Local reporter Tiffany Revelle attended the recent forum in Ukiah on "Life After Legalization." This is a gripping concern for the locals here in Northern California as you can well imagine.
From an economy driven by the lumber trade to an economy based on local production of cannabis in just about 30 years, it's an amazing story.
From an economy driven by the lumber trade to an economy based on local production of cannabis in just about 30 years, it's an amazing story.
Read the entire story here.How much of Mendocino County's economy marijuana represents was one of the biggest questions at a Saturday forum on "Life After Legalization" at the Saturday Afternoon Club in Ukiah - and no one has any real answers.
The forum, brought south by Humboldt County's KMUD radio host Anna Hamilton from where it started last month, aimed to answer the myriad questions about what should happen if the voters pass the Tax Cannabis 2010 California ballot initiative.
About 200 people from all angles of the question filled the room to its capacity: growers, workers, property owners, patients, business people, government representatives, media and people who were "just curious."
There were differing views about what legalization would do to the price of marijuana, with some believing it would drive down the price and displace trimmers currently paid between $20 and $40 per hour, and others believing legalization would increase demand.
Either way, it was obvious that the people in the room weren't satisfied with the answers Ukiah Chamber of Commerce CEO Burt Mosier offered about how the initiative, if it passes, will affect the area's economy. He said he has no hard, cold numbers showing where growers shop, and how much local businesses depend on them.
"All the time, I keep hearing from my members that ... the influx of money makes a difference in their survival; I know that," Mosier said. "I have members who tell me it's the only way they can survive. I have members who tell me they're absolutely against it. I have members who don't know what to do."
Asked how many medical marijuana industry representatives were chamber members, Mosier said he doesn't discuss members' information.
Pressed further by another audience member, Mosier said some of his members depend on growers' patronage and others don't believe any cannabis dollars come through their doors.
"I don't know if that's real or not," he said.
Les Tar, a KMFB radio host, said he wouldn't be snowballed, and that "The whole county is lubricated, baby, with marijuana dollars!"
Mosier asked Tarr if he had the numbers to back up his claim, and reiterated that he was only reporting what chamber members had told him.
Another man asked him if chamber members saw tourism from patients coming into Mendocino County to sample its marijuana.
"In economic development in Mendocino County, it is very hard to put your finger on numbers that you can prove," Mosier said. "I know numbers, I can't prove them, I can't disprove them."
He continued, "Until we start having the conversations out in the public, out in the open, and people are willing to share, there's no way that I can say to you that I have numbers that I can present to you and I can verify them."
Another man asked if Mosier knew where local growers spend their money, if not in Mendocino County.
"No, I don't, because you won't tell me," Mosier said.