CNBC is currently airing Marijuana, Inc. Inside American Pot Industry. Air dates can be found at Marijuana, Inc...
Thanks to Prop 215, California’s Medical Marijuana law Mendocino County has become Pot HQ for California if not the nation. While still illegal under federal law growing cannabis for medicinal use is legal. Since Mendocino County ordinance allows for more plants per patient this county has become a growers paradise. Paraphrasing one grower, "If not for pot I guess we would all be selling Amway. What else is there to here?" The grower gave reporter Trish Reagan one of the more extensive tours of a grow operation that I have seen on TV.
Ms. Reagan also visited the Blue Sky Café. Part coffeehouse part marijuana dispensary the Blue Sky Café operates a coffeehouse/juice smoothie bar in the front and a dispensary for medicinal cannabis in the rear. Patients can leave their small children in the front under the care of Blue Sky Café employees. While the kids wait out front away from prying eyes of little ones patients can choose from a variety of products. Be sides various varieties of cannabis the dispensary also sells food stuffs such as cookies and of course brownies. Other products include butter, oils, and tinctures all made from cannabis. Personally I found it interesting that Ms. Reagan seemed to be able to tell which of two varieties of cannabis was better when asked to smell the difference between the contents of two small baggies.
Not everyone is thrilled about this. No big surprise there, after all the Feds still won’t come around and change federal law. There are currently some downsides to California’s blooming cannabis industry. Powder Valley is a popular area to grow. As usual government officials are quick to site some statistics that are suspect. Jim Wollenberger, claims that 50% of the fires in this area can be linked to pot grows. He also says that 60% of the population is connected in one way or another connected to marijuana growing. The show's editor separated these two facts. It goes without saying if over 50% of your population is engaged in one particular activity than 50% of everything else you look at will be able to be linked to that one activity. For instance if 95% of teenage girls attend high school, than odds are that 95% of teenage girls that get pregnant will be in high school. We don’t however link going to high schools as causation for pregnancy.
CNBC chose to interview a homeowner that was moving out of her Powder Valley home because of the marijuana industry. Joy Tucker the homeowner stated that the tipping point was a fire in a near by home. The home that burned was involved in growing cannabis. The cause was said to be linked to carelessness of the grower. I wanted the interviewer to ask, "if the that home had been a home for mentally handicapped children would you still be moving away?" The question was not asked. The viewer was lead to believe that this was to be expected because the grower was also a patient and a user of marijuana. Again a tenuous connection to cannabis growing and fire. A stronger connection to fire exists to smoking cigarettes. Again, would Mrs. Tucker be moving if her neighbor were a three pack a day chain smoker and her neighbor's house burned down.
I have been involved in attempting to pass medicinal cannabis legislation in my home state. The question of related crime frequently comes up. There has been an increase in crime in areas where marijuana growing is happening. This is a tragic side affect of marijuana being illegal on the federal level. I believe that if marijuana were legal nationally for medicinal purposes this would go down. It would go down further if marijuana were simply legal. Growers are buying guns and viscous pit bulls to protect their commodity. Mr. Wollenberger described it as the 2008 version of the Wild West. Thieves are targeting the grow operations. Just as other criminals target trucking. The trucking industry still has to deal with the problem of trucks being hijacked for their contents, i.e. cigarettes and electronics such as computers and big screen televisions. If it were legal than the growers would simply install alarm systems on their greenhouses. They would also be able to purchase the same business insurance as the local pharmacist. Bingo two ancillary businesses making more profit due to increase client base. This would also add to increased tax revenue on top of the sales tax that sellers of cannabis currently pay on their sales where it is legal to sell marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Another activity that was pointed out as a negative was the fact that cannabis was being shipped via UPS and FedX. Except that this is not a negative in every case. For instance the show concentrated on Mendocino County, California. According to the producers of this show Mendocino County is known for high-grade medicinal cannabis. Since they are dealing with a legal commodity than I don’t see the problem. It would still be illegal to ship via USPS because that is a department of the federal government. UPS & FedX are private enterprises shipping a legal commodity via a private shipper. It should be legal to ship via these transport companies anywhere within California or from California to any of the other twelve states where possession of cannabis for medical reasons is legal. The federal government gets involved when it is interstate shipping because the commodity passes through states where it is still illegal. Again another reason for the federal government to join the 26% of states that are collecting taxes on the sale and income of the legal purveyors of cannabis.
About taxes, boy is the federal government a bunch of hypocrites. California currently collects according to CNBC $11,000,000.00 in sales taxes from cannabis growers. One grower alone pays out $300K in sales taxes and (wait for it) income taxes on $600,000.00 in earnings. Ca NORML News Report: California's Billion-Dollar Medical Marijuana Market Offers Millions in Tax Revenues offers this this on taxes and medical marijuana
In addition, many dispensaries pay substantial payroll taxes. A Modesto dispensary, California Healthcare Collective Inc., reported paying $93,000 per quarter in federal IRS taxes, $25,000 per quarter in state payroll taxes, and $50-60,000 per month in sales taxes before being raided by the DEA. Closure of the club has deprived the public of over $1 million in tax revenues per year.
How is that possible? As I understand it, for purposes of filing an income tax return the grower of legal medicinal marijuana in any of the states where it is legal is a farmer. That’s right a farmer just like the farmer that grows the corn or raises the cattle that you eat, he is a farmer.
Another side effect of cannabis growing that was cited, as a negative was the spilling of chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers. Fair point but only if cannabis growers’ spill more or over use these products more compared to other farmers. I think by the nature of being a part of a new age kind of business cannabis growers would likely be willing to grow using organic methods. They don’t now because they are forced to grow it and make it disappear fast before the black helicopters fly over head.
A significant part of "Marijuana, Inc." dealt with the illegal side of marijuana. Not surprising some of the numbers are astounding. For instance, one smuggler Bruce Perlowin was bringing in about a 50 million dollars a year from his operation. His fishing boats turn smuggler's boats each held between 60 to 100 thousand pounds per load depending on the size of the cargo hold. This would work out to be about 30 million dollars per load gross sales. This guy even hired a research company to tell him where is the best place to bring in his illicit product. The reaearch showed that smugglers coming in near the borders of Mexico and Canada are being arrested more frequently than those chosing other entry points. The least frequently busted point of entry was San Francisco. So his boats came in right under the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact from his docks you could see the bridge.
The DEA currently siezes some five million plants a year. One of the DEA's current objectives is to eradicate marijuana growing on federal lands. Growers hike deep into our national parks and forests to plant their crops. Marijuana can be grown anywhere. A single patient can grow a supply of cannabis with more eaze than you can grow a tomato plant. These grows deep in the woods do have a need, that is harder to supply than one grown in a house or apartment. The one problem ourdoor growers face is getting the needed water to the plants. In the national parks and forests the solutions are quite ingenious. Water is brought to the plants from a stream through plastic tubing. Deaspite possibly being a mile or more away, basically it is a still simple cyphon running downhill. Only the tubing is hidden just beneath the grown cover. Quite a sight really. The kicker to this part of the show was one DEA agent admitting that he didn't think we could ever win the war on drugs. [I hope I have that correct. It has been a week since I saw the show.]
I am sure that the point the agent was making is the same as many others. We are not now, nor will we ever "win" the war on drugs. It is like winning the war on terrorism. We may shut down or marginalize Al Quaida like we did the mafia. We will not completely end terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic. It is like winning a war agaist bombing runs by planes. You may stop one country from doing it but you will never end it as a tactic. Smoking marijuana is like drinking alcohol, or driving without a seat belt, or picking your nose, we may reduce the frequency people do it, we will never stop it all together.
CNBC also has another little clip about marijuana up on their website. It is a debate between Asa Hutchinson, former head of the DEA and Aaron Houston of MPP on the merits of legalizing marijuana. http://www.cnbc.com/... As usual Hutchinson's arguments are tired, old and already disproven.