(Bay Area Citizen) Under fire from the U.S. Department of Justice over its marijuana cultivation plans, the Oakland City Council voted just a moment ago to suspend the process for permitting four enormous marijuana-growing operations.Oakland City Attorney John Russo had warned the City Council repeatedly that federal law enforcement officials were skeptical of the city’s plans because they appeared to be in violation of state and federal laws.
It is no surprise that it is against federal law to create mega-grow indoor pot factories that produce 58 pounds a day. But Oakland had been moving forward because of the Holder Memo that said the feds wouldn’t spend time and resources on medical marijuana providers operating in clear and unambiguous compliance with state law. The problem is that the mega-grows may not be legal under California state law and rumor has it the feds already have the operation planned to take these factories down the minute they open.
(Bay Area Citizen) Oakland City Attorney John Russo sent a memo to the Oakland City Council last week warning that federal officials have concerns about the city’s plans for giant pot farms, according to multiple City Hall sources.
It came after Russo’s meeting with federal officials, the details of which were reported by California Watch yesterday. Quoting two unnamed sources, California Watch reported that federal officials met with the Oakland city attorney last month to voice their concerns about an ordinance that would permit four enormous medical pot farms in Oakland.
But the pot farms have raised new concerns. Some legal observers, including [NORML Board member] Bill Panzer, a lawyer who wrote the state’s seminal medical marijuana law, have said that the pot farms don’t comply with the state law that requires medical pot operations to be not-for-profit collectives of patients and caregivers.
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials contacted the city to find out about the ordinance over the summer. DEA spokesman Rusty Payne told The Bay Citizen at the time: “I will say this: We are certainly going to be very, very interested in any large-scale marijuana cultivation that’s going on.”
It seems that the feds would much rather have thousands of small grow operations supplying the California dispensary market than four super-grows. It is not the size of the grow operation that frightens the feds; it is the establishment of a strong industry with lobbying power and steady tax revenues to large California cities.
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“…that’s a little short-sighted.”
Well, yes and no: yes, I suppose if you’re hoping half a dozen or so mega-grows licensed by one or two maverick local councils is going to defeat those in power who are determined to maintain the status quo, then, yes, you could think of it as short-sighted. If, however, you really believe in the power of cannabis and you’re more interested in ensuring it becomes as deeply entrenched in contemporary culture as possible than you are in some superficial advances in changing its legal status, which could well lead to setbacks in both the short and long term, then I should think it wiser to look at the issue from various angles and find a balance of all the different views which you feel most comfortable with.
I would have voted for Proposition 19, had I been entitled to do so. (And I did actually support it financially, which is very, very rare for me. I think it’s one of only two or three causes I’ve contributed money to in all my life. Really.) However, now that the shouting’s died down and we’ve done an autopsy, we can try and work out what went wrong. As far as I can see, it’s the money that caused the problem.
I don’t want to get into philosophical debates here about what’s good and what isn’t – whether or not money makes the world go round, or is the root of all evil – but I will say I believe the power of cannabis goes beyond money and I don’t feel comfortable letting the two get into bed together before we’re more consciously aware of how they work (together). You could be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire by letting the idea of monetary gain get it’s foot into the door of cannabis normalisation and regulation. Quite frankly, I’m not keen on the idea of regulation, either, for a variety of reasons.
What I am keen on and do believe is right and good is when people take responsibility for the well-being of the plants they’d like to take care of them. I don’t believe cannabis has the same effect when it’s bought as it does when it’s cultivated. Whatever the clever boys say, no-one really knows how phyto- and endocannabinoids inter-react. There are lots of imaginative guesses and logical conclusion jumping, which sound very scientific, but… I’d like to leave God out of it, like most people do, but I must admit I believe it’s all in God’s hands. The worst place for anything of any spiritual significance is in the pocket of those who make money out of it. Witness the current state of affairs regarding prohibition.
I think Marc Emery’s ‘Jonny Cannabisseed’ (if that’s what he called it) idea was a most effective approach. I appreciate NORML and other organisations’ efforts to act on other aspects of coming to terms with the place of cannabis in contemporary society, but I’m painfully aware how easy, indeed likely, it would be for cannabis to turn into something like the evil influence its opponents maintain it is if its acceptance isn’t handled appropriately. That doesn’t mean everyone who wants to get stoned needs to rush out and get themselves an Afghan coat, grow lots of facial hair and listen to little other than Pink Floyd, but I don’t think it would be better, particularly in the long term, if they came to believe it was the money, rather than the cannabis, which enabled them to do so. If it worked out like that – if regulation supplanted prohibition – we may kill the goose that lays golden eggs, by surrendering it to money, and find that cannabis no longer works for us like it used to.
Ponder this scenario: New Jersey satisfactorily suppresses demands for greater access to cannabis by opening a limited number of ‘mega-grows’; those with something to lose by ending prohibition see this as a good way to spin prohibition out for a little longer; Oakland lets its mega-grows open; the Feds give them a hard time and start pressuring California to change its law so that all grows are mega-grows; states following California opt for the mega-grow, rather than the home-grow, option, because they can invest in the mega-grows and ameliorate their loss of income resulting from the end of prohibition to at least some extent.
Have you realised that regulation can’t work, yet? It can with all sorts of other drugs, e.g. LSD and heroin, but not with cannabis. That’s just not the way it was made, what it was made for, or what it’s used for. And for that we should thank God.
McD, that’s a little short-sighted. By keeping it illegal, the number of growers will always be very limited. There are tons of incredible micro-breweries that couldn’t possibly operate successfully if alcohol prohibition were still in effect. Instead, just a few would make a ton of money — just like with marijuana today.
This is good. The more people who grow cannabis the better.