When too much of a good thing, grows out of bounds, and keeps on growing, its called a cancer. I believe the research that points to the cancer-curing powers of marijuana but unfortunately, it seems to me that growing weed has become a cancer in this community.
Economic patterns have their own rules - money, for instance, is based on desire and excess of money creates excess of desire, which we term "greed". Money breeds greed like manure breeds flies and after a while, the buzz gets annoying. When an economic pattern gets out of control, the authorities have to step in.. If you think that sounds paternalistic, it is, but evidently the children of this county need some parental oversight.
Many, many people that I'm close to, have grown weed over the years I've been here and since I lived some 20 years on the Ridge, you know I'm telling the truth. But the current situation is wrong. It doesn't take a criminal element to grow medicinal herb, but it does take a certain thug element to make buyer connections and protect one's product and turf against others and the more warlike the tribe, the more successful the endeavor. After a while, the medicinal hippies and unemployed contractors get pushed aside by those with more unsavory connections and histories. I see it happening here in my neighborhood in Rough and Ready, and I don't like it.
Something about that plant, maybe it was meant to be kept secret? Like the way the Indians felt about the gold in the rivers before the white man came with his needs and his greeds. I believe it is a healing plant and good for many things. In this, I follow the advice of a modern prophet, Ellen G. White, who said in 1884 that we should stay away from modern patent medicines and the industry that provides them (another instance of money breeding greed) and look to the natural plants and remedies that God provides. So I'm certainly not anti-marijuana. I am pro community and if we let growers take over the community it will be destroyed. If not sooner, through violence and greed, then later when it inevitably gets legalized nationally and the bubble pops. A community needs diversity to survive in the long run.
The green gold rush is over. It was fine while it lasted, it saved many people from losing their homes and helped this county pull through some lean years, but we've got to get it under control. At least on this side of the river. The Ridge is a different thing. It evolved a hippie culture that has mechanisms for dealing with the stresses and obtains a kind of "wild west frontier" culture that can handle the problems. Its weed-growing culture has evolved over time and is thus more stable. In an ideal county, there'd be room for different rules for the Ridge. Maybe it's time to consider the mechanism of secession? The Great Republic of Rough and Ready supports that idea.
