Farmers – Screwed Again
Marijuana is now legal…. like it or not….that is the new reality. But what isn’t new is that again, farmers are being screwed.
Marijuana is a ‘weed’ (nice pun eh??!!)… plain and simple. During my outlaw days of growing marijuana and attending parties with literally garbage bags full of weed, which did not end until we ran out, growing weed mounted up to throwing a few seeds in the ground, periodically weeding them (that pun will not go away) and then and most importantly, building a small mesh wire barrier around it to keep out critters like groundhogs. How tough is that?
In my outlaw days, I was arrested with a group of friends for growing it. Ironically, we were found innocent at court because one of our eighty-something year old farmer neighbours admitted to allowing it to grow in his fields so he could feed it to his goats and it seemed to give the goat milk a nicer taste…I kid you not. In any case that’s the old days.
I support the new marijuana laws for two reasons:
- Most marijuana in Canada comes in from the cartels in Mexico and is distributed by illegal motorcycle gangs; little is actually grown in Canada. These criminal enterprises have never hesitated to add addictive chemicals to their weed in order to charge more for the higher ‘hit’ and to be an encouragement for customers to try a higher impact drug like cocaine or rock-cocaine where the more serious money is. Legalizing weed will significantly lower the illegal market, altho not eliminate it.
and 2. Hundreds of thousands of mostly young Canadians have been arrested and have criminal records for having the audacity of smoking or selling what should never have been an illegal product in the first place. Every one of them should have their names removed from all legal records. Each person charged has had a negative impact of their lives for being a ‘criminal’. How many lost their jobs, or were turned down from a job?
Today the growing of marijuana has evolved into a ‘secretive science’ with latin-level-medical terminology to describe the THC levels, is grown behind high security fences in green houses using hydroponic feed systems and insulation blocked windows.
We are suppose to believe the ‘marketing fish-hook in our mouth nonsense’ this approach being for ‘our safety’. It isn’t! The existing structure exists to ensure very few people can actually capture the explosive income levels this scientific-non-science will generate.
Me… I trust the farmers!!! I trust the men and women who grow our food to grow my marijuana. I certainly trust their growing ability massively more than the ‘lab coats’ in the weed-houses.
Farmers are the most under rated professionals in this country, because they are the most under appreciated professionals. We take their work for granted, despite the fact they are the hardest working and committed sector. Why?….because they have zero political influence….Why?….because they allow themselves to be treated as ‘second class professionals’; the new marijuana laws being an example.
Why can’t I go to Martin’s Apples and Marijuana to buy the weed I want to smoke, or have in my apple butter or chips? ….or go to the Honey Centre and Weed house? Or Herley’s farms….or…or…or….you get my point.
Instead of using the new marijuana laws to help promote and support our farmers, they are locked out of this lucrative business.
In short…our farmers are being ‘screwed again’. This time let’s figure out ‘what to do about it’!
Maxwell