I'm currently in Oregon hillbilly country, (that is, anything south of Hippietown), advocating for medical marijuana dispensaries before alarmingly hostile
city and county councils.
Resistance to medical/legal pot in these parts is reported to come from the usual suspects: parents, conservative folk, and small-town, volunteer councils, backed and advised by Kochsuckers like the League of Oregon Cities.* While the League has certainly proposed legislation that could allow local governments to permanently ban dispensaries, the most significant push-back on medical marijuana (and seemingly inevitable Oregon legalization in the fall) stems from--Surprise!--the existing underground industry. Because Oregon's economy has been devastated for decades by logging restrictions, many locals understandably turned to more lucrative crops.
Resistance to medical/legal pot in these parts is reported to come from the usual suspects: parents, conservative folk, and small-town, volunteer councils, backed and advised by Kochsuckers like the League of Oregon Cities.* While the League has certainly proposed legislation that could allow local governments to permanently ban dispensaries, the most significant push-back on medical marijuana (and seemingly inevitable Oregon legalization in the fall) stems from--Surprise!--the existing underground industry. Because Oregon's economy has been devastated for decades by logging restrictions, many locals understandably turned to more lucrative crops.
Former students of Father Guido Sarducci well know that increased supply decreases price. Emerald Triangle industry people have much to lose...so of course these folks quietly voted with reefer-madness republicans against legalization in California in 2010. Established growers in Oregon will likewise do what they can to maintain price. Dispensaries and total legalization threaten their business model.
But legalization looms and likely cannot be stopped. This will eventually draw the big bucks, an avalanche of corporate cash (and the lawyers that come with it) that can simply undercut and starve out the family-owned pot-farmer, replacing some of the best marijuana in the world with industrial schwag.
I'm here to somehow prevent that from happening.
How I got here, however, should be told first.
Next: A Murder in a Mendocino Church Lands Me a Job in the Industry
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*That marijuana is indisputably-beyond-debate medicine is a massive understatement. The human body has so many receptors for the various components of the cannabis plant it is now known as the endocannabinoid sysytem...even the National Institutes of Health admits it.
But legalization looms and likely cannot be stopped. This will eventually draw the big bucks, an avalanche of corporate cash (and the lawyers that come with it) that can simply undercut and starve out the family-owned pot-farmer, replacing some of the best marijuana in the world with industrial schwag.
I'm here to somehow prevent that from happening.
How I got here, however, should be told first.
Next: A Murder in a Mendocino Church Lands Me a Job in the Industry
------------------------------------------------
*That marijuana is indisputably-beyond-debate medicine is a massive understatement. The human body has so many receptors for the various components of the cannabis plant it is now known as the endocannabinoid sysytem...even the National Institutes of Health admits it.
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