The following controversial op-ed was submitted to Kym Kemp by a grower who we know is currently being prosecuted for marijuana cultivation.  Because of the situation, we have allowed this piece to be offered anonymously.

For those of you who believe that the marijuana industry in Humboldt County should be eradicated, I’m sure that title sounds ludicrous. For those of you who feel that the grower’s greed pays no hindrance to the ruination of the environment, nor to criminal or tax law, I’m certain your gratitude is non-existent. However, many of you, whether you know it or not, owe anywhere from a handshake, to a big fat hug, to the marijuana growers in your community. 

If you own property, your property values have been directly and indirectly propped up by the marijuana industry. Growers pay for land in the hills that would otherwise be relatively worthless. Those higher land values trickle down the rivers to the coast and indirectly influence the value of everyone’s land. The bloated rents that growers pay indirectly influence the rent that you can charge for your property, whether you allow growing or not. The rent that you can collect from non-growers is influenced by the general rental market, which is bolstered by growers. The dollars that growers claim on their taxes allow them to buy homes that they can afford to maintain and appoint well. If you don’t think there’s an immaculate home in your neighborhood that is fueled by marijuana dollars, then you are sadly naive. 

If you own a small business in HumCo, a staggering percentage of your business comes from marijuana. Whether you sell gas or Halloween costumes or couches or plant nutrients or burritos or jewelery or beer, you’re profiting from the marijuana industry. 

If you’re an environmentalist, consider that the majority of outdoor growers are making organic compost and fertilizer teas to feed their plants and are vigilant about their water usage. Much more so than half of the coast-dwellers that water their lawns and get their water from the same watershed. What’s more important is how growers manage their land. Most have implemented or are converting to a three-acre exclusion. If any of you think that the gold, sheep, or timber industries were only clearing three acres out of a 180 acre parcel, or if any of them were better stewards of the land than the marijuana industry, I’d love to hear your argument. I’ve seen some scary GoogleMap satellite shots, but none as scary as a clear-cut mountainside that the timber industry was so fond of, and some of the more egregious marijuana grow satellite shots are still less than three cleared acres. Yes, they look messy from the air. Water tanks, tarps, downed trees not bucked up, but even the worst grows pale in comparison to what other industries have done to the forest, and even the guy down the street from you with the cars in his backyard and the sofas in the front looks worse than a MJ grow from the air. Let’s not forget that this is private land we’re talking about. 

If you like people to pay their share of taxes, then look no further. I’m certain that most growers don’t claim all they make to the feds … as certain as I am that most restaurant owners don’t either. They finance homes and cars … they claim taxes … as much taxes as any self-employed individual or small business owner does. So they cheat the feds a little. What do they do with the extra cash? They buy property at bloated prices, bloated prieces that they created themselves, and pay property taxes accordingly. They buy mountains of soil and amendments, they buy expensive equipment and trucks, they buy dinners out, they buy gas and propane and diesel and it’s all bought locally. You forgot about sales tax, didn’t you? I’m going to venture a very conservative estimate that each of those 4,000 grows out there spend $4,000 on soil and amendments per year. That’s $16 million, which renders $1.2 million in taxes, not counting undocumented grows, indoor grows and my own conservative estimate … just for dirt. When you start extrapolating the myriad of other sales tax dollars that growers pour into our economy, don’t you also wonder why the HumCo Drug Task Force works so hard to stamp them out? After all, they’re biting the hand that feeds them.

I’m well aware of the negatives of growing. We all are. They’re well documented by the Humboldt County Sheriff press releases and, in turn, regurgitated by the various news sources. For those of you who drink this Kool-Aid and believe that the marijuana industry should be eradicated, I hear you. But, unless you’re also a home owner willing to live through another drop in home values, or an environmentalist truly willing to give the land back to another industry, or a business owner who won’t take money from a grower, I won’t believe you, and you should still at least offer a firm and friendly handshake to the silent majority that have allowed this industry to support you for so long.

Annan Amos