Regulated, factory-grown marijuana would supply Oakland dispensaries, according to an ordinance before the Oakland City Council (photo via Mother Jones magazine)
Oakland’s to concentrate all medical cannabis growing into four huge indoor factory farms sets the wrong precedent on many levels. It has a broader impact than just the City of Oakland and goes far beyond the issue of cannabis when the impacts of energy usage are factored in.
When a manufacturing effort demands as much energy, as say, the minimum six megawatts the proposed Agra Med will need daily, one must ask, where will the energy come from, and where will the carbon emissions go? The answers are, from coal (mountaintop removal) natural gas (hydraulic fracturing, and the resultant groundwater pollution) and oil (the Gulf). Carbon emissions from generating plants know no city boundary. What’s worse is this energy use is entirely unnecessary.
Cannabis is a botanical medicine. According to the American Botanical Council, 80% of herbal medicine worldwide is wildcrafted. (Think ginko, echinachea, saw palmetto or St. Johns Wort.) Of the remaining 20%, most is grown on small farms. The World Health Organization’s “Good Agricultural Practices for Medicinal Plants” encourages sustainable organic cultivation that is sensitive to the environmental and social impacts on local communities. This ordinance does neither.
This ordinance takes away the rights of patients to grow their own and share the extra within a medical collective as per California law. The contributions some small growers receive by supplying their extra medicine to collectives is often their survival—the very ill cannot work, or may have huge medical expenses. This ordinance is not sensitive to the needs of the patients medical cannabis is supposed to help.
Is home-grown marijuana better for patients and for the environment?
Why is cannabis being treated as an unnatural substance to be manufactured when it is a safe and natural herbal medicine? This rush to make an herb a manufactured pharmaceutical, to make it a commodity that must be restricted for capitalism’s sake, is not good medicine. Cannabis is easily and safely grown in a back yard or a rooftop garden; it doesn’t take a factory.
The city of Oakland should instead decentralize production, make collaborative arrangements with sustainable and organic patient collectives in rural areas, and pass a carbon tax on factory cultivation. These behemoths would pay corporate rates of only about $300 per pound for this climate killing electricity. This is far less than a patient must pay when growing their own with loving attention and to their own and others’ needs in mind. A hefty carbon tax can raise funds for mitigation efforts, to underwrite patient access, or yes, to help the city. It will also focus the factories’ attention on their usage, by making it more expensive to be profligate with energy.
Don’t “go there,” Oakland. It’s not fair to patients, and not good for the environment we all share.
[Editor's Note: Councilmembers Larry Reid and Rebecca Kaplan have proposed 3 pieces of legislation to go before the Oakland City Council on Tuesday July 13, 2010. Taken together, the ordinances and a resolution would "regulate industrial cultivation of marijuana in addition to small-time producers." Readers seeking an analysis of the issues are recommended to read this piece by Alex Gronke of The Oakbook. -Pamela Mays McDonald, Managing Editor]
Liz Davidson
Liz Davidson is a community and environmental activist in Humboldt County. She is a freelance writer, a producer for KMUD radio, and a member of a collective of small sustainable farms. Her recent radio documentary series , "The Cannabis Chronicles", may be heard at http://bit.ly/9jfi9l 
Oakland’s responsible dispensaries, such as Harborside, should boycott all marijuana grown in the giant commercial grows, at least until the council sets up a legal framework for small growers.
The proposed large grows are a new revenue generator for sure, but since there will only be fou allowed, it stands to reason that the people who will get those permits will be well connected businessmen, some of whom have no doubt already begun to strike deals with city leaders. That’s bullshit. There needs to be an open and competitive bidding process to purchase those licenses, based of bod price and the record of the purchaser.
[...] Chronicles”, may be heard at http://bit.ly/9jfi9l. She wrote the following piece for Oakland Seen. I stole it and put it here because I think it points out the error of many cities deal with [...]
Hello, my name is Bryan Steele and I am the owner of Wildweed Farms located in West Oakland.
There is a much bigger problem for independent growers than the language details of Oakland’s proposed grow ordinance. However this ordinance defines independent growers, it still creates a monopoly.
Because of the centralized money and power monopolies create, monopolies will eventually buy the political process.
I guarantee that if this ordinance is allowed to move forward, the largest marijuana grow monopoly in the world will buy the votes of every Oakland City Counsel member. And for the ones that won’t play, they will be replaced at the next election.
But by that time, it will be too late for independent growers.
This ordinance must be denounced and squashed in its entirety.
I call for a new approach to bringing our industry out of prohibition. We must create a world class cottage industry that is decentralized in ownership but centralized in City oversight:
• Every grower must be licensed and inspected
• A formal city code is written for grow operations
• Licensed growers pay reasonable fees and taxes
• Licensed growers would have access to commercial electric rates
• Oakland dispensaries must purchase only from these licensed growers
In this way,
• Independent growers will have the opportunity to politically organize
• Such a plan would bring added value to the product we currently grow
• Such a plan would bring added revenues to the City
• Profits stay local and are widely dispersed rather than going to a few investors
• Oakland becomes a marijuana brand of high quality hand-crafted diversity that is respected world-wide.
[...] to Force Small-Time Marijuana Growers Out of Business – Stuff Stoners Like | 12 Jul 10 Medical marijuana: factory produced or home grown – OaklandSeen | 13 Jul 10 Oakland considers limiting and licensing marijuana growers – [...]
It seems to me that Prop 19 laws were written with an urban bias.Cities can allow large farms while farmers in unincorporated areas are restricted to a 25 sq ft area.It,as usual comes down to self interest and who had the money to drive this proposition.I hope these big growers treat their employees well,but I don’t like how energy-intensive it will be when all we need is the sun.The big money will always find a way to rationalize their maneuvering.I guess on the bright side the crops won’t displace wildlands.