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4B – Daily News – Tuesday, December 7, 2010 Humboldt's pot growers team up to go legit EUREKA (MCT) — Joey Burger was 14 when his naturalist parents moved from Santa Cruz to settle in the coastal forest of Hum- boldt County. Local hippies and home- steaders welcomed the new kid in the woods. They schooled him in the regional art — growing marijuana. "It was never looked upon as a bad thing," Burg- er said. Except before the fall harvests, when helicopters full of narcotics officers whipped through the sky. Neighbors rushed "to call their friends to make sure they were OK," he said. These days, it isn't just helicopters that frighten Humboldt County's pot cul- ture. America's most renowned bastion of illicit marijuana growing is threat- ened by cavernous, city- taxed cultivation warehous- es soon to be licensed in Oakland. It is alarmed by cities from La Puente to Berkeley to Sacramento that approved taxes on dispen- saries or endorsed medical marijuana cultivation, sanc- tioning a weed economy wider and more competitive than ever. So now Humboldt seeks to save itself by going legit. In an area where mari- juana growers typically evade attention, Burger is the public voice of the new Humboldt Growers Associ- ation. Aligned with a Sacra- mento lobbyist, it is working for county approval to license and tax outdoor pot plantations of up to 40,000 square feet. The proposal — for local growers who can confirm that they have contracts to supply weed to California medical pot shops — is attracting serious attention. But the plan riles small mar- ijuana farmers, pits indoor vs. outdoor growers, and stirs up fears that Hum- boldt's legendary marijuana brand could lose its charac- ter to industrialization. Humboldt, which already permits local med- ical pot patients to grow up to 100 square feet of plants, is expecting to begin work this month on a more liberal cultivation ordinance. "Doing nothing is not an option," said county Super- visor Bonnie Neely, who supports the Humboldt growers' plan in concept but is uncertain how large a scale of growing the county should allow. "This is a major part of our economy. I just don't think we can let Oakland or anyone else just become the leader." The idea of taxing and regulating marijuana in Humboldt — where pot growing is considered a nat- ural right — isn't an easy sell. Kim Nelson, a shaggy- haired, mustachioed carpen- ter who grows weed outside his cabin above Garberville, supports local pot taxes and oversight. But Nelson, sec- retary of the local Medical Marijuana Advisory Panel, says other growers express "anger and rage over getting a permit to grow marijua- na." Burger fears Humboldt, which long ago saw its tim- ber and fishing industries wither away, will lose out again if it doesn't take proac- tive steps to legitimize its pot trade. Now a 28-year-old busi- nessman with early flecks of gray in his hair, Burger runs a gardening supplies show- room and supervises a well- tended outdoor orchard of marijuana that sends its product to medical dispen- saries elsewhere in the state. He looks warily at municipalities elsewhere in California levying taxes and capitalizing on medicinal growing. "They are taking market share from people who MCT photo Adam Hineman grows his pot indoors and sells his "Big Bud Train Wreck" to fellow medical pot patients in California. spent a generation risking their lives and their land," Burger said. "We want to see people who paid their dues get a chance. We want to come out and compete legally." Max Del Real, a Sacra- mento lobbyist working with the Growers Associa- tion, said its proposed ordi- nance could generate $10 million a year in county tax revenues. The plan would impose annual county fees of $20,000 on a quarter-acre outdoor pot garden and $80,000 for an acre. Neely is skeptical of the tax revenue projections. But she considers the plan a rea- sonable proposal in a county where pot is so entrenched in the culture, economy and politics that supervisors four years ago drafted a letter Deadline extended by popular demand! YOU and your Family can be represented in the Premier Edition “Tehama Country” Christmas Album Of the Deadline for Public Submissions: Wednesday, December 8 To be published as a magazine supplement to the Daily News on Saturday, December 18 • Share an original story of “Christmas Past” • Write a Christmas Poem • Send a family Christmas Recipe • Submit original Christmas photos or artwork $100 Award first place per category (story, poem, recipe, photo or artwork) $50 runner up per category * Before submitting, read full submission and contest instructions published in Announcements in the Daily News Classifieds Be part of a new “Tehama Country” Christmas Tradition! Send via email: clerk@redbluffdailynews.com Or mail or deliver to the Daily News 454 Diamond Ave., PO Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Remember –Deadline for our receipt of submissions is Wednesday, December 8 D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY petitioning Congress to legalize marijuana. In Humboldt, population 138,000, it is more common to ask who doesn't grow pot than who does. As open-air gardens and greenhouses bloom in the mountains, average citizens supplement their income growing under shimmering lights at home. Adam Hineman, 31, toiled long hours in the restaurant business until he began growing pot in a modest suburban house. The registered medical mar- ijuana patient provides his "Big Bud Train Wreck" to pot shops in Humboldt and Santa Barbara counties. And he builds on a Hum- boldt dream — of someday buying property in the coun- try and sustaining his family with marijuana flowering in the open sun."You couldn't make it in Humboldt with- out weed," he said. Lelehnia Du Bois, 40, learned to trim neighbors' pot plants in nearby Trinity County when she was 9. After moving to South- ern California, becoming a fashion model and a depart- ment store buyer, she returned to the pot-growing region when her mother, then a Humboldt resident, fell ill. In 1999, while work- ing as a nurse in a senior care facility, she caught a falling patient and ruptured her spinal cord. Now Du Bois is on dis- ability and supplements her income in the craft intro- duced to her as a little girl. Her "Sweet God" marijuana strain "goes right to the spine" to ease her pain. She SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A University of California commission is calling for more out-of-state students, online classes for credit and three-year college degrees as the UC system grapples with rising costs and reduced government support. The report released Mon- day by the UC Commission on the Future details strate- gies the 10-campus system makes medicinal pot tinc- tures and lip balms. She hopes to market them if new Humboldt regulations "sup- port the small farmer," indoors and out. But she fears Humboldt may go too far in industrial- izing its trade. "I don't want our town to be taken over," she said. "It won't be a community any- more. It will be a factory town." Humboldt County Dis- trict Attorney Paul Gallegos, the only prosecutor in Cali- fornia to publicly endorse Proposition 19, the initiative voters defeated Nov. 2 that would have made recre- ational pot legal, says it is time that Humboldt legit- imizes the trade "that per- meates our society." Gallegos prosecutes more than 1,000 marijuana cases a year — mostly for grows exceeding 99 plants. Authorities also deal with robberies and home inva- sions at pot sites. In August, a grower was arrested on suspicion of shooting two laborers, killing one. While pot sustains the economy, growers have pur- chased fire trucks and paid for emergency medical training for local volunteer fire crews. Recently, in the town of Redway, an anxious meet- ing took place over how to protect the local trade. Robert Sutherland, an environmentalist known as "Man Who Walks in the Woods," submitted a pro- posal declaring that the county must "work ... to guard the worldwide reputa- use to address its financial problems while fulfilling its education and research mis- sion. Among the report’s 20 recommendations approved by the commission: — Create a pathway for undergraduates to complete degree in certain majors in three years, which could save both the students and university money. — Increase systemwide enrollment of nonresident Is your gym just not “working out”? Feel like you’ve hardly made any progress this year? Try Tehama Family Fitness Center, where your success is our success! Our members get results because we care! Tehama Family Fitness Center is focused on assisting members in accomplishing their goals. Try us out for free. You haven’t tried until you’ve tried us! Be our guest! Be our guest! Be our guest! Try Tehama County’s Premier Fitness Facility for free! You will need at least 3 visits to experience what our 30,000 sq.ft full service facility has to offer! • Classes • New and improved cardio sections • Strength train with the finest resistance equipment in Tehama County! Tehama Family Fitness Center 2498 South Main St • Red Bluff 528-8656 www.tehamafamilyfitness.com tion of Humboldt County marijuana." Dennis "Tony" Turner, a former school counselor who runs a dispensary in Arcata, pitched a regional brokerage to market small growers' weed to pot shops statewide. Another advocate pro- posed a local "cannabis council" including pot farm- ers, a human rights advocate and an expert "in weights and measures." An informal poll taken at the event showed more sup- port for licensing smaller marijuana grows — 2,000 square feet instead of 40,000. But Del Real, the Sacra- mento lobbyist, ebulliently pitched the Growers Associ- ation plan. It could sanction local growers who cultivate for hundreds of medical marijuana users or allow scores of small growers to share cultivation space. "The revolution is starting here," he said. As attendees stepped outside for contemplative marijuana tokes, one pot spiritualist began to cry over the mere idea of taxing and regulating Humboldt weed. "This herb is a sacrament," he protested. Nelson, the local grower and medical marijuana advocate, called for protec- tion of small cultivators and the county's pot-growing lifestyle. But he hailed the Growers Association for pitching a path to sustain- ability. "I think it's time," he said, "to stand up for who we are." UC panel offers ideas to cut costs students, who pay tuition that is three times than the amount paid by residents, from 6 percent to 10 percent. — Expand a pilot pro- gram to explore offering fully online courses for degree credit to reduce costs, expand access to high- demand classes and reduce time to graduation. — Make it easier for community college students to transfer to a UC campus by making course require- ments more consistent across UC’s nine undergrad- uate campuses. The report also includes recommendations the com- mission considered but did not approve: — Establish multi-year tuition tables so that incom- ing freshmen know how much their education will cost and won’t be caught off-guard by tuition increas- es. — Allow campuses to charge different tuition lev- els so that the most selective schools would cost more. The commission, made up of faculty, students, staff alumni and administrators, also offers ‘‘contingency recommendations’’ the uni- versity should consider if the state’s finances worsen including raising tuition.