The contrasting cultures along our wonderful amber waves of grain are tremendous. From the hills of Northern California, past the bayous of the South to the smell of the Atlantic Ocean; our laws and culture couldn’t be more amusingly different.

From Mendicino County,

Ukiah Daily Journal Staff
A Sacramento resident was sentenced to 19 years of state prison on Friday by Judge Ron Brown in connection with a 2007 marijuana robbery in Willits.

Qwando Lecharles Tremble, 26, was convicted of residential robbery with use of a firearm, residential burglary, transportation of marijuana, with extra charges of having served a prior prison term, and a “strike” for a prior robbery.

According to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office report, in July of 2007 Tremble was in Willits with two companions, Jodi Dutra and Lonnie McClain, looking for marijuana to purchase. The trio was at the home of an acquaintance of Dutra’s when another man arrived with five pounds of marijuana the owner wanted to sell for $4,000 per pound.

Instead of money, Tremble then pulled a pistol from a carry bag and took the marijuana at gunpoint from the possession of the two men. Tremble, Dutra and McClain then escaped with the marijuana.

At a jury trial held in early April, McClain was acquitted, but Tremble was convicted on all counts. Dutra pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and child endangerment and currently faces a five-year prison term.

Deputy District Attorney Katherine Houston prosecuted Tremble’s case while Al Kubanis served as attorney for the defense.

Tremble must serve 85 percent of the sentence before being eligible for parole

In some states, they would have prosecuted both for possession, seized the home of those who grew it, taken the children away, seized everyone’s cars, and given everyone 20 years. But in Mendocino county, they treat the home robbery as a “Home Robbery”.

With the exception of those 13 states with Medical Marijuana laws, it is still illegal to grow or possess marijuana. If this family had lived in a state where they weren’t protected, then it’s likely they would not have called police and these dangerous armed felons would still be on the street.

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Washington – — Concern about a potential failed state – not Pakistan, not Somalia, but California’s neighbor Mexico – is mounting in Washington as an all-out war involving 45,000 Mexican military personnel fails to quell rising drug violence that is spilling from such Mexican cities as Tijuana into the United States.

An estimated 6,290 drug-related murders occurred in Mexico last year, six times the standard definition of a civil war, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a leading scholar on the issue at the Brookings Institution.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, described beheadings of Mexican mayors and police chiefs and said Mexican drug gangs have infiltrated the cannabis fields on both public and private lands in Northern California. He said Mexican villagers are kidnapped and smuggled into the northern coastal forests to grow pot, leaving environmental wreckage in their wake.

He said a timber company employee had been held at gunpoint by a Mexican gang, and he worried that hikers could be threatened. There also have been gang confrontations with firefighters.

“This isn’t your ’60s hippie growing a little pot on the back 40 to get through winter,” Thompson said.

Unlike past battles over immigration, Mexico’s current problems are blamed increasingly on the United States: its enormous demand for illegal drugs and its availability of military-style weapons, including bazookas and grenade launchers, that are smuggled to Mexico and used to match or overwhelm the Mexican military.

“My personal view is, it’s us who is more responsible than Mexico,” said Sidney Weintraub, a leading Latin American scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We’re providing profits of about $25 billion to the drug cartels. That’s a lot of money.”

About 40 percent of the drug sales are marijuana, he said. “We imprison more people for marijuana than any other drug. What we have to do is change our policy and decriminalize marijuana. I don’t think we can do much unless we cut back on the money. As long as they have all that money, Mexico is in a largely hopeless situation.”

It’s beginning to look like the only thing we produce and export anymore in America is destabilization and violence in other countries.  Our government has pledged another $1.4 Billion (or 12.2 cannadays) to Mexico to help combat the drug gangs, because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the drug war, it’s if what you’re doing isn’t working, do more of it with greater firepower.

America likes to smoke pot.  No matter how sophisticated your Army, you cannot fight the laws of supply and demand.  We want it and if you’d let us use it, buy it, and grow it, there would be no customers for Mexican drug gangs.  America can grow some mighty fine domestic marijuana.

On Canadian radio today, I was asked, “Well, wouldn’t the criminal gangs turn to pushing harder drugs and other crimes?”

“Yes,” I replied, “sure, that’s what criminals do – they make their living committing crimes.  However, criminals, just like our government, are subject to the laws of supply and demand.  60% of these violent drug gangs’ money comes from marijuana because Americans like marijuana.  Gangs can try to push more coke, meth, and heroin, but who’s going to be buying?”

In fact, I’d argue that a legal marijuana market in America would reduce the demand for coke, meth, and heroin, just as the end of Prohibition in the ’30s brought people back to beer and reduced demand for hard liquor.

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Don’t forget to tune into cable channel CNBC tonight at 9pm ET (replay 1am ET) for Marijuana Inc, a look at Northern California’s billion-dollar marijuana crop.  You can even click on their online poll, where decriminalization is enjoying 97% support.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

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While it may not be traded on Wall Street any time soon, marijuana has become a booming cash crop. CNBC’s Trish Regan goes behind the scenes to explore the inner workings of this secretive industry, focusing on Northern California’s “Emerald Triangle,” now the marijuana capital of the U.S. In this scenic pocket of America, the pot business, much of it legal under state law, now makes up as much as two-thirds of the local economy.

via Marijuana Inc: Inside America’s Pot Industry, Business, Domestic Production, Government, Drug, Medicine, Economy, Profit – CNBC.com.

Thus begins the intro for the CNBC official page on their “Marijuana Inc” documentary premiering this Tuesday Thursday (unless a plane crashes in a river, of course).  Let’s freep their online poll, “Do you favor the decriminalization of marijuana use?”, though at this writing, we’re already ahead 97.5% – 2.5%!

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New to DVD today is Humboldt County, an introspective character piece by novice writer/director duo, Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs (both also act in the film). The film follows disenchanted medical student, Peter (Jeremy Strong), as he spends a summer lost within the confines of a marijuana commune hidden deep in the backwoods of Northern California. via DVD Review: Humboldt County – LAist: Los Angeles News, Food, Arts & Events.

Darren and Danny joined us as interview guests in the Sep 26, 2008 Stash.  I really loved this movie and my wife watched it for the first time last week and loved it, too.  This is not a “crazy dope comedy”, so if you’re looking for that, go rent Pineapple Express or Harold & Kumar.  This is a movie that explores the essence of the cannabis community as Peter exits “Babylon” and experiences the interaction of the Humboldt family – “fish out of water” tale.  This film features some of the most realistic depictions of pot farmer characters I’ve seen in a long time.

And besides, it’s got that lady from Six Feet Under (Frances Conroy) and the doctor from Deadwood (Brad Dourif), two of my all-time favorite HBO shows, so you know the acting is good.

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