MARIJUANA'S MULTIPLIER EFFECT

When It Comes to the Local Economy, Pot Is Potent

Were you wondering why your favorite supermarket was totally out of
Reynolds Turkey-Size Oven Bags--in October? Or why every single pair
of those handy little spring-loaded Fiskars shears were gone all of a
sudden at your neighborhood crafts store?

Here's a clue: marijuana harvest season.

According to a local guy named Zeke (not his real name) who "since
215's passing has grown medicinally and has known many people who
have grown [medical marijuana]," all sorts of supplies that normally
get used for other reasons--like turkey bags and sewing shears--get
scooped up from places like WinCo, Costco, Lowe's, Home Depot and
Michaels arts and crafts store in the month of October.

Not that you'd know, necessarily. The people who work at these places
don't even seem to be aware.

A call to the local Michaels yielded an "Oh really? It's news to me,"
from the salesclerk when asked if she knew that the shears they sell
are the clippers of choice for marijuana harvesters. A phone call to
the Fiskars customer service line netted a slightly baffled woman on
the phone who asked, "Are you sure that our clippers are the hot item?"

The Fiskars shears "are definitely the favorite of a lot of people,"
said Zeke. "They're easier on the fingers and a lot less strain when
you're doing the trimming. You don't want people getting carpal
tunnel. You don't want to get injured while making your medicine."

The turkey bags are used for storing pot after it's harvested. They
hold a lot, keep it fresh, and keep the smell from escaping--good if
you want to keep your stash on the low-pro. Plus, the large bags are
a cheap alternative for the $8 bags normally used on a Volcano
vaporizer, that handy German machine increasingly favored by medi-pot
users that heats pot to a temperature that creates a vapor, but no
carcinogen-packed smoke (see UnCommon Sense, page 21).

The amount of money marijuana brings in to Butte County has never
been quantified, but a couple of years ago Mendocino County did a
rough study and determined the pot industry there was worth $58
million. Butte County's not quite as big a player as Mendocino, but
it's in the same league, and most of the money made here presumably
is spent here, creating a multiplifier effect worth tens of millions
of dollars.

It's not just in the fall that local businesses thrive from dollars
spent by growers.

"It's year-round," said Zeke. "In the spring, all the nurseries
around here just do huge business selling worm castings, blends of
soils, compost, topsoil. The two local worm farms--Durham Worm Farm
and the one out by the landfill--sell so much soil it's unbelievable.
Yards and yards and yards of soil from those guys. Out at Durham Worm
Farm there were a hundred hippies lined up this past spring to get
dirt. [The owner] was just smiling."

Construction supplies, such as lumber to build raised planting boxes
and greenhouses, are another hot item in the spring.

"People rent tractors from U-Haul places, Guy Rents, US
Rentals--rototillers, post-hole diggers, earth-moving machines,"
offered Zeke. "And for winter growing, you've got the hydroponics
stores. The indoor people tend to grow in the wintertime. It's too
hot to grow indoors in the summertime; in the summer, the [grow]
lights give off too much heat.

"Mid-year they're buying insecticides--non-toxic insect sprays that
kill the caterpillars but leave the beneficial insects alone--and
fertilizers," Zeke said.

"At the end of the year, a lot of them are buying heaters to dry
with, and window screens to weigh with, and string and twine to hang
plants with," continued Zeke. "There are so many types of supplies
that people have to buy throughout the year, and in my experience a
lot of these people seem more locally oriented. A lot of them will
buy all their construction tools at Collier instead of going to the
big chain stores."

A clerk at Collier Hardware, when asked if he'd like to comment,
said, "No, not really." A moment later, he added, "Because I don't
really see that. Thank you!"

"And real estate," added Zeke. "I can promise you people have been
buying real estate like crazy. Ask [name deleted]. Wait, better not
ask him. He probably wouldn't like that."