poor corporate behavior…

Boycott Weedmaps

 

We are recommending that anyone who has used Weedmaps, stop; this includes all customers and all licensed dispensaries.  Weedmaps has not been our friend. They do not care about cannabis or cannabis culture; they care only about their advertising revenue. They have been intentionally advertising black market businesses to the determent of legal business – undercutting the whole thing. We also suggest that you continue your boycott even if they stop their present course. The State has been forced to send them a “cease and desist” letter. We do not want this kind of business in the cannabis trade. Resist.

 

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It’s really too bad…

It really is too bad the State again chose to supplant the Emerald Triangle farmers rather than include them. The State had one chance to get this right for California and for the whole country. All the farmers were out in the open and ready to go for it.

That boat has sailed. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds of tens of thousands of generators firing up. The black market has already spoken. They went back inside. Now the State will never find them. That google map won’t help anymore! Now instead of growing outdoor, they grow indoor…..the State’s greedy and discriminatory choices just mobilized and weaponized California’s black market and positioned that in direct competition with the legal indoor market in every state.

California now may be responsible for the failure of the legal cannabis industry. Make no mistake, the other states having banked on indoor as their model, are all going bankrupt as we speak. The legal companies, Big and small, are only keeping their front doors open by selling out the back door on the black market to survive. The same is true for Cali’s indoor market. California’s black market going indoor again may be just enough to topple legalization altogether. Now the authorities will never find them. People can again buy top shelf AAA studio grade indoor for a fraction of the price – on the black market. Sharp move, eh?

This was an, “If you can’t beat them….join them situation.” The State could have joined with the American people. Cannabis culture belongs to the American people – not just a few thousand farmers. A hundred million Americans are cultivating, distributing and consuming nationwide. That’s 1 in 4 people. That’s a culture not an industry. Cannabis culture is synonymous with freedom for most of those oppressed Americans who didn’t or don’t fit into mainstream society – that’s most of us now.

Legalization is now become synonymous with giving our freedom away to big corporations. Why would anyone do that? Government has proven time and time again that it lies. Now government has just proven, again, they cannot control a full twenty-five percent of Americans and can not regulate an entire culture. You could have tried it without so much control.

You had the ball in your hand……you dropped it.

A change in the wind….

Until the government recognizes that cannabis is a culture more than it is an Ag crop we will get nowhere – until the government recognizes they have no control of this counter culture,  let alone this new industry

Washington
Oregon
Cali now

You did not include the cannabis leaders in the ramp up to 215.

You have not included them now.

This mistake will result in millions of people, not thousands, suffering the consequences.

And this ill considered way of thinking by government effects all small business not just small cannabis business.

Cannabis belongs to the American people. As much as we all hate the black market and all the dysfunction that comes with it…..it’s ours.

When government recognizes that they have no control and take our offer to give them a piece of our business in exchange for constitutional protection, we will be on the correct path. That’s the deal.

Government has again and again proven they have no control and the shortsighted legislatures end up always supporting the black market.

All stemming from the same basic misunderstanding.

Americans won this war and the US government lost. Until the government approaches it that way, legalization won’t work.

One year from now with all the states failing and 90% of investors reaching the 5 year mark on pro-formas….

Investors will pull out and legalization will collapse.

Legalization only works if we are part of it…..do the math.

You can’t eradicate, imprison, deport or murder us. I know you are not used to that……but unless you do you get used to it…. you will get your ass handed to you by the American public.

The cannabis world makes a place for everyone who was rejected or behind in this country….we are the underdogs…..we offer a path of hope.

Cannabis and cannabis culture is just like what Christianity was supposed to be.

Our Big Move…

Standing together we can all make one move right now that will turn the tables in our favor for good. Stop pre-trimming your product. Only trim for prepaid orders. Leave that huge pile of product you can’t afford to trim. Don’t trim it. The legal market buyers are only interested in purchasing your trim. They don’t seem to care if you can pay your bills or not. Side step that issue. Do not provide trim as a product for sale any more. If there is no trim available, buyers will be forced to buy the new product you are offering…..”bucked whole plant extractable biomass”. Once they are purchasing the whole plant, your problems are over.

Today we can’t staff our farms because the price point for trimming is still higher than it is for field work. As soon as people stop trimming their product prior to having orders for it, trimmers will start transitioning to field work for employment…..then we will have the staff we need.

Today our flower prices are plummeting because there is too much flower on the market. Our trim prices are increasing because there is not enough trim on the market and the value added products that are based on oil are in demand. Indoor flower still accounts for most of the flower sold over the counter. This is making it almost impossible for us to sell sun grown flower. Once we are selling a biomass product we will again be in control of supply and demand.

If we all work together.

That means we need Mendocino, our sister County (now the largest producer of biomass product). Together, we control most of the available unbranded product in the State. That means if we change the way we sell it, they will have to buy it that way.

Once we have established this new market we can affect the prices. Biomass bucked product weighs about 2 times what your trimmed flower does. If you have 100 pounds of trimmed flower…you also have about 100 pounds of trim. Sold as a bucked product (not separated), its over 200 pounds. When trim is extracted it yields about 10% by weight. When biomass bucked product is extracted it yields 15-25% by weight. Selling trimmed product with a trimming expense of $150-200/pound+running+compliance costs at $700-1000 a pound nets no profit. If you are selling a bucked product for $500 a pound (and double it by volume), then, apples to apples, you are grossing the same $1000, minus all the trimming costs, avoiding the taxes on trimmed flower, and avoiding compliance costs related to processing or packaging. Your expenses just went way down.

Stop trying to accomodate trimmers on your property. Stop trying to package your own product. 90% of cannabis businesses in the country lose their licenses due to non-compliance at the packaging or inventory stages. Let the distributor take the fall for you. Bucking your product down as it comes off the lines is not processing and does not require all the compliance official processing does. If you are only trimming small amounts of flower for pre-paid orders your compliance issues are significantly mitigated.

Don’t stop there. Take it one step further. Choose to only sell your extractable biomass product in the Emerald Triangle. Do not export anything in extractable form. Support Humboldt manufacturers if you are from Humboldt. Support Mendocino manufacturers if you are from Mendocino. Don’t use the companies that move up either. Use historic local and family run organizations. Do not allow outside extractors to have control of our extractable products and we will maintain control of the industry. Make sure all our products go through local supply chains and end up in consumers hands directly from us – with our brand.

Establishing an “extractable biomass market” will pave the way for local farms to enter the legal industry.

We can avoid our single largest expense.
We can transition our staff to the projects we need worked on.
We can redefine our product lines.
We can affect the prices.
We can keep the industry centered in the Emerald Triangle
We are in control….just take control.

The second your product is all trimmed you have given up your power play. Everyone must stand firm on this. When we do, we will be able to set prices that include enough profit to survive on. This is the most straight forward power play imaginable. Do what you already want to do. Stop trimming!

From back to the landers to take back the landers

 

Here are some thoughts to consider :

There has been a running sentiment in our community for a long time, “get these green rush’n, big money growers out of our community”. For them, the breaking point may have been reached and now they are leaving. Bankrupt in all likelihood. This will give those who have wanted them gone an opportunity to retake the land.

It would be nice to have a mechanism by which those properties being vacated can go to faithful stewards of the land or new families moving in to staff all of our farms. The real estate values will drop on unlicensed properties and they could be within reach of young families. It would be a brilliant move by the County to start an entity that would buy up and then resell these properties. There could be a level of local regulation that could help expanding farms purchase adjacent properties thus increasing their employment opportunities. Create a housing program for placing young professionals and new farming families on these properties. We could even put them into a land-preserve to be sustainably managed.

Take the former Tooby Ranch as an example: the Tooby ranch is 13,000 acres comprised of parcels larger than 160 acre. There are 50ish owners in this area. The farms are larger and the density is lower and most of the owners are second generation farmers….rightful stewards.

This would be a great model to follow county wide as an idealized cannabis community. In the communities with 40 acre parcels, as residents are forced to leave those communities, the neighbors have the opportunity to lower density. The licensed successful farmers will need to expand into the land around them. The County needs to subsidize this by holding these properties in trust to be accessed by the farms when needed through application. We need a mechanism that holds property for local farmers and a job placement program for non compliant farmers who want to remain in the community as farmers.

This mechanism needs to also make homes available for new farming families and could encourage new residential construction. We have the talent living here; we need to keep them living here. As the properties change hands, we need to keep people in their homes and enable them to work in adjacent farms. We do not want the fabric of our community disrupted.

If it works or not, we all got to start thinking.

Steve
answers.humboldtgrowers@gmail.com

 

New Year’s Resolutions for the Humboldt grower – an attack plan in 21 points

Start acting like farmers. This is not a hobby. This is not a hippy summer camp. Take this seriously. This is an energetic lifestyle. Get up at 5am. Work 365 days a year. Plants never sleep. Work with people who have a sense of urgency about making Humboldt farms successful. Assemble your A-team and bring your A-game. Prove that your sungrown is better than indoor.

Adopt a business model that has successful precedent in the real world. Start paying people salaries instead of percentages. Stop paying $200/unit to trim. Maintain your own genetics. Don’t just rely on whatever you can get from the guy next door.

The multiple harvest model is the wave of the future. You can not maintain year round employees or pay monthly bills with one crop a year. Year round business attracts contributing new members of our community. Full term crops promote black market paradigms and attracts derelict seasonal workers only here to take something from us.

Your going to need storage facilities with A/C now that you are harvesting all the time and have inventory all the time.

Pull out the corporation playbook. Start playing to win. Stop trying to be fair with farmers from Counties outside the triangle…its us or them. Make no mistake, we are about to put every other state out of business. The competition does not use words like “share” or “fair”. They don’t care about community or history. We are mounting a take over of the cannabis industry or we will be wiped out. We are the largest corporation in the world…..start thinking that way. Identify the competition and take them down – Tilray, Privateer, Weedmaps, Leafly, Harborside, all this talk of Salinas…..just some of the entities who have spent millions lobbying to put an end to Humboldt County small farmers and continue to fight to limit our success in the marketplace. Don’t support them!

Large scale agriculture can not replicate what we have, especially without our climatic conditions or our Humboldt brand. The balance point of a farm that can still maintain our standard is around 10-20,000 sq ft. We can create co-ops in that size range.

Position our crop ahead of the competition. That means harvest in July and fill all the shelves with Humboldt cannabis before the other guys even harvest. Either do crop light deprivation or start growing auto flowering plants in your outdoor buckets.

Genetics: our local geneticists must lead the way for the nation. Develop and distribute the strains that our farmers need. Choose strains designed for commercial outdoor growing. Stop trying to grow indoor only studio strains. Stop blindly following market studies. Everything will taste like lemons, blueberries or strawberries in a couple of years if we just keep doing what the studies say. Lead by example. Those with the discerning palate should be creating the strains we smoke. The consumer is very young and in the experimental phase. As they age they will want more genuine flavors…make sure they still exist. Don’t throw out a thousand years of genetics that the world loves because a few market studies tell you so. Our job is maintain the continuity; we have a legacy to uphold.

Stop hiding the information. Statistics clearly show if we all have access to genetics and techniques, we stand a greater chance to establish a market. Keeping those things to yourself is not only selfish but counterproductive and anti community. Arm our troops with the best weapons and as one we will win. You can’t do it alone. Strains don’t get famous with one guy growing them.

Define the products. We have the largest crop. Extracts are the largest growing segment of the industry. We, by default, control this market. Every extract company who is serious at all will be dealing with us. We can define the way we sell them product and set the prices it sells at – we sell bucked flower at $600 a pound driving the prices of oil through the roof and pushing the market back to flower consumption. And back into our hands.

Test at home. All Humboldt product must be tested in Humboldt.

Manufacture at home. Support and use local manufacturing. Don’t fuel manufacturers statewide.

Deliver: we already have more distribution companies than anyone. Only use local distribution. Do not use any outside sources. Bring the product directly to the customers. Never ask them to come get it. Reverse the Humboldt paradigm.

By centralizing services in Humboldt, we will limit the amount of cannabis business that can take place outside the County…..they can only exist if we use their services. All testing and all manufacturing must take place within Humboldt. No outsiders. We just end up funding outside facilities with loyalties to our competitors…..we pay their bills so they can stay open and service our competition. Stop fueling the fire.

Sales and Pricing: when thinking about branding and naming products use regional and historic references to root your product in reality. Preserve traditional flavors through modern interpretations. Your product has a story that goes back 1000s of years. we have the lower taxes and a climate that allows us very low running costs. We can grow three runs a year. We can deliver product at the lowest prices. We can take the market.

Attract the talent: there are very few people that know how to grow the way we do. People trained as indoor growers don’t have any experience playing the climate. People who grow full term outdoor have no skills in multiple harvest models. Everyone in the ag industry wants to work for smaller companies….no one wants to work for corporations. People are flocking from all over the country to work for us as the other states go bankrupt and become corporate. If we take all the people in the country who either know or can be taught how to do this….the competition will have no one to work for them.

Housing: provide comfortable housing for families. We lack housing in this County. We need on farm and off farm housing to attract the work force we need to succeed. This comes down to permitting septics. If you are on a property that is too steep or wooded for a leach field, ask your supervisors, planners, and the Waterboard why Humboldt is the last County in the State still not allowing aerobic treatment plants which are being force implemented everywhere because they recycle 100% of waste water. This system would allow every property in the County to have a code septic solution.

Training programs: we have all the knowledge. Again no one knows how to do this outside of the Triangle. We must establish centralized training programs and job placement on our farms. These programs work hand in hand with human resource companies to staff our farms. Human resources in cannabis can not be successful without integral training programs.

Hospitality: we have something to show off..our authentic history. The competition has nothing. Start inviting people onto your farm. We are open people now not closed off people. Bring them to us; tell them your story and they will be with us forever.

Millennials have been deprived of the genuine real work experiences and rich history in our country. They want what they don’t have. They want a real adventure behind the redwood curtain. They want a real American story; the kind of story that seems so unbelievable, it becomes legend as you tell it.

On site sales: sell it the way we alway did. Get on site sales permits to bypass the dispensary bullshit. Make no mistake; they do not want you on their shelves. They are scared to death of us.

Black market farmers are part of our community. While we are fighting on the
State front, the 90% of our farmers who did not register (because they know there is no way to sell their product in state), are still out there fighting on the national front line for us. Because of them, when the feds legalize we will still have a national market. Without them, we will lose it. Legal companies can not advertise or compete nationally. Our community can not function without them.

The take away lesson: those who have been so persecuted must make a conscious decision to stop the persecution as a tool all together. Adopt a new model. The son beaten does not then beat his son. Don’t divide our community by supporting the continued persecution of those in the black market. Get along. Respect people’s decisions. No one really had choices. We all did what we had to do. You don’t get to just start turning them in. That breaks the code and undermines the values we live by.

Cannabis Farmer Suicide

Is legalization actually such a good deal? The growers are getting overwhelmed… the whole process seems designed to remove the old core, smaller, growers. Maybe the black market still has its place for awhile…

The Counties and the State sure seem to have decided that legalization needs to fail. You only need to look at their taxation plans. Time to start emailing your elected officials – here in Humboldt and across the State.

And what about San Francisco and Los Angles? Looks like they might shut down the permitting process in their cities; and being among the biggest urban markets in the State, well, that would be quite a blow. Still, things are in serious flux.

I tell you, officials have mis-read the market. It ain’t the get rich scheme that everyone imagines. Those assumptions are going to kill the market. By the time the State works this out, the blackmarket will have been given a boost and the small legal farmer will be in the toilet.

“Resist – Support the Blackmarket” could well be the new battle cry of cannabis growers across the State. Humboldt Growers has strongly supported growers participating in the legalization of their farms; but, now, we have a doubt.

Somehow folks think that the cannabis farmer is naturally just as rich as they can be. This is a myth; most farmers (upwards of 80%) are very small. They really can’t afford the pile on that is happening at both the County and the State level. Just consider Humboldt County’s expectations for rural roads to our cannabis farms; now, these are roads that the County has ignored for decades, but, all of a sudden if you will, they want hardtops or Class 4 roads. This puts a tremendous financial pressure on the farms. And, it is only one example.

Somehow folks think that the cannabis farmer is a reprobate, a low-life criminal that must be watched carefully – just look at the new laws that are involved. This is a myth; the original 60’s and 70’s homesteaders were ex-urban, not criminals. The make a quick buck greenrushers are what you are looking at now. The smaller growers nurture their land; they do not and won’t destroy that land. This is where they live!

Both the County and the State want to benefit from all this imaginary cannabis wealth; but when the goose is dead, well, there aren’t any more eggs. The wealth is based on an illegal market that is not accessible to the County and the State; but it is accessible to those growing cannabis and that is where the growers will retreat.

But, the situation is changing and it can be changed. The “microbusiness” license could help to address these issues – it makes it easier for farmers to succeed in the market; a vigorous and successful resolution to the really large growers and the cartels would help; the tax burden could be scaled back, as the other legal States have already done; the licensing could be streamlined; how about State-backed farmer loans offered to help address these costs?

There are solutions for those that can think outside the box.

Fight fellow farmers. Stand your ground. Humboldt farmers have never retreated and we won’t now. Resist!

 

Water Savings…

Everyone is talking about how to save water this summer.  Here are some helpful tips from Humboldt Growers Collective on how you can save water while doubling your yield, dramatically improving quality, and cutting your time and labor in half.

Have you ever thought about how proportion effects your plants?  The way a plant allocates its energy is directly related to its proportions.  As plants become taller than they are wide, they become less efficient.  This is true at every phase of the growing cycle.  Taller clones or seed starts have fewer branches and become woody, yellow, and diseased.  Taller growing plants convert a larger ratio of biomass to vegetation rather than flowers.  Taller budding plants produce flowers similar to hemp rather than the AAA product we all want.  In every phase, plants that are taller than they are wide proportionately consume more water creating an inferior final product.

When you are choosing what kind of plant to grow, if you are located below 1500 ft elevation, choose clones; because they will do well in that climate zone and will use considerably less water than seed starts over their total term per pound produced.  If you are located above 1500 ft elevation, you will have to grow seed starts.  In that event, tie them down, trellis them, or weave them.  Make sure that the profile of the plant stays wider than it is tall and you will see a marked decrease in water consumption, food consumption, and labor while seeing a marked increase in production and quality.

In any climate zone, “tie-downs” or “woven” or “trellised” plants will make your life much better.  If you can grow in a greenhouse rather than outdoor, you can “light deprive” your plants.  This will allow you to cut your growing season in half.  Gallons to pounds, you will exceed your neighbors growing outdoor by at least two times while bringing your harvest to the table for sale months ahead of them.  You can tell your neighbors,”I’m not consuming any water while the aquifer is low!”. You can also avoid pests and disease of all shapes and sizes.  These problems won’t have as much time to develop.

By leafing your plants when they reach maximum size and then continuing to do so every 2 weeks afterwards, you can remove much of the unnecessary biomass you are supporting and focus all of your resources on viable product.  The ratio of biomass removed correlates directly to the amount of resources saved!  This also puts you in a position where at crops end you have already cleaned it.  The need for costly “processing”  lessens.

These solutions cost nothing, save you money in the long run and put a ton of money in your pocket when you need it!

If you want to go beyond “passive” strategies this season and have at least $6000.00 to work with, drill a well (vertical or horizontal), dig a pond, or install a rain catching tank.  Stop diverting surface water!  You can avoid persecution by the authorities and tell your neighbors.”I’m zero impact!”

ENVIRONMENT VS ECONOMY

People have been growing in Humboldt County now for three generations and a lot has changed in that time.
The original back to the landers came in the 70’s and 80’s. They escaped from the city and moved to the hills to raise their children in peace and quiet.  Today they are over 50 to 60 years of age, living on a 40 acre parcel that was likely sold to them by Bob Mckee for under $50,000 and has been paid for and developed for decades.  They can be characterized by their willingness to follow local 215 laws and their organic low environmental impact lifestyle.  They formed our core community.  That community has been persecuted under cannabis prohibition laws for many years. Over time that made for an introverted social structure, which did not lend itself to planning for the future.  We have been fortunate in our community initiatives (KMUD, Mateel, the new Theater, the Community Park, the Town Square) but very little in the way of economic infrastructure has been put in place for Southern Humboldt’s future generations.  The south county’s cities remain as yet unincorporated.
Generation X either left the then small farming community to look for work in an urban area or stayed to homestead and grow pot like their parents.  Those who followed in their parents footsteps hoped to purchase property and settle down. They encountered a very different situation than their parents had years before. Property became incredibly inflated due to the influx of growers.  People who were willing to sell their properties after a lifetime of “cash living” were looking for a large check as a down payment and were unwilling to owner finance.  This put property in Humboldt out of reach for many of the Gen X locals.  To purchase property in Humboldt county,you must either grow in “excess” or be wealthy and from out of the area.  In this way much of the land was not conveyed to Gen. X locals.  Instead communities were overrun by growers big enough to afford it or  our “newcomers”.
In fact, if the land developer Bob Mckee had not made it his life’s work to put young locals on Humboldt properties, today less than 10% of Southern Humboldt’s land would have been passed on to the rightful stewards.  Thanks to Bob So. Hum. residents have a future.

The Generation X crew that stayed behind and made it onto a piece of property are now for the most part the heart and soul of south county.  They can be characterized as innovative, independent, and sustainable. They are responsible stewards of the land.  They are leading the way in new techniques and technology.  They are the world’s best cannabis farmers.  They are in the prime of their lives.  They have bonded together, shared information and standardized growing methods, genetics and marketing.  Today they are singlehandedly responsible for Humboldt County’s position in the world market.
Third generation cannabis farmers in Humboldt county are generally not yet landowners. They are looking for opportunities on farms large enough to sustain a team of employees.  This generally means they are working on a maybe not so sustainable farm just to make ends meet.  They are disconnected from the lessons learned about the environment by the back to the land generation. Their chances of owning land are almost non-existent. They have neither been taught about the past or provided a future.
These three generations have very different perspectives and very different needs.  By understanding what drives each of them we may be able to forge a future that includes all of us.
The elders are retiring.  They may not have put a lot of energy into planning for the future before, but now they want to pass something meaningful on to the younger generations and at the same time insure their lands will be preserved for posterity. They are scared that commercial growing is going to destroy their way of life.  Have they asked themselves if their way of life IS economically sustainable?  Without larger growers maintaining brand consistency, would the “small grower” on his “small farm” stand a chance in the national market?
The two younger generations are looking for the American dream.  They want the freedom to make as much money as they can.  They are not set on destroying the environment.  They are attempting to establish themselves and deal with difficult economic conditions. They certainly don’t want anyone defining what is or is not greedy or materialistic for them.  Much less people who haven’t put themselves in their shoes! They are very concerned that they have enough water to follow their dream  If they mismanage their water supply, they know that they won’t stand a chance in the national market.
In short, the elders want environmental stability and the youngsters want economic stability.  Everyone wants their way of life to continue being viable.
These participants currently do not seem to understand each other. A line has been drawn in the sand between “small” and “large” growers.  The assumption is that ALL small growers are low impact,sustainable eco-growers while ALL“large” growers are Bulgarian, greedy, fish killing, environmental hazards.  These are both gross generalizations.
It is much more complicated than that.  Labeling people and deciding who is and isn’t greedy is unacceptable – 99% of Humboldt County growers are neither “large” nor “greedy” when compared to other agricultural ventures.  This over generalization about “the evil grower” has now escalated into a militant witch hunt.   We at Humboldt Growers don’t understand why people who have been so persecuted would then choose persecution over resolution.  The 6th draft Humboldt County Ordinance suggests more aggressive policing of Humboldt County cannabis farms.  That is not even remotely possible; and if it were, the county would gladly use all of our hard earned tax dollars policing us rather than spend it on schools and hospitals!
If people are unhappy with the results they should look at the causes before casting blame.
The United States Federal Government has proven without a doubt that policing and persecuting cannabis cultivators is a losing battle.  Confrontation will not work. Cannabis cultivators have been trained to evade and rebel. Offer them well thought out solutions that benefit them!
Looking at this dilemma globally:  Humboldt County is number one in the world for quality and consistency, but when it comes to volume we are way outclassed. Other county’s have way more arable, low elevation flat land and water.  To maintain our current market positioning(economic stability), we may need to direct ALL of Humboldt county’s resources(sustainably) at cannabis cultivation.  Currently those resources are being mismanaged. Someone needs to do a study that shows our standing in terms of resources in relation to our competition.  Then we need to work together to manage the resources we have to our advantage.
Farming communities in cultures all over the world have a long history of helping their neighbors, leading by example, and passing knowledge from one generation to the next.  They have done this to preserve a way of life, manage their lands, and build community.
When we see that our neighbor is from out of town, knows nothing about fire safety, erosion control, or pest management and is struggling with exaggerated costs and plummeting prices while trying to make himself a home, let’s be compassionate and go help him, rather than ask the authorities to persecute him for doing the same thing we did.  I think we will be surprised to see that people want help and advice. People need to see what they can do, not be told what they can’t do.  Show them the way.  Provide them with information on how to grow amazing sustainable cannabis. Make them one of the team.
Different players play different roles. The retiring elder has been cultivating world class mazari genetics on his small farm for a lifetime. Much of these genetics are yet untapped. The world has not really seen them.  These old timers are up on the hill breeding the next “big hit”.  These guys are also now on the front lines, again, creating state laws that need to provide us all a future. We need them!
Conversely the younger generation has their role. They are working together to standardize growing methods and unify behind popular genetics while managing the vast number of buyers coming in. The elders need to piggyback off this market stability.  Buyers are not coming to Humboldt for 50-100 pounds of mazari ranch weed.  They want 100 pounds at a time of consistent kush or sour diesel product.
If we all see that we are in this together and that we play different but equally important roles,  we can make sure we get what we have spent three generations fighting for.
To make this “transition” go smoothly, people need to understand that the cannabis farmer won the war on drugs.  Traditionally that means they get to set terms and make demands.  Currently 90% of the cannabis grown in Humboldt county is sold out of state.  Legalization offers the farmer nothing but regulation.  That means these people have no reason to comply.  Sending more enforcement(with or without guns) will only waste time and tax dollars.  If we can sell the Humboldt county grower economic stability, they will buy it.
We need to agree on a sustainable plan that makes converting to legalization advantageous to the grower and does not include heavy handed enforcement and policing.
We should adopt the Bob Mckey model and form a “land management association”.  This association will designate climate zones where certain types of cannabis can be grown, identify at risk properties and purchase them as agricultural preserves, and form a “HELP Task Force” of neighbors to bring newcomers and those who have strayed into the fold.
Finally, the incorporation of Southern Humboldt cities must be front and center  in the deal we are striking with the county.  Let us ask what services the county intends to offer us before we worry about how much we are paying in taxes.  We need infrastructure in south county and we need national representation. Lets put together a package that describes what we need to maintain the way of life we have now long after legalization. If we vote the 6th ordinance in without incorporating, all of our tax dollars will go towards Northern Humboldt’s infrastructure and we will get nothing.
We need the older generation to offer solutions that take into account a sustainable future for generations to come in Humboldt county.  Do not overregulate like the other legalized states have.  Remember they did not have a thriving economy to destroy.  We are unveiling the largest independently owned business the world has ever seen.  Please find a common ground and make sure that the pending legalization provides a future for us all.