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Americans Grow Cannabis to Beat the Recession
Some people cancel holidays abroad, others stage yard sales or start shopping at low-cost supermarkets. To that list must now be added a new way to get through economic hard times: grow cannabis.
The leaves of a marijuana plant are seen as Kentucky State Police and Kentucky National Guard troops search hillsides near Barbourvillle, Ky., for the plants Wed., July 22, 2009. The demand for domestically grown marijuana is at a record high, in part because stricter border control has made it more difficult to import pot from Mexico. (AP Photo/Roger Alford) Law enforcers on the west coast of the US and in the middle states straddled by the foothills of the Appalachian mountains are reporting a common trend. It is boom time for marijuana cultivation, and much of the incentive they say is to beat the recession.
So far this year, police in parts of the country where cannabis is traditionally grown have chopped down plants with a street value of $12bn. The core growing area is in California, Washington and Oregon to the west, but the Appalachian states of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia are also witnessing an explosion.
More than 600,000 cannabis plants have been cut and burned in those states this summer, reversing a previous decline in production brought about by stringent law enforcement. It is not only the quantity of crop that is on the rise, the nature of the growers is also changing.
Ed Shemelya, who leads the marijuana eradication programme in the Appalachia region, says a new type of grower is emerging wholly different to the family cartels that have cultivated the drug for generations. "We are seeing a lot more individuals who wouldn't normally be growing marijuana. They are not your professionals."
Shemelya puts it down to the dire economy in this part of America. The region is almost entirely dependant for jobs on coal mining, which has suffered severely from the recession.
"People are growing marijuana to supplement their income or support themselves in poor economic times. This is about economic necessity," he said.
The newcomers to the business are typically restricting their practices to fields of around 80 plants - that's tiny compared to the mega cultivation seen in California where 5.3m plants were destroyed last year up from 4.9m in 2007. But at around $2,000 a plant, that still provides a good living in Appalachia.
Growers tend to locate their crops as close to their homes as possible, on the edge or just inside the forest that carpets much of the foothills. They clear foliage from the trees to allow in light, then grow the plants between the trunks to hide them from aerial detection by the drug authorities.
On top of the economic incentive, the clampdown on marijuana traffic across the border from Mexico has also provided a reason for new participants to enter the market. Dave Keller, a drug enforcement officer in Appalachia, told the Associated Press that both small and large growers were trying to fill the void.
The booming business is proving challenging not only for law enforcement. A devastating forest fire in the mountains of Los Padres National Forest in California last month was found to have been started by a Mexican drug cartel that had been cooking marijuana on a camp fire. Some 30,000 plants were seized from the farm hidden away in the forest.
117 Comments so far
Show All"Marijuana eradication..." What a waste. People like Ed Shemalya should be put to work growing and harvesting Cannabis, instead of trying to eradicate it.
Um, the giant forest fire was caused by Mexican drug cartels "cooking marijuana" on a campfire? What does that mean? It sounds like cooking meth or something. Were they making a meal with pot in it? You can't eat fresh pot. It doesn't get you high until it's been dried. This sounds like prohibitionist bs to me. Blaming the fire on pot is stupid, but if it's all you got...
Another piece of bullshit involves the so-called "street value" of the confiscated plants. These agents weigh a plant just pulled out of the ground with dirt still clinging to its roots and base their estimate of its "value" on that weight. In fact, the actual usable product will weigh less than one percent of what the plant does.
q
what i want to know is, how come they confiscated 30,000 plants if they burned in a forest fire?........am i missing something here? (or were the plants miles away from the fire?) i just don't get it.................
Cooking pot, cooking pots, same difference.
I hate to defend them but it is likely the "drug cartels" were trying to quick dry plants over an open fire and it got out of hand. But its still a pack of lies-- quickstepper has it right about the lies.
I'm not trying to be difficult but you can't do that with marijuana - it won't 'quick dry.
The most important of drying marijuana is keeping the buds - which contain the bulk of the THC - intact and unharmed. Direct heat from a flame would diminish the THC in the buds.
Of course, it's possible that the idiots with the fire did not know what I just told you and that you are completely correct. They could have been trying to dry some quickly for their own use.
q
How many folks die from the effects of pot? ZERO!
How many die from prescription drugs and their side effects? Untold numbers!
Case closed.
Smoke it if you got it.
Grow it, but be VERY cautious. Very!
Don't forget all those killed by alcohol abuse, some of whom have never even had a drink.
In that case, I think you'd be hard pressed to say someone high on pot never killed someone in a car accident. But I don't know if statistics on that is kept.
"[S]tudies have always indicated that marijuana (cannabis) has only a neglible effect on drivers who are experienced with its effects."
http://www.fcda.org/driving.htm
I'm not saying it'll have a similar effect to alcohol. But with 40,000 fatalities a year, it's probably statistically impossible that not one of them was committed by a driver who happened to be high on weed.
There is a BIG difference between an occasional smoker and a habitual smoker.
The habitual smoker doesn't get as high and usually functions quite well in society.
Someone getting high for the first time, and while driving, would probably crash if they were the only person on the road!
You get used to the effects.
I'm for legalizing it. But let's not make up fairy tales. Marijuana smokers tend to underestimate their impairment, in my opinion. Their senses of time and space can be quite distorted. Don't drive while high on anything.
But I have never seen a brawl or heard of a stabbing or shooting brought on by pot... beer and liquour cause much more angry violence.
Joe
A small documentary on how hemp cultivation can cure many modern problems. Medicinal, nutritious, quick cultivating, can replace old growth timber logging, food and fuel oils derived from... you need to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX620XTIO3M
I'm with huiler here. "cooking marijuana on a camp fire" seems pretty ignorant to me.
Playing to ethnic prejudice also: Mexican drug cartel in California has the savvy to grow 30,000 plants on federal land but then burns up its own crop?
Sorry, but the "story" here is lousy journalism. No follow through, such as answering the question, How does an amateur grower create a market for his/her product? Inquiring minds want to know...
-30-
They were not "cooking" marijuana, although the fire was a result of their campfire. And I feel very strongly about the control of any and all growing in our park system, whether by drug cartels or others. I am especially alarmed about the rampant invasion by Mexican drug cartels and believe that this should be a priority to stop. That said, I am in favor of legalization of most drugs, starting with Marijuana. There are volumes of scientific and social data to support such legalization. As other readers have pointed out, the waste in billions of dollars per year in fighting this stupid war on drugs is an utter failure and only supports the drug cartels. The cost in lives and lost generations is incalculable. If marijuana were legalized and regulated like liquor, then the money and lives saved would be phenomenal and free up resources to tackle the real social problems. IMHO
Actually Kreole,
It's probably better this way. If you allow it to be regulated the first thing the Federal Mafia is going to do is allow MonInsaneto to Genetically Modify it with self-producing, lung-busting pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and it will have the crappy unhealthy characteristics of most American Beer and cigarettes. Or the Big Pharms or tobacco companies will distill it down to bland crap that has a long shelf life, but no quality remaining. Raised in Paraquot SuperFarms it will poison us all.
Individual farmers take pride in their product from what I've seen, are not as greedy, and develop better diversity and quality. This is true for produce as well as Cannabis.
Once upon a time, every American ignored the FBI warnings not to copy a VHS tape. That is what needs to happen here. It is none of the government's (or corps) business what I do with my body as long as I don't hurt anyone else. We must draw the line at the personal body.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
"How does an amateur grower create a market..." He/she doesn't. They grow for themselves and keep their mouths shut. They often do not trust their close friends with this information. If you can't keep your own secret, how can you expect someone else to keep it? And someone caught using might be inclined to turn over a manufacturer and distributor.
LEGALIZE IT!
Legalizing it wouldn't help these growers at all. It's production would be taken over by big-ag corporations and the prices would crash.
Legalizing it will help us all, part of the production would be taken by corporations but most of the production will be grown by users. It is legal to grow tobacco and make alcohol as should cannabis. Cannabis must be tax free for as long as it has been prohibited.
I like the "tax free for as long as it was prohibited" I've always been afraid that the price of legalization would be tax and commercialism. Once read the tobacco cos. had a plan in place for the blessed event.
But I've also read that it took until the 1970's to legalize home beer production. And I'm pretty sure moonshine is still illegal. That legalization was the cost-free "stimulus" that generated the micro-brewery business in the 80's. Imagine, a stimulus that benefitted almost everyone in some way because of all the jobs that were created and all the good beer people got to try without costing taxpayers a cent! Which way will we go with pot?
All cannabis and hemp must be legalized; prohibition is a failure, not to mention growing a plant is a human right. Organized crime dominates the market, not individual small time growers. Industrial hemp is a truly sustainable crop that needs no pesticides, produces hempseed oil, material for cloth, paper etc. Trees could be saved, energy could be produced and the environment would benefit. It would be a win win win situation for the people of the US. However...a small minority of americans would not benefit.
Now, tell me what group of interests made it illegal in the first place? What group of interests lobby to this day to keep the status quo?
The books I've read suggest that cannabis was made illegal because a cheap process for making paper out of hemp threatened to reduce the value of WR Hearst's investments in wood pulp paper manufacturing, and so good ole WRH convinced Americans (never the brightest bulbs) that smoking pot (newly christened "marihuana" to tie it to swarthy Others) caused people to go crazy and commit all sorts of crimes.
The interests that sponsor a lot of ONDCP anti-pot ads include Anheuser Busch and Phillip Morris. Gotta keep kids using the legal (or is that spelled "lethal"?) drugs, don't ya know. Plus I think the Feds just love having the pretext for stepping up the police state tactics, for when the shit finally hits the fan big time (e.g., the unemployment rate reaches 25%).
Answer: The Brewers and Distillers of America? I believe they even printed good looking propaganda against weed with their association proudly displayed at the bottom during the early to mid 1900's. Do I win a prize? A bag of homegrown maybe? Contact me with details.
Read "The Emperor Has No Clothes" by Jack Herer for the lowdown on the industrial interests behind pot prohibition.
I know your question is rhetorical, but just to add to the thread;
It is a threat to those who reap great riches from industry, both by providing a favorable alternative to whatever product said industry is currently involved with AND by providing the workers with different perspectives which make them less compliant. Alcohol produces an individual who dutifully trudges back to work with a hangover. Marijuana produces a person who says "screw that job, the greedy owner, and the horse he rode in on"...or, at the very least, "why, again, am I doing this job?" The 'titans of industry' don't like that...very simple actually. Even worse, smoking cannabis enhances creativity.
What is not so simple is why everybody keeps listening to their boss who, usually, is just another lost fool without a clue. How many people can truly say their boss is more intelligent than they are or that their boss is an inspired leader? It is more a case of the blind leading the blind through a web of lies and traps - yet all anyone has to do is take off the blindfold and quit following the idiot who is still wearing one. Most people are just afraid to be individuals. Most people don't actually want freedom.
Producing top grade marijuana is fairly labor intensive, something American big-ag hates with a passion. Having said that, after legalization even small scale growers would be able to produce far more marijuana than the market would demand. I suspect that growers would have to be licensed and regulations developed to prevent youngsters and gangsters from being able to steal growing marijuana.
"Producing top grade marijuana is fairly labor intensive, something American big-ag hates with a passion. "
And who do you think they'll get to do that for very low wages?
I'm sure some small cottage growers would be able to turn their business over to "LOCALLY PRODUCED", "organic", "fair-trade", and jack it right back up for quality. Just as we have the same arguments about our food supply now.
I'm hitting a bong right now! Give it up Ed Shemalya; the people want it, and for good reasons.
good for you. don't bogart that bong, my friend.
In the last depression bootlegging supported many people. Roosevelt ended prohibition and taxed alcohol. Now it's pot. It would be wise to legalize and tax it as well. Nothing is harmless or without drawbacks but marijuana is far less dangerous than tylenol much less booze.
If Joe Kennedy were young now,
would he be running grass,
instead of booze?
I don't know about recessions, but the kind herb beats depression all to hell.
The marijuana helicopters have surveyed my rural neighborhood twice in the last couple of weeks. They circled one area about a mile south of me several times.
At two thousand dollars per marijuana plant the profit from one marijuana plant equals the profit from several hundred thousand corn plants.
At current costs for planting corn and current prices for corn, some less productive areas that didn't get timely rains will produce no profit at all this year.
The DEA helicopters used to be a major hazard at our old hang gliding sites in Kentucky.
Considering that a helicopter costs around $500/hr. for fuel, maintenence, etc., and it costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000/year to imprison an individual (not to mention the salaries paid to the pigs charged with keeping an eye on us), doesn't it make you feel good that our government is so concerned about our good health and what we decide to put into our own frigging bodies?
why do we goodies hate wonderful marijuana so much, again?
Because once you smoke it, and see that all the hysteria around it was 100% horseshit, you start to wonder what other lies you've been fed by folks with authority and power. It also makes you feel comfortable in your own skin, which is a big no-no in the Calvinist worldview the USA has inherited.
Also, the effects of pot on the mind include connecting different parts of the brain that are "normally" disconnected - so the user starts to make all kinds of connections that were not made before...
LSD has this effect too, but to a much greater degree...
Pot's extremely safe, LSD a bit less so...
Do i date myself by calling it "pot"?
Only if you buy it by the lid.
LOL
I personally divide people into two groups. Those who are enlightened(have tripped), and those who have not. If you have not been there, you don't understand.
"Legalise it, don't criticise it,
and I man will advertise it"
Don't you just love that album cover? I always thought Ketchy Shuby (spelling?) could be a hit as a pop song.
Yes, always liked Tosh as much as Marley.
Here is anothe lyrical quote:
"I got a stalk of sinsemilla growing in my back yard..."
So our country and culture is on the verge of being destroyed and the solution is to go around intoxicated on marijuana?
You are playing right into the hands of the enemies of our freedoms. Their only quarrel is not with the use of the stuff, but, rather, with maintaining their near monopoly on its distribution.
These bozos not only want us drunk as a skunk on weed, they want us to pay them as much money as we can steal or borrow for the priviklige of assisting our own enslavement. Blind foolish people!
Poet
"So our country and culture is on the verge of being destroyed and the solution is to go around intoxicated on marijuana?"
Where did anyone suggest that THE solution to our myriad problems is to get baked?
Some of our problems include rampant imprisonment of racial minorities (chalk that up to prohibition), an increase in police state tactics in drug enforcement at a federal and state level (chalk that up to prohibition too), and the simply fact that in a free society people should be allowed to modify their consciousness as they see fit, whether with pot, beer, yoga, or meditation. If you don't have that fundamental freedom, all the other ones seem moot, in my opinion. Working to end the prohibition of marijuana would address all those problems and would not play into the hands of our enslavers.
And once you're high, and a little chilled out, you can go about the business of fixing all the others messes, and do so without a big chip on your shoulder. It is possible.