UPDATE 1:19 P.M.: A new word has been inserted into the title of the Mother Jones’ article—It now reads “ “How INDUSTRIAL Pot Growers Ravage the Land: A Google Earth Tour.” How telling that to people outside of Humboldt there is often only a single type of grower—all of them are guilty of the same environmental sins. To this reporter’s credit (LoCO was told that he is the one that had the headline changed,) the headline was changed to reflect that this doesn’t paint a full picture. For many here in the Emerald Triangle there is an understanding that there are different types of growers—many of the growers are understood to be environmentally conscious and protective of the land and its water.

Original post:

Mother Jones, the left-leaning national magazine known for its investigative reporting, just posted an article online, “How Pot Growers Ravage the Land: A Google Earth Tour.”  The article takes the video (seen before on LoCO here and here) produced by a student and a faculty member associated with the the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research (HIIMR) and adds screen narration.

Anthony Silvaggio, Ph.D, who is a faculty member of the Humboldt State University Sociology Department and associated with the (HIIMR), speaks throughout the short video seen above.  Silvaggio speaks about Humboldt as being an “area in recovery from industrial logging  Now we have an unregulated industry here causing more ecological harm.”

Silvaggio’s narration ends with “The logical solution would be to end Prohibition.”

Pot Cops and Weed Country, two new series based out of Humboldt, will also be talking about marijuana in this area. According to a review of these series, Humboldt is “actually a fairly dangerous place, filled with growers, authorities, and quarrels between neighbors.”

The LoCO has covered the ecological harm of SOME grows and we agree there are many growers here but is Humboldt really “a fairly dangerous place?”