Blurred lines in California's cannabis capital
news.bbc.co.uk | May 9th 2011 11:55 AM
The aroma of marijuana is rarely far away in the town of Garberville, in
northern California's Humboldt County, but as a topic of conversation it
remains taboo - at least for outsiders.
It feels like a 1960s hippie town that never quite grew up. Garberville
nestles in the thick of the mighty redwood forest to the north of San
Francisco - but it isn't just the ancient tall trees that draw people to
these parts.
This is the marijuana heartland of the US. So I anticipated an openness
among people when broaching the subject of weed. But I was mistaken.
Locals I spoke to discreetly said they either worked as "farmers" or sold
fertiliser, without elaborating much further.
Cash crop
So I visited a newly established so-called Cannabis College nearby, where I
assumed they would be happy to talk frankly about the sole subject they
teach.
On the way, I spotted three large gardening stores, one of many clues which
suggested a lot of planting takes place here.
You can smell marijuana in the air in these parts.
The area has an ideal pot-growing climate, and under California laws it has
been legal to grow and buy marijuana here for personal medical use since
1996 - as long as you have a permit.
But the state law directly contravenes America's federal drugs law. Growing
even a single marijuana plant is a federal crime.
A person can serve five years in prison for cultivating 100 plants. That's
longer than the average sentence for car theft or manslaughter.
Those who want to relax the laws on cannabis claim that it's America's
leading cash crop - worth more than wheat and corn put together. Others
dispute those figures.
Pearl Moon and Kellie Dodd are the two ebullient co-founders of
Garberville's Cannabis College. Pearl is evidently passionate about the
healing potential of pot. "We are not just smoking it any more. We are
heating it, eating it, juicing it and rubbing it into our skin," she says.
Constant fear
The college strives to bring together legal, scientific and horticultural
cannabis experts.
In a recent culinary class, students were taught how to make
cannabis-infused pasta and butter.
While this is an educational institute with real intentions to inform
medical marijuana users, I found it hard to engage in a serious conversation
on this lingering taboo topic.
Weed remains entangled in international organised crime and illegal trade,
in spite of its widely endorsed medical benefits - and few here want to talk
about its alleged harmful effects on mental health.
It became apparent very quickly that even those who grow pot with a permit
live in constant fear of the Feds.
Dedicated newspapers such as the West Coast Leaf report the minor changes to
cannabis legislation with enthusiasm and local radio stations broadcast
public service warnings if the cops are coming.
Cannabis continues to stir caution in people.
Pearl and Kellie mentioned obstacles they faced getting a licence under the
name, Cannabis College. "The problem was with the word 'cannabis'. They
thought we were going to distribute it," Pearl explained.
Later, I went to a hemp store in Garberville.
The goods on offer reflected the blurry line between holistic living and
illicit activity that I sense all around this sleepy town.
It was in a cafe that evening that a waitress echoed the one thing everyone
seems to agree on here: "Without weed - this town would go down."
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Original Page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9480322.stm
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