Someone dumped a bunch of spent marijuana grow soil into the Arcata Bottoms, disturbing a very vulnerable habitat. The Arcata Eye has the photos.
We know nothing about the people who did the dumping, and I know there are much worse transgressions than this – but what is clear is that there is a certain nihilist element in the growing community which becomes evident with each headline. This incident visually symbolizes what appears to be a decline of ethics and increase in self-centered disregard for community in an industry which is broadly trying to become legit. This is what leads public figures to rail about “unholy alliances” and will certainly contribute to a very definitive backlash.
Maybe some values are simply not surviving from one generation to the next?
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June 20, 2011 at 11:19 am
Anonymous
I think we can than prohibition. Huge illicit profit warps the culture.
June 20, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Kym Kemp
A good chance is that they are first generation growers folks who moved here for the money not for the lifestyle.
June 20, 2011 at 12:25 pm
tra
This is what leads public figures to rail about “unholy alliances” and will certainly contribute to a very definitive backlash.
No, I think what led Shane Brinton to rail about how the heroic environmentalists and Plan A advocates are faced with an “unholy alliance” of pot growers and developers was that it was a convenient way to demonize both groups with those who dislike one or the other.
Aside from the foolish use of the term “unholy,” the problem with that attempt to summarize the problem is that it ignores the fact that the “alliances” simply aren’t that straighforward. Case in point, the recent pot bust in Fieldbrook where more than 500 one pound bags of trimmed bud were seized, along with 300 plants. And the woman busted at the grow was apparently not only a paid staff member for a prominent local environmental group, but also, according to ber bio:
____________attended Humboldt State University where she earned a degree in Natural Resources Economics. She has been engaged in the environmental planning process throughout the Pacific Northwest. Through previous work with public agencies and private corporations, she has worked on and applied many of the environmental, economic and community planning documents throughout the region.
“It is important to understand how the public can be involved in the environmental planning process and what we can do to become more sustainable.”
Of course this story was not covered on this blog, but fortunately it was covered on Hank’s Lost Coast Outpost.
http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2011/jun/13/most-weed-youve-ever-seen-one-place/#disqus_thread
Interestingly, though, the details about her employment and her enthusiasm for “sustainable” planning (for other people, apparently) was not noted by Hank, it had to be brought up by someone else in the comment thread. On the other hand, in covering a recent large bust in Bridgeville, the fact that the two people arrested were “Mexican National” made it into the headline (despite the liklihood that those two were probably just the low-level workers unlucky enough to be present when the bust went down).
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think anyone should have to do time in prison for growing a relatively harmess, mildly intoxicating herb… but it sure was interesting to hear the sound of silence about the indentity of the individuals in the Fieldbrook case. Had they been Mexican nationals rather than local enviros it seems all bit certain that that fact would have been noted. And if one of them had been a paid employee of HumCPR with a resume that proudly listed involvement in opposing planning processes throughout the region, I suspect that would have received quite a bit of attention, too.
This “unholy alliance” thing seems to be a double-edged sword…but for some reason one of those edges seems to be rather dulled down.
June 20, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Anonymous
There’s another story that could apply to this. It’s possible it was a landlord having to clean out their property after a grow. Either way, it’s irresponsible, crappy behavior. When the perps aren’t seen and investigated, it’s only conjecture as to who did the deed.
June 20, 2011 at 12:33 pm
tra
Anyway, as to this recent incident of soil-dumping in the Arcata Bottoms, whoever did that was not only inconsiderate and foolish, they must have also been greedy and/or ill-informed. Anyone who has driven along Old Arcata Rd between indianola and Eureka knows that those who have old potting soil / grow mix that they want to get rid of can bring it to Freshwater Farms, and for a very modest fee they can unload it there.
Of course the irony is that the Freshwater Farms soil pile is right next to the wetlands, just a few feet away from a sign that boasts of the wetlands restoration project being done on the adjacent land. Still, it’s better than dumping it straight into the wetlands themselves.
June 20, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Jane
Economics. The romantic notion that high risk takers can enter a market area, for whatever reason you wish to attach to it, and not have it signal every Tom, Dick, and Jerry Carpetbagger to follow is a bit naive. An industry with high gains attracts the rats. And, frankly, the rats have been around for a while. This is nothing new it is just in a more populous area where people don’t get ostracized or shot if they talk about the wrong thing. And the mainstream news is willing to cover it as a human interest story these days.
June 20, 2011 at 12:55 pm
Eric Kirk
TRA – I generally don’t report on criminal busts of any kind except maybe on a national level. I’ve done so in the past, but I’ve decided that unless there is a very clear political issue involved it really doesn’t belong on blogs. That someone affiliated with a political group gets busted for reasons which have nothing to do with the politics just doesn’t warrant the public pillorying it gets on other blogs. Unless someone is in office, running for office, or is busted for something in contradiction to a public moral stance made by the individual, it’s not blogworthy to me.
The “unholy alliance” reference has much more context than the GPU issue believe it or not. A significant portion of the Arcata populace believes that they have been particularly impacted by the indoor grow scene and it has led to something of a backlash. The backlash is also very prominent in Mendocino County, which led to the passage of an anti-marijuana initiative that would have been unthinkable several years earlier.
That people moved to Humboldt County to grow indoors in Arcata seems dubious to me. You can grow indoors anywhere.
June 20, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Rose
“Trying to become legit”? But keeping it illegal so profits stay high. Right. Legit, BS.
Grow houses in residential neighborhoods… Cheating by not paying taxes, business licenses, fees, employee withholding (social security, unemployment, and all the rest… that every LEGIT business pays) LEGIT? Please.
215 is a sham – and legalization is long overdue – but who fought it? Oh, right, the ones seeking to be “legit.”
June 20, 2011 at 1:13 pm
tra
The “unholy alliance” reference has much more context than the GPU issue believe it or not.
Maybe so, but the phrase was introduced by Mr. Brinton at the County BOS meeting on the County GPU, which does not apply to land use in Arcata, since Arcata has its own Planning Department and its own General Plan.
.
June 20, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Not A Native
Eric, you can’t lose what you don’t have. In this case its a ‘good name’. The prop. 19 HumCo poll results are only the latest example of pot grower moral bankruptcy. Illegal pot is the reason dysfunctional denial has beome normative in parts of HumCo culture. Its always I’ve adopted right livelihood, ‘that other person’ is the problem. Fact is, there’s simply no valid ethical basis for a clandestine lifestyle within a coperative society.
At one far removed time, pot growing was a hobby activity that really was about good vibes, civil liberties, and freeing the herb. The money was secondary. But since the late 80′s, pot became a lifestyle economy based on profits due solely to illegality. And all the ills of illegality are simply a come along that few protest against. Its a classic validation of the principle of ‘the slippery slope’ that conservatives trot out whenever they see signs of moral lapse.
June 20, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Cristina Bauss
The story in the T-S about La Chaparrita, which has been in business in the same location for almost a decade, being given 60 days’ notice to vacate for a dispensary isn’t giving the local pot culture any good press either. Not to mention, Mark Carter is apparently going to lose a whole lot of business at the Carter House Inn.
June 20, 2011 at 1:22 pm
tra
My guess (admittedly only a guess, based on knowledge of a few individuals) is that Healthy Humboldt and the urban/suburban environmental groups allied with them probably get more money from indoor, residential, urban & suburban growers than outdoor growers, while HumCPR probably gets more money from outdoor growers (since most outdoor grows are in rural areas). Is one alliance more “holy” than the other?
The point being, there are some folks in the Plan A crowd who are standing on the front porches of their glass houses, throwing stones. They can do that if they want, but they shouldn’t be surprised when someone chucks a few rocks back in their direction.
June 20, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Anonymous
it’s only conjecture as to who did the deed.
It’s also only conjecture that it was from an indoor grow. People grow pot in buckets outdoors . and in greenhouses too. This is the time of year, summer solstice, when many people are dumping the old soil from last summer’s outdoor crop and refilling the buckets to transplant into for this year’s …
June 20, 2011 at 1:43 pm
suzy blah blah
that was me…
June 20, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Eric Kirk
It could also be someone who grew petunias. I just don’t think it’s very likely.
June 20, 2011 at 1:59 pm
suzy blah blah
-sorry Eric, on second thought, Suzy decided that you’re right as always –it was the Nihilists
June 20, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Mitch
OK folks, I’m going to expose even more ignorance than usual. What is the problem with dumping soil in the Arcata Bottoms. (I’m serious, even if dumb.)
June 20, 2011 at 2:44 pm
tra
It’s possible that it was from an outdoor grow…but not very likely. My impression is that outdoor growers will usually just add that used grow mix to garden beds used to grow other things. Sometimes they’ll mix it with compost and/or other soil amendments and let it sit through the winter and then use it the next year, either for more ganja growing or for other garden beds. But for indoor growers in urban and suburban areas, they don’t want a big pile of used grow mix sitting in their yard, advertising the fact that they are growing in their residence. So, yes, chances are that it was from an indoor grow.
June 20, 2011 at 2:51 pm
tra
Mitch,
The used soil may have pesticides and/or fertilizers in it, which may be harmful to the local soil and wildlife and/or to the sloughs and the bay. If it was used for indoor growing, then it’s very likely that it contained pyrethroids used to kill spider mites, and possibly various fungicides as well. Judging from what you see in the local garden shops, indoor growing also appears to involve a lot of soluble fertilizers. I’m not sure how much of those fertilizers would still be left in the soil at the end of the process, but I suppose there must be some.
Depending on how much soil it was, what was in it, and exactly where it was dumped, it might be a significant problem, or it might not. But either way it’s not a good idea, it’s totally unnecessary (plenty of better places to get rid of it, including Freshwater Farms), and, as Eric noted, it certainly gives growers a bad reputation.
June 20, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Mitch
Thanks.
June 20, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Eric Kirk
-sorry Eric, on second thought, Suzy decided that you’re right as always –it was the Nihilists
With perhaps a neo-Jacobian influence.
June 20, 2011 at 3:09 pm
tra
Okay, I just looked at the pictures from the Arcata Eye. They dumped it directly into the edge of the slough — really, really obnoxious. I don’t know whether vermiculite is really a danger to the marine life or not, but clearly any pesticides or fertilizers that were in that soil and in the rootballs went right into the slough and into the bay. Truly reprehensible.
The article also noted that other things were dumped there, including a couple of bags of garbage. That’s just as obnoxious and, depending on what was in the trash bags, possibly even more harmful. I hope whoever removed the trash bags brought them to the attention of the Arcata police department or county sheriffs to see if perhaps there was anything in there that might identify the dumper. In the past, that has led to the identification and prosecution of the illegal dumpers.
And the truck transmission that had been dumped there the week before was probably the worst of all. Somehow I doubt that the dumper had carefully removed all the oil and transmission fluid from the old transmission before they dumped it there. And again, totally unnecessary, since (I believe) there are still junkyards and scrap metal dealers who will take that sort of thing and see that it gets recycled.
But apparently the truck transmission and the garbage would not, on their own, have rated a picture and an article in the Eye, it wasn’t “news” until it involved pot growing. That’s just kind of sad.
Given the other items that were dumped there, it seems to me that this is a problem that goes well beyond the ethics (or lack thereof) of some of our local growers. Sadly, it’s a problem of inconsiderate, lazy, greedy assholes, and while some of those are growers, most are not.
Anyway, kudos to the folks who keep an eye on these illegal dumping spots and act quickly to try to get them cleaned up as well as possible.
June 20, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Not A Native
The question here is whether the pot growers are responsible. Not whether people who dump trash and car parts are responsible. As usual, tra is the apolgist for pot growers, trying to redirect attention away from the question because the facts are inconvenient for him.
People dumping trash or auto parts illegally aren’t doing to support an ongoing criminal enterprise. Pot growers dump illegally to hide their other criminal activity. Hiding what they do, sneaking around, and being on the lookout for ways to operate clandestinely is an absolutely essential part of they chosen lifestyle. If pot were legal, the current growers would still operate as outlaws and refuse to operate legally. Their abuse of the 215 laws is evidence of that. They’re fundamentally criminally minded people who look to make money through lucrative illegal schemes. And for now, they’ve chosen pot growing.
June 20, 2011 at 4:03 pm
tra
Amazing. Only NAN could read this:
The used soil may have pesticides and/or fertilizers in it, which may be harmful to the local soil and wildlife and/or to the sloughs and the bay. If it was used for indoor growing, then it’s very likely that it contained pyrethroids used to kill spider mites, and possibly various fungicides as well. Judging from what you see in the local garden shops, indoor growing also appears to involve a lot of soluble fertilizers. I’m not sure how much of those fertilizers would still be left in the soil at the end of the process, but I suppose there must be some….
…Okay, I just looked at the pictures from the Arcata Eye. They dumped it directly into the edge of the slough — really, really obnoxious. I don’t know whether vermiculite is really a danger to the marine life or not, but clearly any pesticides or fertilizers that were in that soil and in the rootballs went right into the slough and into the bay. Truly reprehensible.
And come up with this:
As usual, tra is the apolgist for pot growers, trying to redirect attention away from the question because the facts are inconvenient for him
June 20, 2011 at 4:12 pm
tra
Oh and NAN apparently also missed this, from my first comment addressing this soil dumping:
Anyway, as to this recent incident of soil-dumping in the Arcata Bottoms, whoever did that was not only inconsiderate and foolish, they must have also been greedy and/or ill-informed.
June 20, 2011 at 4:24 pm
tra
People dumping trash or auto parts illegally aren’t doing to support an ongoing criminal enterprise.
I’m sure the wildlife in the slough and the bay really appreciate that distinction.
June 20, 2011 at 4:59 pm
suzy blah blah
Could be there’s a growing evil influence on the demographic of those who change their own transmissions. It’d be interesting to know the stats on their educational level, the tv shows they watch, ideology, etc., both 35 years ago and today. And what about those people who dump their trash off somewhere out in nature. I mean are they Neo-Jakofists, or what?
June 20, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Dave Kirby
Back when I was doing Real Estate I took a young local guy out to look at property. On the way back to town we were talking about the scene. He then told me the secret goal of the local twenty somethings. 1. Grow as much pot as you can get away with, 2. Buy the biggest pickup you can afford.3. Find the smallest girlfriend you can to drive the pickup. 4. Buy her a set of after market tits and that’s all there is. And to think their folks were driving Vulvas. Volvos actually.
June 20, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Not A Native
Many similar stories as yours, Dave. But people in denial don’t care. Their way of making money depends on their not seeing, so a person who looks embarasses them. Its funny, because that’s the exact cultural myopia that many critics of the mainstream believe they are in committed rebellion against.
June 20, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Anonymous
Moved here for the money and not the lifestyle ? Who the *(*& are you trying to kid? Pot growers are in it for the money period! You can try to jazz it up and make it seem like some pot growers are noble people but in reality they are just drug dealers. Plain and simple. Just because there is such a concentrated number of pot growers/drug dealers in Humboldt / Mendocindo you get the idea that it’s a normal profession. It is not. Just greedy drug dealers.
June 20, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Anonymous
6:34,
Have another drink, and then lecture us some more about “drugs.”
June 20, 2011 at 7:56 pm
moviedad
The Nihilists are coming!
June 20, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Ross Rowley
Not A Native, You and I have disagreed on many things through the blogosphere, but I agree wholeheartedly with your above statements.
June 20, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Anonymous
There are plenty of 2nd and 3rd generation growers here that exhibit the same lack of conscience. Take a good look around. Garbage from marijuana growers has been dumped all around this county for a very long time. This is not a first, and it certainly will not be the last. And when we have those 1 acre marijuana grows that are being proposed by groups like HGA, there will be more garbage and environmental damage.
Greed. Greed. Greed. And more Greed.
June 21, 2011 at 5:05 am
Anonymous
Greed it is! Absolutely. And there are the houses rented for growing pot that get damaged, water damage, holes in walls, and so on. The landlord gets the bill and most of that gets passed on to an insurance company, which means passed on to working people that have insurance. It’s greed.
Kym you. your blog, try to make marijuana growers out to be something they are not. But remember SoHumborn? There were some more accucate potrayals of marijuana growers.
June 21, 2011 at 6:38 am
Mitch
Funny. Seems to me that if growers are just doing what they can get away with, they are modeling their behavior after today’s typical MBA, corporate executive, or bankster. It’s a shame when even the people who break the law don’t have any morals.
Trash the environment if it increases profits (Union Carbide et al); cut back on pipeline recordkeeping if it would impact profits (PG&E); collude with others to rob granny (Enron); cheat your clients (Goldman et al); get fees for making liar loans and then pass the loan risks on to the gubmint (banksters); don’t test the blowout preventer (BP).
June 21, 2011 at 6:44 am
Mitch
Attention all growers. The approach only works after you’ve bought enough people in government. Better start lobbying, if you haven’t already bribed your way to enough legal cover.
June 21, 2011 at 6:51 am
Kevin Hoover
I wouldn’t draw any vast conclusions about cannabis growers over this incident, other than that they’re no different than the rest of the populace. Ted Halstead regularly pulls all manner of garbage, furniture and genuine toxic waste like pots of roof tar out of the slough. This fragile waterway provides habitat for all manner of marine life; why people use it as a dump is incomprehensible. Here’s more on our friend Ted. http://tinyurl.com/3vx2p8s
June 21, 2011 at 9:29 am
tra
Careful, Mitch and Kevin — according to NAN you’re just being “apologists” for growers, and “trying to redirect attention away from the question.”
June 21, 2011 at 9:35 am
tra
Kevin,
I’m glad you acknowledge that the problem goes well beyond pot growers dumping soil. I guess my question is: Why did the picture of the dumped soil and root balls rate a picture, a headline and a story, but the truck transmission dumped there a week earlier, and the “genuine toxic waste like pots of roof tar” and the other items you mentioned did not get a picture, a headline and a story? (Or maybe they did, and I just missed those pictures/headlines/stories?)
June 21, 2011 at 10:42 am
Not A Native
Keep twisting and evading tra. I dispute Kevin’s assertion that pot growers who dump are ‘no diferent from the rest of the populace’. The vast majority of the populace doesn’t dump their trash. Only the irresponsible, greedy, and narcissistic people dump trash.
In response to Kevin, my conclusion is: Pot growers are no different from the rest of the antisocial criminals who create burdens on others and make the community a worse place to be. And tra, don’t divert this as being a disposal pproblem. The problem isn’t dumped refuse, the problem is the people who choose to dump.
June 21, 2011 at 11:23 am
tra
Keep twisting and evading tra
The “twisting and evading” is all in your head, NAN. As I stated very clearly above, I think the growers who dumped the soil there were inconsiderate, obnoxious, lazy and/or greedy, that the soil they dumped could pose significant negative environmental impacts to the slough and the bay and that their actions were reprehensible.
In addition to that, whoever dumped all that other stuff, well, in my opinion they also were inconsiderate, obnoxious, lazy and/or greedy, that the items those people dumped could pose significant negative environmental impacts to the slough and the bay and that their actions also were reprehensible. That doesn’t take anything away from the obnoxiousness, etc., of the growers who dumped the soil there.
And I don’t see where I was suggesting that it was a “disposal problem.” Quite to the contrary, I noted that both for the soil and for the other items, there are appropriate places where those materials could have been brought to, for little or no cost, and with much less environmental impact.
You seem determined to find disagreement where no real disagreement actually exists and to fail to ackowledge agreement where it does exist. I guess the one place that we do disagree is that the actions of the soil dumpers were somehow worse than the actions of the other dumpers. As far as the wildlife of the slough and the bay are concerned, it doesn’t matter where the stuff came from, or whether the dumpers were breaking some other laws previous to the dumping offense. In fact we don’t know for sure if the soil came from an illegal commercial grow, or from a legit 215 grow , and we don’t know if the truck transmission came from a legal operation, or from an illegal, unpermitted auto repair operation or chop shop or whether the pots of roof tar were dumped by an unlicensed builder. And again, to the wildlife it matters not. From the point of view of actual damage to the ecosystem, the truck transmission and the “genuine toxic waste like pots of roof tar” are probably just as bad and possibly worse than the soil (though if the soill was loaded with lots of pesticides and fertilizers that might be just as bad).
All this illegal dumping sucks. If you want to direct selective outrage at the soil dumpers and be more mad at them, that’s your prerogative. In my opinion that just doesn’t make a lot of sense given the actual facts cited by Kevin, but that’s just my opinion, and your welcome to your differing opinon.
June 21, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Arcatawitch
Eric said: “That people moved to Humboldt County to grow indoors in Arcata seems dubious to me. You can grow indoors anywhere.”
Dubious yet true, Eric. I could count a dozen or so who have moved here, even bought homes, JUST to grow pot. Yes you can grow it anywhere, but only Arcata is Pot City, USA.
June 21, 2011 at 12:25 pm
tra
I think Arcatawitch has a point.
It’s not that you can’t grow indoors in other cities, it’s that Arcata (and Humboldt in general) has a reputation for being more tolerant of pot growing than, say, Bakersfield. And rents are much cheaper than, say, Oakland. I do think that there are probably a significant number of people who moved to Arcata specifically for the purpose of growing pot indoors. Which is really unfortunate, given all the negative effects of commercial, indoor residential-unit grows, including potential fire hazards, potential security impacts on neighbors due the the possibility of home invasions or other types of rip-offs, and due to the fact that having horticultural operations occupying residential structures that could otherwise be housing actual human beings affects supply and demand in the housing market, driving rents ever skyward.
Personally I wish everyone who is going to grow cannabis would do so outdoors, or in a greenhouse, using sun and soil and only organic-type soil amendments. But since consumer preference has created a market for indoor buds grown under lights, I wish that the commercial-scale growers would at least move their indoor operations into properly-wired, properly-ventilated and properly-secured warehouse-type or industrial-type spaces, and/or light-assisted greenhouses, rather than continuing to fill the bedrooms of our residential units with jerry-rigged, mold-infested firetraps. (End of rant.)
June 21, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Anonymous
NAN I have to agree with TRA that you seem to thrive on argument, even when it doesn’t appear to exist. I also must disagree with your statement that “The vast majority of the populace doesn’t dump their trash. Only the irresponsible, greedy, and narcissistic people dump trash.” Vast majority only possibly applies to “developed countries” whose entire populations don’t even constitute any sort of majority of the world’s population. Whether here or in the “third world,” I think that “poor” outnumbers all three groups you name, by a long shot.
June 21, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Joe Blow
Cristina has it dead right here:
Every stinking business that promotes, sustains and defends this corrupt “business” needs to feel the same pain. There’s more to a decent, law-abiding community than blood-stained money.
June 21, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Is This Guy an MRE? « The Joe Blow Report 2
[...] Giving growers a bad name [...]
June 21, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Not A Native
Anon1:13 You’re a jerk and an economic elitist for equating trash dumping with poor people. In HumCo the vast majority of people, financially secure or insecure, properly handle their unwanted trash. Being poor is not the cause for being what trash dumpers are: irresponsible, greedy and selfish.
June 21, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Anonymous
Mitch, Keven, and Tra
You are all missing the point! All pot growers are lowlife scumbags, whether they grow 200 plants indoors powered by PG&E or they grow 2000 plants outdoors, or 3000 plants indoors powered by a 125KW diesel generator. Whether they live in a $750,000 house in Shelter Cove or a rented two bedroom 40 year old track home in Arcata. They are all just pimples on the ass of society. some just make more than others
June 21, 2011 at 9:37 pm
tra
How could anyone possibly argue with such a well-reasoned argument?
June 22, 2011 at 9:20 am
Anonymous
You are absolutely right tra.
June 22, 2011 at 10:28 am
Jane
I am not sure there is logic in most of the above commentary. However having lived in Arcata and Eureka for a number of years, surrounded on all four sides, by grow houses–I think the responsibility for the situation needs to be shared. Landlords rent to growers to take a share in profits and minimize, if they are lucky, their own risk. Businesses get people to shop who can afford to pay $10.00 a pound for organic lettuce. Organic farmers get a place to sell their product locally and create more effective cover for their “other” business. Politicians get campaigns funded or put into power positions in the country to support the whole industry and minimize negative impacts to curb the industry. Nonprofits and education get brown sacks full of money when they need it and other than a few dead people, a complete takeover of the political power of “law-abiding and tax-paying” citizens in the county, a slippery slope for the idea of rule of law, and communities too paranoid to do anything out of fear of being reported by their neighbors, plus several burnt houses–what is there to complain about? (Yes, ‘Viriginia’ this is irony). But every one blogging here most likely already knows, a) all of the above, or b) is involved in all of the above.
So what’s the point again? Oh that’s right, someone dumped something maybe toxic in the wrong spot and someone else took a photo of it.
Nothing here folks. Just move along to the next accident scene.
June 22, 2011 at 11:20 am
Kevin Hoover
“Why did the picture of the dumped soil and root balls rate a picture, a headline and a story, but the truck transmission dumped there a week earlier, and the “genuine toxic waste like pots of roof tar” and the other items you mentioned did not get a picture, a headline and a story? (Or maybe they did, and I just missed those pictures/headlines/stories?)”
Yes, you missed ‘em. We’ve published a number of photos of slough dumpings, easily more than a dozen, ranging from household garbage to the remains of multiple slaughtered pigs dumped there (and one time a piano). This is the first or maybe the second cannabis-related one, as far as I can remember. Ted only told me about the truck transmission during the course of notifying me of this latest incident.
June 22, 2011 at 11:40 am
Eric Kirk
They can blame me Kevin. This is the only one I blogged.
June 22, 2011 at 11:57 am
Kevin Hoover
They didn’t all make it online, although if you search arcataeye.com for “Halstead” it gives some background.
Here are a few more dumpings that made it to our FB page:
http://tinyurl.com/6j5qmg3
http://tinyurl.com/6xfacca
June 22, 2011 at 2:17 pm
suzy blah blah
The photo and story of the diary bundle is sad. It symbolizes an increasing disregard by the self for it’s center.
June 22, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Anonymous
Jane is dead on with her assessment.
June 22, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Not A Native
Giving Somali pirates a Bad Name?
They’re good people
” …the court should know that I wasn’t trying to hijack a ship to get rich. I just wanted to survive….How much sense does it make to conduct a trial against defendants from a country where there is little food, no work, no functioning state and no legal system?”
BTW Eric, What do you tell your children about marijuana growers? If your kids were to ask to sleep over with classmate whose caregiver you suspect maintains a grow, would you let them? If your kids were to tell you about visiting a classmate’s grow and the cool the ways it was disguised was and the amount of money it would sell for, how would you respond? Do you let them freely wander in open property confirming to them that you’ve chosen to live in a ‘rural’ setting because its “a good place to raise kids”.
June 22, 2011 at 7:51 pm
tra
Kevin,
Thanks for the response. Glad to hear you’re covering the dumping issue in general, and not just the ganja-related dumping incidents.
The truth is I don’t read the print version of the Eye every week, probably only once a month on average.
But I do keep up with the Police Log online, which I have a love-hate relationship with. On an intellectual and moral level I’m often annoyed and sometimes downright disgusted by what seems like a flip, perhaps even snide tone often used to describe the actions of people who are obviously suffering from serious mental illnesses, substance addictions and social problems — and yet somehow I just can’t help thoroughly enjoying the damned thing!
So it’s kind of a gulity pleasure, I guess, and I have to admit that I’m hooked. Damn you and your diabolically effective wit!
June 22, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Eric Kirk
BTW Eric, What do you tell your children about marijuana growers? If your kids were to ask to sleep over with classmate whose caregiver you suspect maintains a grow, would you let them? If your kids were to tell you about visiting a classmate’s grow and the cool the ways it was disguised was and the amount of money it would sell for, how would you respond? Do you let them freely wander in open property confirming to them that you’ve chosen to live in a ‘rural’ setting because its “a good place to raise kids”.
NAN – that’s a very complicated issue, and not one I want to discuss on a blog. I would be happy to discuss it personally.
June 23, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Not A Native
Eric, of course I didn’t expect you bare your philosophy and practice of parenting. And I understand the particular personalities of your kids affect your decisions and they need to be afforded privacy.
But my questions were more than rhetorical, they go the your post’s point. Local growers have an earned reputation(name) and you anticipate dumping will make it ‘bad’. So really, I’m just asking what is the community’s(as you identify it) characterization to their own children of how to regard what growers are doing(their reputation)?
Eric, how about playing Dr. Spock and pretend you’re writing child care advise for SoHum parents? Or frame it this way: What counsel would you give a candidate legal associate interviewee who asks you what she should know when considering relocating and raising young childen here?
June 23, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Mitch
tra,
There’s an easy way to stop being hooked on the Police Log. Spend a few minutes meeting the people who are its source of humor. On another blog, I’ve pointed out that the reason I like Garrison Keillor’s humor is that it recognizes our universal failings as human beings. The Police Log, IMO, takes a very different route.
June 23, 2011 at 4:05 pm
tra
There’s an easy way to stop being hooked on the Police Log. Spend a few minutes meeting the people who are its source of humor.
Oh, I have…and much more than just “a few minutes.” And yet, to be compIetely honest here, there are usually at least one or two items that can make me laugh out loud (sometimes these are the same items that also make me wince, sometimes not). I’m not proud of that…nor can I easily explain it.
I could try to defend myself by saying that it is not really the people or their problems that are funny, but mostly just the quirky phrasing and odd choice of emphasis that Kevin employs in describing each item — and there would be at least some truth to that — but I do realize that claiming that as the full explanation would be, well, a bit of a cop-out.
Do you think that perhaps the fairly common experience of finding humor in the odd behavior of others, sometimes even in cases when we know it’s “wrong” to find it funny, is just another one of our “univeral failings as human beings?” If so, then I guess at some level the real joke is on readers like me — who just can’t help but laugh at some of these items, even when we know that the underlying realities aren’t really a laughing matter at all.
June 23, 2011 at 4:11 pm
JK
How many growers are there? How many actions like this have happened? Is this indicative of growers behavior or just that in any group of people there are a few douches? I would think that compared to logging, mining, commercial agriculture, or even truck driving the environmental impact is minimal even with the douche bag factor.
June 23, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Mitch
tra,
You are more tolerant than I am. I spent some time in the jail letting people have some quiet space to meditate. Once I’d been in the jail, I don’t find the Police Log funny at all. But then, my opinion of people’s looks has always changed based on what I know about them.
I can understand why cops make fun of the “bad guys,” and I’m not bothered by that at all. I’m confident that if I were a cop for more than a year, I’d do it too.
But I’m mystified when a reporter with Kevin’s obvious intelligence and community concern chooses to, IMO, waste it on things like the Police Log.
It strikes me as the grown-up equivalent of the popular high school jock — or maybe the not-so-popular high school comedian — making retard jokes because the Heathers egg him on. Personally, I just find it bizarre.
June 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Mitch
tra,
And I don’t pretend that I don’t find un-PC jokes funny. I’m a huge fan of Little Britain, for example, possibly the least PC show in the world.
June 23, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Buster_Friendly
Let’s not cast aspersions without the facts, shall we?
http://laist.com/2010/11/03/map_which_counties_voted_yes_on_pro.php
June 24, 2011 at 8:31 am
suzy blah blah
It’s called an inferiority complex. People who enjoy things like Eye’s police log display an attitude of being superior outwardly to try and balance the condition that they suffer from of feeling inferior inwardly.
June 24, 2011 at 9:13 am
Ernie's Place
But… then of course, there are those with a superiority complex. Those that constantly criticize the non-PC joy that people get from other peoples foibles, while smugly feeling superior themselves.
June 24, 2011 at 10:26 am
suzy blah blah
Ernie, you’ve got it backwards, What you describe is also called the inferiority complex. Acting superior outside, eg being overly critical, smug, etc,(consciously), while feeling inferior inside (unconsciously). On the other hand, the superiority complex means feeling superior inside but acting inferior outwardly. It’s basic psychology.
June 24, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Ernie's Place
Suzy
It’s all good, I was just trying to be humorous.
June 24, 2011 at 1:52 pm
suzy blah blah
You’d have more of a chance at being humorous, Ernie, if you took the time to know the definition of the terms you are using. Your comment is illogical, and consequently it is not humorous, it can’t be humorous because you don’t understand the basic psychological concept and are using the term “superiority complex” incorrectly. The only thing that might be considered funny is that you stuck your foot in your mouth … have a nice day.
June 24, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Ernie's Place
Suzie
If you would read what I said more carefully you would find that I used the term exactly right; “A Superiority complex refers to an exaggerated feeling of being superior to others which is exactly what you were trying to do. I was extending you the simple courtesy of trying to let you off the hook easily, yet you took the opportunity to try to slam me.
I’m not into physiological bullshit, I build refrigerators, some the size of a barn, and they all work… what do you do with your complexes?
I remember when you didn’t have a mean thing to say to anybody. What Happened?
June 24, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Not A Native
CALI, Colombia (AFP) – Greenhouses lined with genetically modified marijuana sit on a mountainside just an hour ride from Cali, Colombia, where farmers say the enhanced plants are more powerful and profitable.
One greenhouse owner said she can sell the modified marijuana for 100,000 pesos ($54) per kilo (2.2 pounds), which is nearly 10 times more than the price she can get for ordinary marijuana……”La Cominera’s” higher value is due to its increased concentration of THC, the plant’s principal active ingredient, and the modified plant verges on an 18 percent concentration level, compared to a normal marijuana plant’s two to seven percent, said the researcher.
June 24, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Ernie's Place
Before I get jumped on from twenty or more directions, I’m only accusing Suzie of engaging in “physiological bullshit” I fully understand that there is real science out there.
June 24, 2011 at 4:03 pm
suzy blah blah
I’m not into physiological bullshit, I build refrigerators,
OK, Ernie. I’ll call you when I need one.
June 24, 2011 at 4:22 pm
suzy blah blah
I remember when you didn’t have a mean thing to say to anybody. What Happened?
Actually, Ernie, I’m not the same Suzy as you remember. At one point, about a year and a half ago (?) Suzy talked me into taking over her blog commenter identity. She said she was bored with it and told me that I should become her. That I should just intersperse my dialogs with some LOL’s, soooooooo’s … and cewls, and omg!s etc. So Suzy did. But as usual she, I mean I, got it wrong … And now Suzy’s all flustered cuz yuo ferreted me uot and got me too sconfes ., sort of ‘ bu t aynway, i hearat yuo;
huggles,
s
June 24, 2011 at 4:36 pm
suzy blah blah
Carlos Rodriguez, said one of the modified varieties goes by the name, “Creepy”.
That must be the kind where you can see the tumors growing inside you as your consciousness expands.
June 24, 2011 at 7:37 pm
tra
The Columbians need to genetically modify their weed to get to just 18%, and without that they’re at a pathetic 2%-7%?
Damn, I knew our Emerald Triangle growers were good, but I had no idea how good they were compared to our neighbors to the far south!
Not only that, it sounds like the Columbians haven’t even heard of CBDs, the “other active ingredients” that don’t get you stoned the way THC does, but actually have much more promise for the treatment of a number of medical conditions.
And the 2010 Emerald Cup Winner isssss:
1st Place: “Sour Best Shit Ever.” 19.62% THC, .25% CBD’s
2nd Place: “Cheese.” 17.78 %THC, .21% CBD’s
3rd Place: “In the Pines Pineapple.” 19.02% THC, .35 % CBD’s
4th Place: “Headband.” 23.20% THC, .26 % CBD’s
5th Place: “Cheese to Please.” 21.70% THC, .26% CBD’s
6th Place: “Lemon Diesel.” 19.56% THC, .20% CBD’s
7th Place: “Pineapple Afghani.” 21.65% THC, .28% CBD’s
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/news/2010/12/23/cannabis-carol/7/
[On the other hand, $54 for 2.2 pounds of that genetically modified Columbian sounds like quite a deal! Of course travel and shipping costs -- and risks -- probably more than make up for the difference.]
June 24, 2011 at 8:41 pm
citizen
The South Fork Eel is full of nutrients now. Anyone been to the river this year? The current is very fast but the water is like tea, with huge stripes of some vibrant glowing moss and areas where the water is an unnatural blue. I am afraid that all the huge grows of the years are damaging the river from run-off.
Growing outside may be better than indoor, but all that soil where ever it is, is eventually leached of the addititives, even if they are organic. It is putting serious stress on the river, both from wanton diversions and as the final destination of millions of pounds of fertilizer. It’s very bad. Poor beautiful river, dying from our greed.
June 27, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Not A Native
Point here is that when pot is legalized, the price will drop to reflect the real economic cost of production which is now about $30 a pound for carefully cultivated imported product. And the wholesale price could easily go much lower, considering that foreign growers now find it remunerative at $3 a pound.
All this is no secret, but it more clearly shows the true motivations of HumCo black market pot growers when they voted for their money and NO on prop 19. For a long time that will be remembered and will put a moral stigma on HumCo.
The argument for pot legalization that ‘its just a plant’ cuts both ways. When legal, ‘just a plant’ assures competition will be intnese because the costs for becoming a grower and production are very low. So the price will also be low, relative to low yield, high capital, or highly processed speciality agricultural products(like saffron, vanilla, and wine).
Again, none of this is a secret, its been seen before. After the 21th constitutional amendment was passed, most bootleggers turned to other criminal activites fro income. It was seamless for them because their criminal orientation preceeded their bootlegging. As the upcoming Ken Burns PBS series tells, money was their only motivator. They had few qualms about the associated violence and harm to the environment that came from their activities, no different from today’s growers.
June 27, 2011 at 4:42 pm
tra
I believe pot is still illegal in Columbia. Which suggests that if it was legalized there, their price might go even lower. On the other hand, if they had to follow regulations and pay taxes, I suppose it might stay about the same, or even get a bit higher. But I do have my doubts that what they’re selling for $30/lb is in fact comparable to what gets sold here.
One thing is for sure — the days when someone could make a comforatble living growing a dozen or so plants are pretty much over (except maybe if they’re 4-5 lb plants, you’re getting top dollar for the bud, and your mortgage is already paid off). And the days when someone could make a comfortable living on 100 plants may soon be over, too. Humboldt’s future will depend to a large extent on how well its citizens cope with this. Not just the growers, but all the businesses that are on the receiving end of the growers’ cash — in other words just about every retail business in the county, and many other businesses as well.
The smarter growers can see the writing on the wall, just like everyone else, and they’re probably paying off their mortgages, putting away some reserves, and learning other skills. The dumb ones will keep trying to grow more and more every year to make up for the falling prices, until they either get busted, or until the year comes when they can’t get more for their crop than it costs them to produce it. Fortunately for them, the anti-pot hysteria remains fairly strong in a number of states, ensuring a continued black market (albeit a riskier one that involves interstate transport) for quite a few more years.
By the way, I agree with you about Prop 19. Though I recognize that it was deeply flawed in a number of ways, I do think it was nonetheless far better for most people than the status quo. And I also think that growers who opposed it were motivated mostly by raw self-interest — though I’m sure many of them rationalized their opposition based on the flaws that did exist.
June 28, 2011 at 5:55 pm
Not A Native
As far as HumCo coping with legal pot, that pales in comparison to what HumCo has gone through with gold, timber, and fishing. The area has been in continuous economic decline since those industries diminshed. Pot has hardly made a dent in the amount of economic activity that has been lost. To say ‘it could have been worse’ as a threat isn’t credible. That’s the same bogus argument that the timber, fishing, and mining used and lost when faced with greater environmental restrictions and increasing competition. Maybe a few would choose to make HumCo into a renegade Somalia, dependent on illegality to secure outsize profits, But thats not ‘normal life’ for sane people. The vast majority won’t tolerate living in continuous fear of legal sanction as condition of daily existence. Faced with that life, they either go elsewhere or cooperate with the dictates of the larger society.
And just what is the ‘big secret’ that differentiates pot in HumCo? Throughout history the ‘secrets’ of production whether it was porcelain, tea, and spices from Asia, Damascus metalurgy, Venetian glass, Bordeaux wine, or the ‘secret’ of the A bomb were soon widely disseminated. Fact is, there is no secret to HumCo pot other than lax law enforcement that reduces the ‘costs’ of production relative to most other US locales.
In a competitive environment, the only real secret is continually innovating and adapting. IMO, HumCo is woefully inadequate to that task, because the essential local ethos is to find a gig, ‘lock in’ customers and markets, and avoiding the hard work of continuous creation. Those people who come or remain in HumCo do so for an opportunity to ‘kick back’ and not compete. Can’t have it both ways, kicking back and having the benefits of being competitive.