Travel Tales – SURPRISE! THE CRADLE OF POT
Met this pleasant nouveau hippie couple at a restaurant in Garberville, California, Humboldt County. She’s from France, and he’s from New Zealand. They informed me that Garberville /Humboldt County had been one of the world’s hottest pot spots for decades– even rivaling Amsterdam as a nouveau hippie mecca, for the variety and easy availability of cannabis.
They were happy to talk about their lives, and had come to the area for the pot harvest, having become experts in how to pick the best buds quickly and carefully– from stints in Mexico, Africa, and Asia. They could pick plums from area orchards, but plum picking paid $9/hr. and pot picking upwards of $50/hr.– for their level of experience. Could be an interesting alternative to your kids’ coding camp– good healthy outdoor work and all. They did look fit, healthy, and happy.
Recreational weed is legal in 9 states, with others on the verge. However, Jeff Sessions is threatening to arrest every American stoner and throw them in jail for violating federal anti-pot laws. Pot saved many Humboldt county families from bankruptcy decades ago, when the timber industry went bust.
The locals, who are tough country folk wouldn’t cotton the Trump administration dropping Agent Orange bombs on their beautiful California farms.
Good luck with that General Sessions.
Also, Colorado recently reported that state sales tax in the first quarter of this year, from the infant legal weed industry had exceeded the entire alcohol tax income for the previous year! Taking on the pot industry will likely be as successful as building a wall on the Mexican border. Watch out North Carolina and other Bible Belt states, that giant sucking sound you will hear in a few years will be people exiting West for good pot-economy jobs.
Had no idea coming into Garberville as we crossed from the Northern California Coast that it would be such a cultural throwback and economic success story.
Friendly boomer hippies still wander Garberville’s Main Street too.
