We’re not alone in dealing with the results of illegal grows. Siskiyou, with its tiny population, is not equipped to deal with what’s happening to it. My sister and her husband lived in Etna for several years. They declared it was the only place they’d ever seen that actively DISCOURAGED businesses. (My brother in law has a cabinet shop.)
Read about it HERE.
I never thought it was a wise thing to advertise that you have a surplus of whatever you’re selling but that’s what Hezekiah Allen did last week . With friends like this, do we need enemies? Read the story from the SF Business Times HERE.
Those of you who read our account of our road trip may be forgiven for wondering why there was a black hole between Salina KS and Salt Lake City. We thought Denver deserved its own post.
Due to cowardice, we had endured our travels on Amtrak and driving West without any weed at all. The prospect of Colorado and legal weed loomed up before us, a shining city of indulgence and relief. Hicks that we are, we thought there would be a phalanx of weed shops at the border, kind of like the signs at Smith River warning you of your Last Chance for cheap booze. Well, there was nothing like that. The little town of Burlington, with its high sidewalks and Western style storefronts, was devoid of any type of weed commerce. We asked a lady at a store who informed us “You have to go to Denver” for what we had in mind. We found a lovely little park a block from the downtown, complete with restrooms and picnic tables and finished our Chinese leftovers.
Chris’ GPS started directing us toward a place called “Peoria”. I had my doubts but a couple of hours later we pulled up in front of an undistinguished building in an office park. Peoria, it turns out, is an area near the Denver airport. The building was clearly signed Light/Shade. From the outside you might think it was a home decor store, featuring window treatments. Once you go inside, it was a beehive of activity. Someone takes your ID and you take a place in the line. There must have been thirty people working there. Compared to my usual shopping at Heart of Humboldt, this was like going to a Safeway. We fumbled though our selections. I got some high CBD stuff labelled with the grower’s name, which I thought was interesting. Chris got something called Golden Goat, which I think I’ve seen at HofH. I got some CBD salve. We dropped $260. The prices for small buds were almost exactly the same as in Arcata. I was so overwhelmed by the variety, I had to get out of there. Te salve I bought came in a mini-mason jar with wood shavings as a cushion, like something from ULTA.
So here we were, at 5 in the afternoon with a horrendous traffic commute starting. We had thought about trying to drive a couple more hours, but in view of the fact that there were a number of motels right in the area, we oped to stay where we were. There was a Rodeway Inn just across the street with a sign that said it had recently changed hands. It was one of the nicest motels I’ve ever stayed at, and the breakfast was excellent. ($79) For dinner we consulted the GPS and found there was a Pizzeria Uno just a few doors down from Light/Shade. Neither of us had been to a Uno in years but it sounded good. Chris came back reporting that the restaurant was busy and the bar was lively and he’d had a good time. The pizza and salad were great. So much for Denver.
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Those of you who read the blog regularly know that I have a high tolerance for junk TV, especially “reality”. I can watch reruns of The Profit or Save My Bakery.
But recently I discovered North Woods Law on Animal Planet. It’s about Maine game wardens tracking illegal hunters, rescuing lost fishermen and just generally being helpful. They rescue eagles from traps, find old ladies lost in the woods and arrest a lot of people for shooting guns out of automobiles. I didn’t even know that was a thing. When you watch North Woods Law you learn a lot about Maine, it’s geography, it’s people. It looks awfully cold.
A lot of it sounds just like Humboldt. They find a medical marijuana farmer cheating by growing an extra field. When they find folks with small amount of weed, they seem to cut them a break. A LOT of the hunters they deal with are drunk. Just like here. One of the charges they issue tickets for is “illuminating wildlife”. You’re not supposed to go into the dark woods and shine your headlights or anything else on them because it causes them to freeze in panic making an easy shot for a hunter. That “deer in the headlights” phenomenon is real! Sometimes their work is somber as when they recover bodies of missing fishermen. On Suddenlink this is all available on Channel 233.
There are half a dozen episodes left in the current season, which is the last one filmed in Maine. Why? Because of everyone’s favorite idiot Governor, Paul Le Page, who has never been known to walk and chew gum at the same time. Hizzoner objected to his state employees being filmed so the show is moving to New Hampshire. Read about it HERE.
Think I’ll go out and illuminate something.
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ALERT! ALERT! JUNK TV ALERT! “BATTLEBOTS” RETURNS TONGHT AT 8pm ON ABC!!
There is so much programming on TV about weed or cannabis or whatever you want to call it that it seems inevitable that there will eventually be a whole channel or channels devoted to the plant, its cultivation, its politics, its uses. I’m surprised no one has done it yet although I’m sure there are “channels” on You Tube that fill the void.
In terms of network television, however, we’re getting a lot of repeats and reruns, that is if you can figure out the programming. CNN has Sanjay Gupta going on and on about weed, HBO had something that I can’t remember. CNN is also airing the only show of this ilk that is at all interesting. It’s called “High Profits” and I THINK the last episode runs tonight at 7pm. When you have to depend on the info on the Suddenlink program guide and Google comes up empty, that’s where we’re at.
The show is about the efforts of some young entrepreneurs to expand their mj dispensary business in Breckinridge, Colorado, a rich ski resort community many miles away from anywhere else, sort of like Aspen. So far, they have heavily invested in a huge growing facility but they need to retain their retail location on the main street of Breckinridge, or believe they do, in order to move all that weed. The cast of characters includes the business owners the local pols, the developers who want a “family” atmosphere on Main Street and of course the vile consultants who gravitate leech-like to the controversy. Last week they lost the special election which would have given them a permanent place on Main Street, and now they are being forced to remove out to Airport Road with the rest. It all sounds awfully familiar but in an interesting locale, quite different from ours. If you want to see it, set your recorders for CNN at 7pm.
I note with regret that “One Good Year”, the Redway-produced documentary about the local scene apparently never got a distribution deal. It’s available on YouTube in a one-hour version although it was originally publicized as feature-length. Maybe they ran out of money. It happens.
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