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.

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.

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.

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:

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.]

That must be the kind where you can see the tumors growing inside you as your consciousness expands.

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

OK, Ernie. I’ll call you when I need one.

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.