Search Results: humboldt county (100)

Graphic: NewsReview.com

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

The writer and social critic, Malcolm Gladwell, defines the ‘Tipping Point’ as the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point; the point at which the buildup of minor changes or incidents reaches a level that triggers a more significant change or makes someone do something they had formerly resisted.
Another way of saying it would be that point in time and space when everything changes and there’s no turning back.
Every day there are more encouraging headlines appearing in newspapers and on the Web from California to Maine supporting medical marijuana legislation suggesting the tide is turning.
Even when the cynics call medical marijuana a joke and claim the real goal of this smokescreen movement is legalization of pot, there are medi-jane supporters with valid and logical arguments to counter-balance any archaic rhetoric with which the anti-pot forces continue to misinform.

Photo: NORML Blog

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

11. Wars make money for a few and kill the rest…

The War On Drugs makes money for cartels, police, the government, prisons, politicians, crooks, and all those other people we can’t see, like the Glad Bag people and the grow-light industry.
This 100-year revenue stream could dry up if Americans couldn’t be arrested for a drug that has been proven to be less destructive than whole milk.

Graphic: DarkGovernment

​Federal regulators stepped into a firestorm of controversy recently when they ordered banks in California’s North Coast area to spy on the transactions of customers who are suspected of making money in the medical marijuana business.

In a heavy-handed bid to crack down on California’s cannabis industry, federal officials have ordered the banks to look out for “suspicious activity” by dispensary owners, reports Clarence Walker at AlterNet. That is making it very difficult for medical marijuana dispensaries which are legal under state, but not federal law, to conduct business.

Graphic: Geocurrents.info

​By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent
“It’s just not worth it for me,” Argos said as he ground the pungent coffee beans.
“I put in around about a grand or so, per plant, not counting labor and love. Breaks my heart to have to let it go for anything less than $1,500 individually. Especially because I know the kids across the valley are picking up my medicine and bringing it to L.A., getting two grand and half for an elbow. Calling it whatever those Hollywood types are smoking these days.”
 
I sat at his table listening the rain hammering his mountain cabin while Argos hand-cranked the beans into one of those old-fashioned meat grinders.
“It’s getting bad and crazy at the same time,” he told me. “Folks I’ve known who’ve grown for years, through the droughts and the DEAs, are pulling up stakes and leaving.”

Graphic: Naming And Treating

​​By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent

Here are the stories, tidbits and bong-thoughts of 2010 that caught my attention. 

In July, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs changed its stance from “attention” to “at ease” by allowing the use of medical marijuana for GI’s in the states where medicinal cannabis is legal.
Maybe one of the biggest underreported stories of the year was the acceptance by the U.S. federal government to allow marijuana as a possible medical treatment.

Photo: Reuters

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California
Correspondent
This isn’t scientific but, for my buds, 2010 has been one of the more pivotal years in the advancement of the acceptance of cannabis into our society.
With much speculation and hand-wringing follow the antics of that little bill called Proposition 19, the Bay Area, along with Colorado, has been ground central for the battle of hearts and minds following the exploits of our friend, marijuana. 
And now the smoke has cleared. After a bitter battle that both plagued the movement with infighting as well as attacks from the outside by the usual suspects, I think it time to check in with my man on the front line, Raul.
Raul is the manager of a dispensary in the Bay Area. He’s one of the good guys.

Photo: Jack Rikess
Pretty maidens all in a row: More than 140 outdoor organic strains were displayed in this glass showcase at the Emerald Cup

​By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Friday
Tim Blake, organizer and host of the 2010 Emerald Cup, was reminding me with a huge lopsided grin, “It’s only Friday…this is just like a sound check, a rehearsal for tomorrow night. This is the pre-party party.” 
I wasn’t sure what to expect at my first Emerald Cup except what I read on the poster.
Besides the prestigious awards for first, second and third place for the best strain grown that season, there would be awards for things like the best joint rolled, guessing the number of roaches in the roach jar, highest CBD count, biggest stalk, and — much like rookie of the year — the best new strain.

Photo: Peter Hecht/The Sacramento Bee
Tim Blake, a longtime marijuana grower in Mendocino County, tends to his outdoor greenhouse in April near Laytonville, California.

​It’s no secret that Toke of the Town supported California’s Proposition 19 all the way down the line.
But it’s also important to try to understand the mindset of those who voted against it, especially within the cannabis community.
Toke‘s Northern California correspondent, Jack Rikess, got a chance to talk with a couple of growers explained why many in their community voted against the measure.
 Here’s what he learned.
 ~ Steve Elliott, Editor

Photo: The Sacramento Bee
Medical marijuana entrepreneur Stephen Gasparas operates a Redding warehouse where he grows medical marijuana for patients.

​Redding won’t be joining a growing group of California cities looking to fix budget deficits by taxing medical marijuana.

A City Council majority on Tuesday evening strongly rejected the idea of taxing the city’s 19 medical cannabis dispensaries, reports Scott Mobley at The Redding Record Searchlight.
“There are people who abuse it (medical marijuana), and people who don’t, and that is the people (this tax) would impact,” said council member Dick Dickerson, who, along with Mary Stegall, strongly opposed the concept of taxing medicinal cannabis.
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