Who's Your Farmer?

Who's Your Farmer?

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors approved the Medical Cannabis Cultivation Regulation, Tuesday, thus beginning a new era that will see local and state regulation of an industry that up until this point in time, has always remained outside the box. 

Originally the backbone of American medical practices, cannabis was shunted aside in the 1930’s by the progressively greedy component of Big Pharma, and Reefer Madness was born. It has taken eighty years of recovery time, up to this point, for medical cannabis to officially reestablish itself.

My father, having relocated from SoCal to Bell Springs Road in 1977,  started his first patch the following spring, so my family has been in the game for a minute or two. We have experienced our share of the trials and tribulations, for staying outside the conventional boundaries surrounding this gentle giant of herbs.

I use cannabis in lieu of the chemicals originally prescribed for me by the VA, to contend with my mood spectrum disorder, as do a multitude of folks trying to avoid the tangled net that is Big Pharma. Considering the plethora of maladies that cannabis has proven to be able to successfully treat, the fact that the American pharmaceutical industry excludes it, tells you all you need to know about the motivation of these companies: greed.

This fact alone makes the victory at the Board of Supervisors meeting, that much more impactful. Through countless hours of dialogue across the table, which included exchange of ideologies amongst all of those elements who showed up at the table in the first place, the medical cannabis regulation was formed.

The process was laborious, the number of factors involved limitless, the diverse needs of so many had to be taken into consideration, the environmental damage-both past and potential had to be considered and there was so little time, as to make what resulted a true miracle of determination and grit.

The ordinance is not perfect but it tried to build in contingencies for eventual success, by placing time constraints on some parts of the industry that can be extended or not, depending on compliance issues, and how they are being handled by the applicants for the further growing of medical cannabis. 

I do not pretend to have even the most basic understanding of the ordinance actually in place-I have never spent one minute at one single meeting, working to make this happen. I do not have the temperament for the process.

I do know that many individuals have spent countless hours working on the process, including members of HappyDay Farms, and for their efforts I am profoundly grateful. That I am able to continue to produce not only the medicine that allows me to thrive, but food for my family and community, because of these people’s efforts, I am appreciative.

For me to be able to hold my head up proudly, without fear, and say, “I am a medical cannabis farmer,” is priceless.

Thank you all for your efforts; they will never be forgotten.