$80,000 for an acre

[gypski]

The price of growing in Humboldt county may be going through the roof. They now have a Growers Association and lobbyist to lobby for them. Maybe they should have voted for Prop 19 after all? :D

Humboldt's pot growers team up to go legit - Marijuana - sacbee.com (http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/28/3216072/humbolds-pot-growers-team-up-to.html)

[boaz]

"There is nothing legit about growing tons of marijuana. The plan for most of that weed is for illegal export to other states where black market prices are still high."

:smokin: bring it on. :jointsmile:

[gypski]

Well, they can grow all the commercial weed they want. I'll just stick with my micro-grows and keep it local. If a person is able to grow their own ........what more do they want? :D

[StoneMeadow]

I don't see that quote in the article, boaz, but I agree with your sentiment. I also have a word of caution for anyone in Oakland that thinks the Feds will sit back and ignore city block-sized grow ops...and that word is "You're busted!"

IMO, and yours may differ, the Feds can justify ignoring little mom-n-pop grow ops under the rubric of "we aren't spending our scarce dollars on small fry". But ignore acre-sized grows with hundreds of plants? Who are they kidding?

For those of you not familiar with the size of chunks of land, an acre is a bit over 42,000 square feet. With 3' spacing, a 40,000 grow op could have as many as 4400+ plants. with 5' spacing, it's still 1600 plants. Even a 2000 square foot op (as suggested in the article) could have 200 plus plants at 3' spacing, and 80 plants at 5' spacing. The Feds keep busting grow ops over 99 plants because if they can get a conviction it's an automatic 5 years in Federal slam. No thanks.

This "tax and regulate" idea also potentially runs afoul of Prop 215, which the California Supreme Court has already ruled precludes the State and local governments tacking on additional limits and conditions. Add a tax to grow medical marijuana certainly looks to my non-lawyer eye to be an unconstitutional restriction, and all it would take is one person suing the county to have the whole idea come crashing down.

In the end it seems that even Humbolt County has gotten stars (or rather dollar signs) in their eyes over this issue. IMO they need to chill out until such time as the voters approve recreational marijuana. Then they can cash in on their name.

[Dutch Pimp]

legalize/decrimialize personal growing for personal comsumption...eliminate the middle men...all of them

[boaz]

I don't see that quote in the article, boaz, but I agree with your sentiment. I also have a word of caution for anyone in Oakland that thinks the Feds will sit back and ignore city block-sized grow ops...and that word is "You're busted!"

IMO, and yours may differ, the Feds can justify ignoring little mom-n-pop grow ops under the rubric of "we aren't spending our scarce dollars on small fry". But ignore acre-sized grows with hundreds of plants? Who are they kidding?

...

yeah, that was one of the "popular comments" :jointsmile: from someone, not part of the actual article. and yeah, I agree, I was just about half joking but if that really is the plan then yeah, the feds are will surely put the hammer down. Obama's been relatively cool so far but that this would definately be poking the bear, feds and state.

[boaz]

legalize/decrimialize personal growing for personal comsumption...eliminate the middle men...all of them

definately. give us all some legal garden space to grow our own and watch the cartels wilt and die out. :D

[Islandborn]

definately. give us all some legal garden space to grow our own and watch the cartels wilt and die out. :D

I agree 100% with everyone having their legal right to grow whatever they want on their property.

However I just dont see marijuana being legalized doing a damn thing to slow down the drug cartels whose MAIN incomes come from Cocaine, Amphetamines, and Heroin. Marijuana is handled by lower level street gangs employed by the cartels in the Border Towns to be their eyes and ears on the streets. Maijuana is pocket change to the Sinaloa drug cartel leadership. They need their cocaine pipelines to generate the income. Maybe Im wrong, but taking pot outta the cartels hands would be but a minor setback for them and they would make their money back by increasing production in other areas of narcotics and human smuggling. Not to mention the highly profittable buisness of kidnapp and randsom in Mexico and the United States...Arizona being the highest.

[boaz]

^ yeah, you may be right, I think I heard one time that herb makes up about 40% of their profits. that's a pretty good chunk of change. but, yeah, they will likely move into other areas if they lost that market.