clients are giving you shit!
March 30, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Eric V. Kirk
I’ve made similar posts in the past. Mostly positive comments about each. You may be surprised at the complexity of the issue. It’s not quite as monolithic down here as some Nohum types make it out to be.
March 30, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Anonymous
i like smokin weed,everyday,i er,like it in the uh morning,i uh,er,mmmm,oh yeah,i uh smoke it uh,uh,er,what was i sayin,i forgot
March 30, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Eric V. Kirk
Maybe you can explain the complexity of the issue to us not quite as bright as you ?
Well it’s simple actually. There are about 10 thousand people who live down here. They each have individual stories. They each think differently.
End of explanation.
March 30, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Anonymous
What an unpleasant air of superiority you have, 4:12. Try reading some of the previous marijuana discussions on this blog.
March 30, 2007 at 11:41 pm
ernie
Anyone that thinks Southern Humboldt is “monolithic”, has their head under that big rock. We are, almost, equally divided on all issues. Name an issue, you will find the comments will run fifty / fifty.
The only thing that we have in common is a desire to get along! And, we do that fairly well!
I know! Fifty percent of the people out there won’t agree with that.
March 30, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Anonymous
the meth dealer arrives at a certain designated time 25people score and then they disperse to go have fun–duh.
March 31, 2007 at 12:27 am
Anonymous
What a lame explanation. Not even cute Eric. The one thing that the vast majority of soHum folks have in common is marijuana, growing it, selling it, making a living directly or indirectly from it, or being pissed off that it taints the community. Play it down all you can Eric but most people move to SoHum because of the marijuana industry, if you say different you are a fool or al liar. The whole place is corrupted by it. It is a shame but it is true.
March 31, 2007 at 12:31 am
Eric V. Kirk
Must be fun to live by extreme stereotypes. Spend some time getting to know people down here, then talk.
March 31, 2007 at 12:39 am
Rose
The same thing happened in Fieldbrook in the late 70s, Stephen. We used to hike and ride horses in the hills. The pot growers bought property, set up grows, and many of us ran into armed guards. The freedom vaporized. Paranoia and greed killed it.
People with good brains became “botany majors” learning how to grow stronger sensimilla, manipulate the plants to get better buds – sad – they could have been figuring out how to grow better tomatoes and feed the world. Now they’re the anti-GMO crowd
March 31, 2007 at 1:12 am
Anonymous
Just want to add that there are numerous non-profits in SoHum. Most have not had bags of cash donated to their NPs. Growers are in fact greedy bastards and the people in SoHum are gutless for letting this happen.
March 31, 2007 at 1:46 am
Anonymous
Most of the growers I know have “day jobs” but grow pot to make extra money. They are not “scum” or “greedy bastards” but in fact very much like you. They pay the bills, pay their taxes (they don’t declare the weed) and support causes and organizations that they hope make the world a better place. Some volunteer for all sorts of community supportive non-profits….. they may be helping to make a positive difference in your life as I write. A greenhouse operation can be eco-friendly and safe and profitable. Everything one does to make money has an evironmental price tag. Growing weed organicly in a greenhouse leaves a relatively small footprint. Sure, there are assholes who go huge with diesel scenes and that is a BIG problem. The truth is I’ve never been to one of these scenes but they scare the shit out of me and piss me off. I hate the thought of people dumping oil on the ground or spilling diesel or starting fires through pushing their operations to the max. How to reign them in is a good question. …worthy of a blog thread. I just wanted to balance the “all growers are greedy, irresponsible assholes” crowd with a little personal perspective.
March 31, 2007 at 1:59 am
Stephen Lewis
And yet they have tons of time and energy to trot off to the north and tell their neighbors what to do.
My sacrament is marijuana. I have been a grower and a trimmer and it allowed me to buy land and then a home that I otherwise could never afford. Trimming allowed me with no land to grow a crop, now divorced, and suddenly in the lower economic class of SoHum residents scrambling to find affordable housing and the few jobs available back then to keep near my kids instead of having to move where jobs were. Which I also had done prior to Benbow. So I can’t knock what it did for my life but then again I know why I left the growing scene after having two people I knew personally tragically affected by growing pot (one killed and one turned into a killer) and the best friend of my son nearly hit when robbers shot through the cabin door. And seen land partnerships turned to shit over pot issues.
All and all a sad ending to what could have been a wonderful dream where the millions of pot dollars actually went to creating alternative ecological community.
Instead what little surplus comes out of the pot growing crowd that goes into alternative building organizations is funneled by a different type of greedo, people greedy for fame and political power channeling that little contribution into a political war against mainstream Humboldt residents and their economic support system.
March 31, 2007 at 2:17 am
Anonymous
To any and all pot growers who want to prove they are NOT “greedy bastards,” I make the following heartfelt appeal:
Pretend that you did pay taxes on your earnings last year and the year before: take say, 25%–more if you feel generous– of your earnings for the past two years and give it to:
THE HOSPITAL, SCHOOL, DAYCARE CENTER, OR GERIATRIC CENTER of your choice. Untraceable cash will be fine. Just put it in a paper bag and deliver it to the management. We will all hear about your generosity in the weeks to come and you will be a hero.
March 31, 2007 at 2:33 am
Anonymous
Anon – 6:46 – No one here is talking about the guy who has a bunch of plants out back. Who may sell a pound or two over the course of a year. We’re talking about the people who pay cash for $40,000 pick ups, who go into the natural food store in Garberville and spend $400 a pop, who seems to have all the money they need but have no obvious means of support. These are the cheap bastards we’re talking about here.
March 31, 2007 at 2:37 am
Anonymous
If the cops really wanted to destroy the industry around here, all they’d have to do is GPS the fuel trucks, mark every place they stop, then do follow up. If those spys in the sky can read a newspaper from orbit, I’m sure they could take care of this litle problem….oh, wait, they’re all looking at Iraq.
March 31, 2007 at 2:41 am
Anonymous
The problem isn’t the pot. The problem, IMHO, is that anytime there is something with a large profit to attach to it; it attracts people who will take advantage of the situation. There are Mom and Pop growers who are respectful giving loving citizens. There are also are the people out for the big buck and will do anything and destroy anything to make it. Since no one can say anything because of the quasi-legality land–you can’t weed out (pun taken) those that are out for a “easy fortune”. Happens with booze, happens with politics, Microsoft, it just happens. It is us folks. Society.
March 31, 2007 at 2:42 am
Anonymous
The glorification of money as the badge of success.
March 31, 2007 at 3:16 am
Anonymous
anon 6:46
I was wondering when we would be hearing from the-I grow my itty bitty wittle patch “organically”- segment of the pot establishment. The fact that it took this long and there’s only one of you – so far – kinda sums things up for you, doesn’t it?. You’re a dying breed or a lying feeb.
And those diesel growers? They’re your own kid(s), or your neighbor’s kid(s). Don’t you know that the benchmark of successful parenting in SoHum can be easily measured by how many pounds, (or kilos), your offspring produce each year?
Every parent wants their kids to be good at something and since most of the kids around here were raised in a dope patch and probably had to do most of the chores involved with it while mom and dad were off doing all those wonderful things for wonderful causes.
No wonder they’ve turned out the way they have. Can hardly wait till the next generation of pot growers comes along. Should get real interesting then.
March 31, 2007 at 3:38 am
Anonymous
Hey, vitriol breath, what do you do with your time that makes you so superior and your attitude so caustic? Prey tell? I was stating my personal experience not defending your ugly caricature. Plenty of “kids” growing diesel are rancher’s kids or shopkeeper’s kids and plenty of pot grower’s kids are outta here. It ain’t as black and white as your myopic sputterings.
March 31, 2007 at 3:52 am
Anonymous
Yes !
\
In some cases there are 3rd generation marijuana growers. Then there are the ones that bought,sold, and smoked Humboldt weed in Vermont, Montana, Georgia or wherever come to Humboldt, buy some land and then start growing themselves. They sell their weed to their doper buddies back wherever they come from. Long story short SoHum has no shortage of greedy bastard dope growers.
Good organic people that just do it for a little extra money and they donate the money to some charity ?…… nice dream, what a crock.
I also hate marijuana growers. The growers are a “pimple on the ass of society”.
Anyway boys and girls I’m glad the cops got the 1000 plants in Salmon Creek. I hope they get the grower and all of his buddies. Go cops go.
March 31, 2007 at 4:02 am
Anonymous
Hell, some of the ranching families that stretch back generations grow the best pot in Hunboldt County. Never hear about any of them getting busted.
March 31, 2007 at 4:31 am
Anonymous
You also never hear about them growing on land that isnt theirs.
March 31, 2007 at 5:10 am
Anonymous
Legalize it. And let the chips fall where they may. It’s a good medicine for certain ailments.
March 31, 2007 at 5:15 am
Anonymous
Not everyone in SoHum is trying to get rich of the herb. You need to blow that hype out of your large and impacted annus.
March 31, 2007 at 5:52 am
Anonymous
anon 4:12/ 5:27/ 8:16 and the rest of your whinning post.
Those greedy bastards probably work twice as hard as you do. I’m not sure what is uglier greed or pompous and impotent jealousy.
March 31, 2007 at 6:48 am
Anonymous
Well, I was serious about the voluntary income tax and I hope we will all get a nice surprise not too long from now.
By the way, the “drug lords” in Columbia and Mexico have a reputation for taking good care of their local townspeople.
A few million in voluntary tax payments will transform Humboldt County. Come on growers! You can do this!! Good karma too. If you have made big bucks growing weed in the hills, please think seriously about helping us out.
March 31, 2007 at 6:57 am
Anonymous
You trying to make me laugh or puke? Voluntary Tax, growers working twice as hard? I’m sure there are times when there is work but, you know the big boys hire out much of the hard work and those that do it are shooting to be one of the big boys.
Comparing SoHum to Columbia and Mexico isn’t that far off.
March 31, 2007 at 6:59 am
Anonymous
And if you have any information about local ranchers you should turn them in. You can call in anonymous ! Yes you can.
March 31, 2007 at 7:02 am
Anonymous
The voluntary income tax would not only help your community, it would buy you a lot of good will. Let’s face it guys, you can use some good will. People are starting to detest what you are doing to the land, the community and the atmosphere in Sohum. They don’t like what you stand for, especially your selfish approach to your vast profits. You can change all that by paying for some much needed community services. Please think about this seriously. By paying a voluntary income tax you can fund the institution of your choice. Your generosity will pay off for everyone in the end.
March 31, 2007 at 7:08 am
Anonymous
Please hold the cynical comments. I am hopeful that some kind grower out there will get the ball rolling. Let’s give this a chance to work!
March 31, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Anonymous
And who would collect these volutary income taxes ? And then who would decide how it’s spent ?
Cynical ? No it’s just that I don’t smoke dope and live in the real world with both feet on the ground.
March 31, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Anonymous
well, 716, that definitely proves you are NOT mark K…er meresquan.
March 31, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Anonymous
Anon: 7:16
I appluad your plea, unfortunately it doesn’t address the topic: what to do about dangerous diesel grows?
I would support police pulling over pick-ups with diesel tanks to question the drivers. It wouldn’t take long before they knew who actually ran heavy equipment and who ran generators. And police following delivery trucks into the hills is an excellent idea. That is not home heating fuel heading up those dirt driveways. A few high profile police/diesel stops would send chills through the Humboldt Hollywood crowd.
For the poster or posters that rant “I hate those greedy badstards….scum…lowlife potgrowers” etc. It doesn’t take a whole lot of looking to see where these people find their role models. People like our hyper-successful vice president are perfect examples of those who put profit ahead of ethics and are very well rewarded. In this land of oppoutuinty, unfortunately, the most predatory often rise to the top. Our local quandry is a microcosom of the problems inherent in all unregulated capitalist ventures.
March 31, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Anonymous
To Anon 7:16
Nobody would collect the funds, it’s a voluntary tax. Unless you have a better idea, please give it a chance.
To the grower who is considering this seriously: to be sure your contribution reaches its target group, give the cash to a group, not an individual. A “treasure map: sent to a few board members would work nicely.
So many of our community institutions are on the ropes financially. Here is a way for your growers to show your good will and save the day. Again, I ask you to seriously consider doing this now. You desperately need the good will it will create and we need the money.
March 31, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Anonymous
Salmon Creek has always been the vanguard of the greengrower society. Back in the seventies, they were the first to scream that the cops should stay the hell away and leave them the hell alone. A lot of young, innocent and naive people, had formed their own group for marketing the new found wealth that grew on trees.
Then Cathy Davis was murdered. She was one of the nicest and sweetest people you could ever know. She was murdered by her own workers. Ones that she was kind enough to hire, and give a job. To the credit of the “we hate the law, and the cops” group, they all cooperated to catch the murderers.
It was the end of innocence in Salmon Creek. It must be frustrating to realize that, to live in any society there must be rules. Even the growers realized that they would need rules. The backroom meetings must have been incredibly interesting! Out of those meetings it must have been decided that the only kind of rules that could be enforced were the rules of “Frontier Justice”.
Frontier Justice is, most apparent, when a totally demolished car is found alongside the road, or a remote grow room is unexplainably on fire. Sometime houses burn. It is hard to get the Sheriff’s Dept. to waste too much time on sorting out what is, obviously a dispute over illegal activity that no one will talk about.
So the beat goes on! Here we are thirty years later. The Sheriffs Dept. is poor at arresting the people that are growing the plants. They are good at gathering the plants, that keeps the prices up high. The planters keep the cops busy. The game is cops and robbers, neither group can survive without the other.
But it is not a fun game for a spectator to watch.
March 31, 2007 at 5:13 pm
mresquan
Steve Lewis said: All and all a sad ending to what could have been a wonderful dream where the millions of pot dollars actually went to creating alternative ecological community.
Instead what little surplus comes out of the pot growing crowd that goes into alternative building organizations is funneled by a different type of greedo, people greedy for fame and political power channeling that little contribution into a political war against mainstream Humboldt residents and their economic support system.
Fri Mar 30, 06:59:00 PM
Putting Roger Rodoni in office certainly doesn’t help this at all.
March 31, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Mous Anony
Legalize it! Let it be grown by Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds and Brown and Williamson. Or if you wish for industrial hemp to be grown instead, let Pacific Hemp Company or Louisiana Pacific Hemp Company or Sierra Pacific Hemp Company do it. Because if it is legalized, the little backwoods grower will have his lunch eaten when it comes to creating actual business proceedures. Put the HSU students to work in the legitimate legal marijuana industry rather than taking over rentals. But more than likely it would be grown in neat little rows in Turlock or Madera or Fresno and not in Humboldt County.
Legalize it and get rid of the crime and pollution element.
All in all, marijuana is a scourge on the Humboldt Nation. No different than bootleggers in the south. Salmon Creek and the deep woods of Georgia…not much difference. Could have filmed Deliverance here. If you could get the film crews past the guns and pit bulls.
March 31, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Anonymous
To me the saddest thing about these promiscuous stereotypes is that they miss the real and tragic ones that limit the lives of our kids. Where does a teenager get the idea that dope and trucks make the man? That money is the root of all good? That gangsters are cooler than workers? It ain’t from most of their parents. It’s from their commercial culture, massed-hosed over our children just like it is in LA.
Some of our kids are the living embodiments of MTV cartoon-daydreams used for big market marketing. Our kids think they’re free as they puppet to the beat of the mass marketeers. Humboldt County: “Living the Daydream!”
Can we sell the world back what’s been sold to us?
March 31, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Anonymous
okay okay, I admit it up front: we do!
March 31, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Stephen Lewis
It is ironic and sad that it is mainly the offspring of hippies who are going for the materialistic greedo route far more so than their townie counterparts without land to grow on.
Easy money did the trick for our kids in my opinion–they saw how easy it was to grow a weed that is practically indestructible given water and soil and how much money this weed produced. Why on earth ever work for a living when you can grow this weed so easily and play bad ass trucker/grower with bucks to impress the ladies–who are impressed and go for the successful grower types thinking its security..
Willie Browne once years ago had the best idea for legalization of pot and how to keep it in the hands of small growers. You legalize it and tax growers according to the size of their crops–the more grown the higher the taxes to the grower become to discourage corporate takeover of marijuana growing. Because without such tax penalties in place with marijuana legalization you can bet the corporate giants will be buying up prime flat ag land around Fresno in two seconds flat.
March 31, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Carson Park Ranger
“Our kids think they’re free as they puppet to the beat of the mass marketeers.”
This is, unfortunately, true of parents as well.
March 31, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Anonymous
Unfortunately the back to the landers sold out royally, around the time the next generation was old enough to work and make their mark on the world. Here we are today.
March 31, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Anonymous
Meanwhile, the Mexican Mafia has invaded our community. Witness the Hispanics hanging out in Redway. No jobs, no language skills…one guess why they are here.
It’s going to get a LOT worse, folks. You need to pick up that phone and call the cops.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
March 31, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Anonymous
Mexican Mafia! You’re tripping on some paranoid fantasy. There are a couple of small groups of men from Mexico who are doing kick-ass stone work in Shelter Cove and surrounding area. They are skilled and work hard and probably wonder why you scurry past looking stressed. Don’t beleive everything you hear or for that matter everything you think.
March 31, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Anonymous
Nice try. I speak Spanish; I doubt you do. I asked a bunch of them some questions. Nobody has a job. Nobody lives anywhere. Nobody knows anyone in the area.
March 31, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Anonymous
anon 2:13
“If you see Hispanics hanging out in Redway, call the cops ’cause it’s going to get a LOT worse.” Listen to yourself!!!! Why don’t you move to Texas where that sort of horseshit might get you some nods of approval. Racist asswipe.
March 31, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Anonymous
Hello, Police, there are some Hispanic men, very shady looking, in Redway. I’m deeply concerned.
Sound ridiculous? So do you. Your provincial attitude is appalling.
March 31, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Anonymous
Hello police, There are some drug dealers congregating in Redway but don’t do anything about it because they are Mexican.
March 31, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Anonymous
I agree with the above post. You latin-phobic wierdos need to get out and travel a bit. Oh, that’s right, only greedy, potgrowing scum can afford to do that. Guess you’re stuck in your little bubble.
March 31, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Anonymous
I was hoping for a positive response from a grower on the voluntary tax. This really is a golden chance for you growers. If you do nothing, don’t complain about neighborhood “pressure.”
April 1, 2007 at 12:32 am
Anonymous
ANON 4:47
Oh, now they are drug dealers. I thought you objected to them because they were working for the elusive “Mexican National Grows”. Any chance you do the PR for why we invaded Iraq?
April 1, 2007 at 3:13 am
Stephen Lewis
But tithing won’t do much of anything to offset the two class economy that pot growing produces and it’s that huge disparity between rich and poor in SoHum that creates problems.
And eric won’t touch the issue seriously even though it is a class consciousness one that should be dear to his Leftie heart as it should be to all rads in the area but it isn’t. Eric and radical orgs have all sold their souls to the debil and worship at the trough of Mammon. Seriously, radicals have used dope money for years to fund their political war against the timber workers economic support system so they’re hypocrites lying low and keeping silent about pot growers. This is when the community needs activist orgs with guts to take on the pot growing scene instead of being bought off.
Why the heck isn’t EPIC all over the diesel oil spill issue? I guess when you get to be a big enough wheel you believe you can divorce yourself from community input. Seems to work. SoHumers from the hills keep on trukking to them EPIC benefits and putting their dollars in to keep everything hush hush and all in the family..
April 1, 2007 at 3:51 am
Anonymous
This just confirms my opinion that marijuana growers are among the most hypocritical, self righteous, dishonest, self centered, greedy, low life thieves in existance.
I would like to think that all marijuana growers will pay for their actions, lifesyles, and greed at some point in their lives.
Like that last overbearing asshole that recently got 10 years in federal prison.
Yes, “pimples on the ass of society” puts it quite nicely.
enjoy !
April 1, 2007 at 4:27 am
Eric V. Kirk
Frontier Justice is, most apparent, when a totally demolished car is found alongside the road, or a remote grow room is unexplainably on fire. Sometime houses burn. It is hard to get the Sheriff’s Dept. to waste too much time on sorting out what is, obviously a dispute over illegal activity that no one will talk about.
Well, more likely the fires start because some people don’t know what they’re doing in setting up the electrical systems for indoor grows.
April 1, 2007 at 4:30 am
Eric V. Kirk
People with good brains became “botany majors” learning how to grow stronger sensimilla, manipulate the plants to get better buds – sad – they could have been figuring out how to grow better tomatoes and feed the world. Now they’re the anti-GMO crowd
I agree with your general point, although solar energy as a technology has been to a large extent developed over the years in the hills of Sohum and Mendocino, for which the rest of the world is just starting to benefit. Some of that genius did get put to good use.
April 1, 2007 at 6:39 am
Anonymous
The voluntary tax/tithe idea has been kicking around here for years. Maybe tax is too negative, but it does seem fair at least since the rest of us do pay a like amount every year. Has a grower actually come through on this? I don’t mean $100 to the civil liberties union. Now more than ever, we could use the help. But since the rest of us do pay at least 25% of our earnings in taxes, this does seem like a fair minimum to request. My God, would this ever change things around here if it happened.
On another subject, Eric, solar energy didn’t develop in Sohum or Mendocino. The most you can say is that some early customers for the technology appeared in those areas.
April 1, 2007 at 7:17 am
Eric V. Kirk
Okay, well, the Real Goods narrative tells a different story, but it’s out of my realm of expertise.
April 1, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Anonymous
To think, to imagine, to even dream any SoHum dope grower would tithe/tax 25% of his/her earnings, even net earnings, is the thinking of a complete fool. These growers are not Robin Hood, they are criminals. They do what they do for money. They corrupt the county, the corrupt the youth, they suck.
Yes they may sponser a fundraiser for the DA’s election or re-election, but that is more in the line of insurance. Maybe donate $99 to this or that, but that’s about it. Any thought of the “back to the land” grower is JUNK.
April 1, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Anonymous
Wether the fires are from poorly wired electrical connections or overhearing the generator it’s still a fire. What would happen if one of these fires occured in the summer when things are dry? Could be a real problem. Lucky most of the generator fires are in the winter when the ground is wet or at least damp.
April 1, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Anonymous
Hope you are wrong, 8:11. But you make a good point about “insurance.” The voluntary tithe of 25% is another form of insurance for them, make no mistake about it.
Fingers crossed here. I’m hoping to hear that, say, the Redway School will need no more budget cuts. If the growers refuse to contribute to our society, why should I tolerate them any longer?
April 1, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Anonymous
“These growers are not Robin Hood, they are criminals. They do what they do for money. They corrupt the county, the corrupt the youth, they suck.” 8:23
See, this is where people in the “industry” get turned off, by people like you screaming at them. Do you always get what you want by screaming your demands of people? I never let my kids get what they want when they throw a tantrum to get what they want. Why on earth would anyone give money to you? You’re not nice, you aren’t asking, you insult the very people you want to get money from. That’s just dumb for fundraising. If more people like you asked nicely, said please and thank you, you might be surprised at what you get in return. In all the bake sales I’ve ever done, there wasn’t any “dope grower” that didn’t help out when asked nicely. You’re just pissed because you’ve never asked, therefore, you’ve never gotten what you were wanting. You poor, stuck up, spoiled brat, didn’t your parents teach you anything? Oh, wait, you’re probably one of those rich trust-fund idealists who never had to work for anything, so you don’t know how to be humble. Grow up! Go back to Kindergarten! Learn the Golden Rule: Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.
April 1, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Stephen Lewis
Oh please, purdy please, mr. dope grower, can you spare a hundred dollars for the hospital and the schools from your $180,000 crop?
April 1, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Anonymous
11:44AM are you stupid or just a biotch? I’m not asking for anything from anyone in the “injustry”.
Where do the “screaming” comments come from? did I hurt your feelings? Piss you off?
Where do you come from? Uranus? There was noting in my comments asking for any fundraising. Redway, Garberville, Alderpoint, Blocksburg, Shelter Cove, Ettersburg, Miranda, for all I care. Taking money from the dope growers is like being an accomplice to their greed, sin, cirme.
And as for your Golden Rule, I don’t commit crimes. Growing dope, selling dope, not paying taxes, corrupting the youth are crimes against the general public. It’s a real joke to think that s SoHum (or NoHum)dope growers live by the golden rule.
April 1, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Anonymous
Yeah they do – until one of them gets busted. Then it’s every man for himself, Jack!
April 1, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Anonymous
gee, in the olden days, envelopes marked with community institutions and worthy causes were passed around the table and money was deposited in said envelopes. humm
and I find it interesting only a few are signing their names, the rest of us are anon. interesting.
April 1, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Cristina Bauss
Just a feeble attempt to quell the hysteria about the Mexicans in Southern Humboldt…
-There are Mexicans doing construction work in Shelter Cove.
-There are Mexicans working in virtually every restaurant kitchen in SoHum.
-There are Mexicans doing perfectly legitimate field work for ranchers and farmers.
I’ve met Mexicans who fit all the above descriptions. They live in SoHum, have jobs, pay taxes, and enjoy the natural beauty of the area just like the rest of us do.
There are also Mexicans working on industrial grows, mostly on public lands, and they — unlike the examples cited above — are, indeed, criminals.
In other words, they’re a diverse bunch — just like the rest of us.
April 1, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Anonymous
I once lived on a houseboat in a scruffy canal off the San Francisco bay. There was this nasty dog that would bark and snarl viciously, twisting and thrusting it’s head forth everytime I walked passed. His perch was the roof off my neighbor’s houseboat and although he couldn’t reach me phyisically, he scared me and pissed me off at the same time. One day during this intimating ritual, his crazed thrusting carried him OFF the roof and onto the ground at my feet. There we stood looking at each other face to face. Before I could react he slunk away with his tail between his legs.
I tell this story because that dog reminds me of the Anonymous posters who are so vicious, under cover of their Anon perch, imagining they are bad-assed as they hurl threats and snarls at neighbors that they wouldn’t even raise their voices to face to face.
Think about what you are doing. These issues are important. Is this how you want to be the discussion to go?
April 1, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Anonymous
The growers are armed and lethal. Anyone who lives near them has been threatened, often repeatedly. And now it is payback time for the victims. Last chance, growers. Put up some significant cash for the community or face the retribution of your neighbors who are through coddling you. If the schools, hospitals or roads fail, we know who to blame.
April 2, 2007 at 12:49 am
Anonymous
Why do people keep talking about guns? I’ve lived here all of my life, 32 years, and never once been threatened. I go visit friends in the city, and three people got killed within two blocks in one week, gunfights. We’re a society, with good and bad people, get used to it. Quit blaming it on the dope growers, tweakers are way worse. How likely are you to get ripped off by a tweaker compared with a pothead? If you want to start complaining about a group of people lets start with the tweakers. Meth is a far worse thing to worry about.
April 2, 2007 at 12:50 am
Stephen Lewis
Here’s another sad but true and telling story. My son and his neighbor friend rode their dirt bikes on the roads around their mom’s homestead for a couple of years after they’d gotten bikes and learned how to ride. Well, one day, they’re tooling along and out steps one of the close neighbors in the area, a guy long known to the community as one of the regulars who tells my son and his friend they can no longer ride on that particular road and waves a gun around or shows one or something that does the trick and scares the boys off that road. Community spirit gone. Things like that wouldn’t have happened before sensimilla Indica made Humboldt homegrown a worldwide buzz word and made growers fat cats and a class literally above their neighbors.
April 2, 2007 at 1:07 am
Anonymous
Mr. Lewis, that’s terrible but worse could be ahead. Your son will be accused of theft, whenever that thug of a grower is robbed of his crop. Young people, especially teenagers, are favored targets of growers and are often accused of theft. Such accusation can lead to unprovoked attacks and even torture. You should warn your son to leave the area and never return. Better yet, you can pick up the phone and end this danger to your son once and for all.
April 2, 2007 at 1:22 am
Anonymous
Steve,
Hate to break it to you but people all over the country like their private property private. I don’t grow weed and I don’t like kids riding dirtbikes through my property. I also don’t like adults hiking through without asking. I call that an invasion of privacy. Call me uptight but I’m comfotrable with these feelings and expectations. Hey, I agree that waving a gun around, if that’s what happened, (you seem a little vague on that part) is definitely over the top. I have mixed feelings about the pot industry but in fairness I don’t think you can blame our culture of private property on growers. It’s pretty much country wide.
Anon: 6:07 How many of these paranoid post are yours? I would bet you have authored most of the fear mongering post on this thread. Are you high on crack? Get some sleep.
April 2, 2007 at 1:32 am
Anonymous
6:22 Nope, that was my first post here. A friend’s teenage son was beaten almost to death by growers, however. The kid was supposedly “trespassing” days after a big pot theft.
April 2, 2007 at 1:47 am
Anonymous
6:22, You sound like a grower to me.
April 2, 2007 at 1:57 am
Anonymous
Yes, and I’m Mexican and I hang out in Redway. Get some sleep crackie.
April 2, 2007 at 3:06 am
Anonymous
The violence surrounding the local marijuana industry cannot be denied, no matter how much some may try. I don’t know all ths statistics, maybe the Sheriff has those, but there have been dozens of murders over/because of marijuana. That gal in Salmon Creek in 77 76 ? Most recently Zac Stone (no loss), and there was larry Amsterdam. Lots more.
The CAMP program started in the early ’80′s becasue of all the violence. People were chased off there own land and public land. Things are just as bad or worse with the indoor grows because there is more of them.
I truly believe that several, maybe dozens, of persons have just gone missing in SoHum over the past 30 years. Since many of the “missing” are not local, or less than savory they don’t go noticed.
And meth is bad, tweekers steal, commit acts of violence, but more people get killed over the weed. Weed is BIG $$$$$$$$. Plain and simple.
And we’ve gotten away from the origina post about the diesel and oil contamination created and caused by the dope growers.
April 2, 2007 at 3:20 am
Anonymous
IMHO, the growers have a unique freedom of deciding where their tax dollars go unlike the rest of us who are forced to be a part of the group. When you set your own rules in a community though there is also a price to pay. The price is that when those rules are broken by people willing to take advantage of a ruleless environment–there is no one to go to get help except your neighbor. Your neighbor then becomes your guardian and henceforth the keeper of your freedom, right to speech, and economic fortune. And if your neighbor is just as afraid as you are then it leaves everyone at the mercy of those who have taken advantage of you and yours to make their fortune.
April 2, 2007 at 3:34 am
Anonymous
8:20–What is your point?
April 2, 2007 at 3:40 am
Anonymous
If you are growing then you pay the consequences of it as a community. You don’t get to choose which consequences you want or don’t want. Otherwise, don’t grow then you can exclude all the consequences. Environmental damage is just one of the consequences. The benefits of growing are private but the consequences of growing are a social thing shared by all.
April 2, 2007 at 4:32 am
Anonymous
I want to know statistics that can back up the claim that weed kills more people than tweek. I know that zack stone got killed because rob church was tweeking, paranoid out of his f-ing head. anybody who knew both of those guys knew that when they started tweeking, that’s when shit went bad. it was not because they were around weed. learn how to tell the difference. spot me some stats, then we’ll talk about who was high on speed when the killing happened.
April 2, 2007 at 4:39 am
Anonymous
Anon 9:32 You are a madman. Please, for the sake of the community and whatever family you have left, turn yourself in to the authorities.
April 2, 2007 at 4:53 am
Anonymous
Church was related to Stone. Stone got his start working security in the Salmon Creek area for another relative of Church (if the rumors are true?). He may have been a tweeker and under the influence when he did it but $$$$$ was the underlying reason. What about Larry Amsterdam ? He was paid $10 an hour to guard a grow and murdered by rip offs. The grow operator got immunity and now acts like a good citizen businessman. Not saying more murders were done under the influence of marijuana but because of the money. In the early 80′s the Eureka Fire chiefs son was shot in a grow up in Alderpoint. He was involved in a rip and got shot in the back with a 223. He lived, one of the growers wanted to finish him off, but one or more of the others talked him out of it. They drove him to a pay phone called for an ambulance or the cops but took his drivers license and told him they know where he lives and he better keep his mouth shut, he did (at least to the cops). The 223 went in his shoulder and came out near his butt. He believed them.
Over the past 30 years who knows how many people have been killed for trespassing at harvest time, killed ripping someone off or killing to rip someone off. Who knows.
If you know anything about the underground network in sohum you know there are several unreported rips by gun toters, some pretending to be cops. And the growers have their own neighborhood watch. So don’t expect anyone (with half a brain) to believe there isn’t any violence associated with the dope
growers.
Again we’re off the topic of contamination casued by growing marijuana in sohum.
April 2, 2007 at 5:23 am
Anonymous
Well said, 9:53. I have heard pot growers bragging about how they are prepared to kill anyone found near a “garden.” They also planned to bury the body themselves after the murder. As you say, there are probably many unreported murders with corpses buried all over our hills. My advice: If you have children, get them out of this area. And get yourselves out too.
April 2, 2007 at 5:33 am
Anonymous
Word on the street is the diesel contamination is being caused by mexicans that hang out in Redway. Also, rumor has it, Zack Stone and Rob Church were in a tiff over I forget what, something to do with mexicans in Redway f*cking it up for everyone or something…
April 2, 2007 at 5:38 am
Anonymous
Growers in my area have automatic weapons which they shoot off at all hours, especially at night! They have tortured teenagers caught near gardens. They have threatened tourists on our road. They have attacked and robbed each other many times. They have traded pot for coke and speed in the city and brought the hard stuff back to Humboldt. They spend enormous amounts on third world vacations, complete with sex slaves and heroin. They put up locked gates everywhere, manned by armed guards who are high on speed.
Let me know if you want more examples of how it is to live in the hills.
A Survivor
April 2, 2007 at 6:05 am
Stephen Lewis
One of the blessings of living off the hills is not hearing the sound of gunfire. I used to watch how the little herd of deer on our land trust land reacted to gunfire (target practice by neighbors) and was amazed and disturbed how frightened they became. Each shot fired sent a visible shock wave through the herd. This is how it is for the deer and larger wildlife in homestead communities. They are in a war zone 24/7.
More about my son? I posted elsewhere how another one of his friends almost got shot when robbers shot through the cabin front door in a pot robbery one parcel over from where my son and ex lived. In my brief and unsuccessful flirtation with real estate selling I once had to perform an exorcism of a ghost of a friend of mine I knew who have been gunned down in another pot robbery in order to sell a parcel in the Blocksberg subdivision. Another friend of my ex’s and me fled the area with his son after shooting and unintentionally killing a robber–the trauma forced him out of Humboldt County.
I left the hills because the pot business just was too filled with moral contradictions for me to continue on with it even though I am all for spreading pot around the world as a replacement for alcohol and other far more dangerous drugs.
My son grew up to become one of those young men who went for the material gusto making a fortune before the law caught up to him and he’s a changed man, working legitimately now for years separated from the pot growing hill life probably forever as is his sister, both turning against following the hippie lifestyle of their parents.
April 2, 2007 at 6:11 am
Stephen Lewis
My daughter during her druggie years dated Rob Church at one time and I had a run in with him when my daughter came screaming to my house saying Rob had a gun with Rob right behind her. I did my own aggression trip and he backed off claiming she was the problem not him. I may have been lucky.
April 2, 2007 at 6:20 am
Stephen Lewis
I am being open about this family history because the SoHum community needs to know what kind of life situations it is truly dealing with. There’s a hell of lot of hidden violence going on in the homestead lifestyle and the more it’s brought out into the open the faster the healing process can begin.
April 2, 2007 at 7:01 am
Cristina Bauss
“I am being open about this family history because the SoHum community needs to know what kind of life situations it is truly dealing with.”
Steve, I really appreciate your honesty in sharing some family history. But I’m afraid large portions of the SoHum community ALREADY know what they’re dealing with. The million-dollar question is, when are they going to FACE it head on and DO something about it?
The way I see it, the culture of silence chews up and spits out the youth of SoHum. I’ve only lived here for four and a half years, so I’m admittedly naïve and/or ignorant about quite a few things. On the other hand, not having been here for decades does (I humbly believe) give me a fresh perspective.
A case in point: I’ve spoken to a few people who don’t think (based on their lifelong experience in SoHum) that the death rate among youth is any higher here than in other places in the U.S. To which I say, Are you kidding me? I will attend my 20-year high school reunion in August, and of my class of 87 people, two have died. Those were considered major events. Here, the number of young ones whose deaths I’ve heard of (and a few whose deaths I’ve had to report) is, I think, way beyond the norm.
I could go on and on, but I won’t right now. I’ve still got a deadline to meet. Speaking of which, there are a LOT of things I’d like to write about… one day when I’ve got a little more time to spend on research.
April 2, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Anonymous
I had been thinking about the same thing for a good while now: How many of SoHum’s young people have been killed, mainly in traffic accidents, over the past 10 or 20 years?
I don’t know if it would be appropriate, perhaps some families would object, but there should be a roll call memorial of all our lost children.
With another graduation coming up it certainly would be timely.
All the kids who are just getting their drivers license should be assembled around one of those large redwoods on the Ave of the Giants. Then have them pound their heads against it until either they, or the redwood, cries “uncle” first.
Maybe then they might understand that they will never win when they go out dueling redwoods at high speeds.
April 2, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Stephen Lewis
Yep, vehicle accidents and suicides–way too many SoHum kids dying that way.
Cristina, I don’t know what to do about it. I wrote about too many kids dying in SoHum over a decade ago, it’s something a lot of parents have noticed, but it’s true, the dope culture silences so many mouths–another reason I don’t grow because it allows me to be public.
Economic development Without Pot growing, provision of health-care and covering community schooling, costs, low-income housing, this is what real progressive activism should be about. Instead our young people see a local political war more or less like what they see on TV so why bother? Same ol’, same ol’, so why not go for the Gold and gusto and have a good time?
Without a spiritual reawakening of the counterculture I just don’t see how SoHum is going to continue on except as it has, devolving more and more into what most hippies ran away from in the first place.
April 2, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Siena
Maybe it should be illegal in
Southern Humboldt to deliver or
sell any diesel but pure biodiesel.
Then we would be closer to living up to our “hippie” ideals.
April 2, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Anonymous
This conversation is running all over the place. It is true that pot growing brings violence into our community. To deny it is to be untruthful. It is also true the level of violence has been greatly overstated in this thread. I know of two youth who have died as a result of the pot indusrty in our community in the 15 years I’ve lived here. Both cases involved young local men in their late teens selling pot to tough, street kids from the city. Their murders were horrifing and tragic. The overwhelming majority of kids who have died had little or nothing to do with potgrowing.
Pot is not going to be leaglized anytime soon; our politicians are to cowardly. Law inforcement is not making a serious dent in the industry. It is hard for me to blame people who grow modestly and keep it to themselves. Live and let live is my motto in that regard. However, I wouln’t give a second thought to calling the police on any neighbor who displayed violence, or kept a generator running 24/7, fired off automayic weapons on a regular basis or was caught polluting our water or land.
I have zero tolerance for that shit. One neighbor was doing the gun thing and was told one more time and the cops would be at his door. He huffed and puffed and stopped shooting. He moved out about a year later. Take contol of your lives. Ask neighbors for help if you are afraid or uncertain. Don’t accept living in fear. But keep it in perspective. Some of these post are totally paranoid.
April 2, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Eric V. Kirk
As someone who has “only” been here just over a decade, I also find the secrecy around here oppressive, as well as the provincialism. The loud paranoia whenever a local nonprofit hires an “outsider” is a case in point.
April 2, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Anonymous
The people that moved up here in the early and mid seventies came here specifically to live on the land. People put a few plants in the ground for their personal stash. When sinsemilla was first grown it brought in big bucks. The technique of pulling the males spread llike wild fire amongst the hill people. It was a pure blessing because no one I know expected it to happen. People were able to move out of their tepees, lean-tos and domes and actully build a house or finish their cabins. We were able to buy newer and more reliable vehicles Still, the money kept coming in and we were confronted with the problem of having much more money than expected. Some of us used it wisely, some of us didn’t. Many of folks that moved here after the “flowering” of our culture came and bought land for the express purpose of growing pot. Many old school people still grow, but grow in a way that augments the quality of their lives. They don’t care about getting rich off pot because of the understanding that living here in this beautiful place is a blessing.
April 2, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Mous Anony
Growing personal stash is a great idea. Like growing tomatoes and string beans. Then you can put them up until the next season. That’s a good and wonderful thing. Like making homemade wine. You can even share a gift of Humboldt Homegrown at the holidays. Absolutely no harm in that. But when a pot farm guard gets beheaded out in the woods and the murder has yet to be solved, as happened in 1984 in western Trinity County, then something is definitely wrong with the whole scene. Legalize it and be done with it!
April 3, 2007 at 12:03 am
Anonymous
You SoHum jerkoffs try to make what you do (grow dope, contaminate the land, shoot off guns, kill people, skip paying taxes)should romantic, almost heroic. I am fed up with the group.
April 3, 2007 at 4:03 am
Anonymous
You say “SoHum jerkoffs” like it’s a bad thing. Are you Catholic?
April 3, 2007 at 4:22 am
Anonymous
hell no
April 3, 2007 at 4:39 am
Anonymous
That was a rhetorical question you humorless, foul-mouthed imbicile.
April 3, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Anonymous
Anon 5:03,
Please tell us how we can make you like us? It’s very to us important that you approve.
April 3, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Anonymous
It is romantic! I jerk off to my exploits every day!
April 4, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Anonymous
Oh my god, did you say the drug dealing Mexicans hanging out in Redway were jerking off in front of the Catholic church while torturing teenagers and planning future beheadings? AHGGGG… it’s bad but it’s gonna get a lot worse, tell your kids to leave and never come back then call the police and turn in all your neighbors. It’s your only hope.