WHY NORTHERN CALIFORNIA'S POT GROWERS SAID NO TO PROP 19

Deep in the lush mountains and valleys of California's Emerald
Triangle, marijuana farmers have been making a decent living, albeit
illegal, off the land for at least four generations. The medical
cannabis boom, which began in 1996 with the passage of Prop 215, made
them even richer. So when it came time to consider a law that would
tax and regulate their skunk-scented crops, the growers of Humboldt,
Mendocino and Trinity counties decided it just wasn't right for them.

"They're country people," says Bret Bogue, who owns Apothecary
Genetics, a marijuana breeding and seed company. "They don't know how
to pay taxes."

The denizens of the Emerald Triangle spoke loud and clear on Tuesday
when they voted against Prop 19 by a 55-45 margin. The measure would
have legalized marijuana for commercial sales, regulating what is
currently an untaxed black market. Prop 19 lost statewide 54-46, with
only 11 of the state's 58 counties backing it.

Bogue contends that Prop 19 "would have destroyed Northern
California. It would have suffered tremendously."

One of the stipulations of Prop 19 was that every Californian
would've been able to cultivate a 5x5-foot garden-room for about 10
fully grown plants. "Mom and pop operations cannot live on a 5x5,"
Bogue says. "They're the unsung people in the trenches who get the
medicine to the people. The reward is worth the risk. They saw the
reward totally diminishing to the point that they would not even exist."

Kyle Kushman doesn't see it that way. He's a legal medical grower who
lives in Mendocino County and plays by the rules, which allows for up
to 99 plants, indoors or outdoors. "There are different types of
growers," explains Kushman, who's pioneered a technique he calls
Veganics. "You have the outdoor generational farmers in Humboldt and
Trinity. You have illegal indoor growers. And you have growers like
me who are trying to follow the law."

A pot grower at heart, Cushman left his lofty position as High Times
cultivation reporter in 2005 and moved to Willets, where he's been
breeding luscious strains named Strawberry Cough and Blackberry
Kushman ever since. Kushman's carved out a piece of the pie for
himself, without getting greedy.

"I'm heartbroken and deflated," he says about Prop 19's failure. "The
people here are so small-minded. They're afraid of change. I have the
right to grow a 10x10 for myself. They thought Prop 19 would take that away."

To the contrary, Prop 19 would not have changed any of the existing
laws that protect medical-cannabis cultivators. "I have the right to
grow for 40 people," Kushman adds. "That wasn't going to change. It
was a small progression. All of that fear prevented these people from
thinking into the future. They just don't get it."

Bogue blames Prop 19 proponents for not consulting the NoCal growers
before writing the initiative. "They needed to include the backbone,"
he says. "They voted 'no' because they didn't take the people into
consideration. It starts from the ground up. You have to be able to
walk in their shoes."

Among the pot farmers' concerns were being forced out of business by
mega-grow operations (Oakland had already licensed four and Berkeley
voters approved six more on Election Day) and the declining wholesale
price of marijuana, which has dropped from $4,000 per pound to $1,500
over the last decade.

"If they had dealt with Northern California," Bogue insists, "Prop 19
would've passed."

Prop 19 proponent Chris Conrad begs to differ.

"If growers are against legalization, they can't be part of the
legalization process and now it's up to them to show good faith
support or be left out of the process," says Conrad, who publishes
West Coast Leaf. "That's just political reality. The growers
basically shot themselves in the foot. Prop 19 offered them a legal
customer base, a statewide regulatory framework and a local voice to
protect their interests. The next campaign is more likely to pitch a
more restrictive approach to bring more conservative voters like
Asians and housewives, who want heavy-handed controls, and will
consider whether growers deserve any consideration at all. Those
folks are unreliable at best, traitors to the cause at worst, and
possibly a useful target to pit public opinion against as a foil for
a winning campaign without a legal cultivation component.

"The growers lost a lot of potential influence on the process by
showing a lack of political savvy," Conrad continues. "They'll
possibly be grouped in with the narcs as being fundamentally opposed
to legalization and not worth courting as an ally. So, they will need
to come to the table with some proposals on how they would create a
legal market for cannabis while protecting their interests, or they
will be left out of the next round of decisions."

Though Conrad claims that since the Emerald Triangle cast just 64,000
votes out of nearly 7.5 million statewide (3.4 million voted for Prop
19) and that "the problem is that other segments of the population
are not on board," Prop 19 organizers should listen to Bogue and
others who felt disenfranchised.

With plans already being drawn up for another tax & regulate
initiative for 2012, Bogue says he doesn't want to "bash Richard
Lee," the Oaksterdam University magnate who bankrolled Prop 19. "I
just want him to talk to the people. He didn't talk to them at all."

Then, and perhaps only then, will marijuana legalization in
California stand a chance of becoming a reality.