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News & ArtsWednesday, October 21, 2009
Drugs Stupid Fucking Credulous Hack of the Day: Meredith Vieira
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Slog tipper Aaron writes...
I was wondering if you've seen the A&E news feature "Pot City, USA" narrated by Meredith Vieira. It focuses on Arcata, California, the sleepy NorCal town where upwards of 20% of all private residences have been converted into grow houses. It's filled with the requisite adoration of law enforcement, pot bust ride along, and interview with some crazy-looking medical marijuana user. Medical marijuana is presented as being exploited for non-medical purposes which, while true, was not followed up with any discussion of ending prohibition.
From the show summary...
A lot of people think that Humboldt County in northern California is an American paradise. Small towns in the county like Arcata look like they've been plucked right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. But the town has a dirty little secret—law enforcement officials say that over 1,000 homes there may be growing marijuana illegally. Capt. Mark Chapman and the Humboldt County Drug Task Force are determined to take back the town, house by house. Our cameras follow as they make busts and fly over forestlands searching for hidden marijuana groves.
Here's the dirtiest little secret: the only way to end illegal grow-ops is to allow legal ones. The producers of "Pot City, USA" should've interviewed someone willing to point out that out. Once again: no one would be growing marijuana illegally in unoccupied homes or public forests if it were legal to grow marijuana on farms. Part one of "Pot City, USA" after the jump...
2
This is beyond ridiculous. They're actively seeking to ruin essentially upstanding citizen's lives. And for what? To uphold an archaic philosophy about a substance that's dramatically healthier and safer than alcohol? Gah!
4
My wife and I were just in Arcata two months ago for vacation (we live right outside of Atlanta). If that's what a den of iniquity looks like, I say let's grow weed in 20 percent of homes in every town. That area is amazing. We would move tomorrow if there were any jobs out there and two-bedroom houses didn't cost $500,000.
5
I'm from the neighboring town of Eureka, CA. And while Arcata does have a reputation (let's be honest, all of Humboldt County does), 20% of houses? I call bs. And, seriously? I'd rather walk alone through Arcata at night than my current home of Quincy, MA. Pot is not a problem, people. Neither are little home growers, either.
Thanks for giving this the mockery it deserves.
Thanks for giving this the mockery it deserves.
6
"They're not growing medicine. They're growing drugs."
Drugs are bad. After all these years of beating it into our heads, I sense a semantic shift has been made. They must now be called medicine stores and medicine companies. The Food and Medicine Administration is getting new letterhead.
Drugs are bad. After all these years of beating it into our heads, I sense a semantic shift has been made. They must now be called medicine stores and medicine companies. The Food and Medicine Administration is getting new letterhead.
7
Truly disturbing to say the least, but at least they've taken the first step towards fixing the problem and that is recognizing it. By the looks of it their reluctance to do so has been the primary cause for how the control of their community has slipped out of their hands.
So much for "compassionate use", now they need some serious tough policing.
So much for "compassionate use", now they need some serious tough policing.
8
Meredith Vieira is the stupid fucking credulous hack of our lifetime. Not just for pot, for any content you can think of.
9
We used to think the Slog was all about ButtSex but Pot runs a close second-
We can only suppose that Dan spends his spare time assfucking himself with a lit bong...
We can only suppose that Dan spends his spare time assfucking himself with a lit bong...
11
Someone really needs to dig up a copy of Peter Jennings' "Pot of Gold" from the 90s and send it to each of these fine journalists who can't seem to wrap their heads around why upstanding citizens would grow weed.
12
Hey what about that one stupid credulous hack who stated the AIDS epidemic was vanquished in the 90's? or the Stupid fucking Credulous hack who cheerlead our sojourn into war with IRAQ? I mean I know it's horrible that journalists do pieces on the illegal cultivation of weed, but what about jackass "journalists" that are truly irresponsible with what the present to the public. Right Dan?
13
Loveschild @ 7 - you deserve the SFCH enabler award - "losing control of their community"?? Since when did "real" Americans (read "Republican") want the government to control their communities? And why o why do you hate America so?
15
I dreamed of retiring in Arcata for a long time. I did diligent cost of living comparisons. I read all I could about the place. I only wish I'd seen this program before coming here. Naive me, I had no idea how much this area is known for pot growing. I can't begin to tell you the trouble I had getting a place to live. I can't begin to relate to you the undercurrent of aggro attitude in the community.
Yes, on the surface (and to a tourist), it may seem idealic. But just try to live here. The show relates a very real problem.
If you paid attention, they said over and over again at the beginning that the problem was not pot. It's greed. The fact is, there are so many grow houses, it's changing the nature of neighborhoods and driving away the type of people that's made Arcata so beautiful in the past. It's not that there are grow houses. That's been going on forever here. It's just that now there are so damn many of them being operated by people who don't give a shit about anything except a quick profit.
...just like any other gross capitalist extractive exploitation.
It'd be like people started moving into your town setting up toxic dumps in one out of every ten houses because they thought they could get away with it easier in your town than anywhere else. Think how that would change the nature of your town. Residential neighborhoods are for people to live in, not for major agricultural industry. That's why they're zoned as residential.
I wish all the sarcasm, obscenity and other negative energy in these posts would be channeled toward something positive like actively working to legalize the plant instead of using comments on this program as just another excuse to act like a stereotypical pot-smoking dumb shit.
By the way. I use it myself.
But enough is enough!
More...
Yes, on the surface (and to a tourist), it may seem idealic. But just try to live here. The show relates a very real problem.
If you paid attention, they said over and over again at the beginning that the problem was not pot. It's greed. The fact is, there are so many grow houses, it's changing the nature of neighborhoods and driving away the type of people that's made Arcata so beautiful in the past. It's not that there are grow houses. That's been going on forever here. It's just that now there are so damn many of them being operated by people who don't give a shit about anything except a quick profit.
...just like any other gross capitalist extractive exploitation.
It'd be like people started moving into your town setting up toxic dumps in one out of every ten houses because they thought they could get away with it easier in your town than anywhere else. Think how that would change the nature of your town. Residential neighborhoods are for people to live in, not for major agricultural industry. That's why they're zoned as residential.
I wish all the sarcasm, obscenity and other negative energy in these posts would be channeled toward something positive like actively working to legalize the plant instead of using comments on this program as just another excuse to act like a stereotypical pot-smoking dumb shit.
By the way. I use it myself.
But enough is enough!
16
If supply goes up because it's legal, prices will fall because pot is not appealing enough to spawn thousands of new potheads. The effect of marijuana growing on the community -- both positive and negative -- was documented 25 years ago in Cash crop : an American dream, by Ray Raphael
17
I lived in Arcata for almost seven years. Yes, there's pot everywhere. But it's not what I would really call a threatening problem. It's an incredibly pleasant town to live in, if a bit boring sometimes. It also rains more there than in Seattle.
They also forget to mention how a tiny town in the middle of fucking nowhere can have a vibrant local economy full of amazing local businesses partly because of pot (also the University). I would be afraid to see Arcata without the pot. Just look at all the other little towns on the Humboldt coast -- dying on the vine and and some tormented by meth problems.
They also forget to mention how a tiny town in the middle of fucking nowhere can have a vibrant local economy full of amazing local businesses partly because of pot (also the University). I would be afraid to see Arcata without the pot. Just look at all the other little towns on the Humboldt coast -- dying on the vine and and some tormented by meth problems.
18
Dan (and sloggers), Have you seen the documentary, "The Union"? It's a great look at the legalization and production of pot.
20
@9
Sex was made for pot (or perhaps it's the other way around).
If you've never pulled a few bong hits with your partner before a fuck and suck session, well, I feel bad for you.
Sex was made for pot (or perhaps it's the other way around).
If you've never pulled a few bong hits with your partner before a fuck and suck session, well, I feel bad for you.
22
@12: I actually said the crisis was over, the epidemic was not. And like a lot of folks, I was totally wrong about Iraq. Which is why I keep my mouth shut about thing like troop levels in Afghanistan now. Got opinions still, of course, but even I don't put any stock in my opinions on war anymore, so...
23
@17 Exactly. This is the town where we get our in-house cheese: http://www.cypressgrovechevre.com/cheese…
We get a kick out of the names of the cheeses, mostly stoner references.
We get a kick out of the names of the cheeses, mostly stoner references.
24
@21
Interesting. To be precise, being stoned doesn't make me hornier, it just makes sex feel even better and more intense than usual.
Of course, there have been times where it's amplified any anxiety or bad energy that might have been there as well.
Interesting. To be precise, being stoned doesn't make me hornier, it just makes sex feel even better and more intense than usual.
Of course, there have been times where it's amplified any anxiety or bad energy that might have been there as well.
25
I guess being stoned makes me to think the sex act is ridiculous and hilarious. I mean, it is if you think about it. Pot just amplifies it.
26
Things are so simple on the Internet. Black and white, good and evil, all very easy to judge.
Living in these situations is not so simple.
Living in these situations is not so simple.
27
@25 That's funny.
When I was a teen, pot used to make me laugh til my jaw hurt - maybe it would have made sex seem ridiculous back then for me as well. I don't really know, because I wasn't get laid much in those days.
When I was a teen, pot used to make me laugh til my jaw hurt - maybe it would have made sex seem ridiculous back then for me as well. I don't really know, because I wasn't get laid much in those days.
28
The writer of the article... Have they ever really been to Arcata? Arcata has a huge reputation as a seaside hippie hangout. The place is flowered with pot.
29
Well, technically, having lived there for many years, with a grow house on each side of my home and over 80% of the houses in the neighborhood rented out to growers and actively growing I'd say the ruination is for the citizens living in Arcata who work and actually pay their income taxes without supplementing their income. Should it be legalized? Maybe. Should it not be legalized? Maybe. But one thing is for sure that when this level of corruption takes over a town the citizens who are not corrupt lose their governmental power. That isn't right regardless which side of this issue you fall on. Try complaining and you end up in a ditch. Try getting public officials to set better priorities and they are voted out by the organized growing contingent. Try buying a home and you are priced out by a grower. Try renting a home and being asked by the owner if they can have a profit if you decide to grow! Try explaining to your kids why they shouldn't use drugs when the kid next door carries a half pound of his parents weed to school with him every day. Try attending several memorials a year for teenagers who have dropped out of high school and wrapped their hummers around redwood trees. All that glitters is not gold. But it may, indeed, be green.
30
@15..exactly, the problem is GREED. I have lived in HumCo my entire life. Pot has always been an accepted part of every day life here. Almost anyone you talk to (yes, even law enforcement) agrees that pot for medicinal purposes is not the problem. Pot in and of itself is not the problem. The problem is the people that post a 215 card on every wall of house where the only residents are hundreds of plants. That isn't medicinal use, that is pure profit and greed. The homes that have been absolutely destroyed, the home invasions, the 30 year old guy in Eureka that was shot and killed for his weed (while in his home...that had a small grow)...it is all the collateral damage that we see every day here. I smell weed every day walking down the street...ANY STREET in Humboldt. That isn't the issue. It is the utter disrespect for other people, their property, their well being that is troublesome. Growing up here, everyone smoked weed. I think I am 1 of maybe 5 people in HumCo that has never smoked it or ingested it myself, but I don't begrudge anyone their bowl. I just wish people would not destroy the lives of other people to make money.
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