By Ron Orenstein
Article Launched: 02/29/2008 12:04:49 PM PST
As the June ballot for Measure B approaches, we will see a lot of words written about marijuana, both pro and con.
Marijuana supporters will present arguments trying to show that legalizing the crop and taxing it will put much-needed revenue into the pockets of local merchants and local governments. It's well known pot money already plays a role in the local economy to a point. As George Atwood pointed out in his commentary last week, most of the money spent by the growers goes toward buying big boy toys, most of which by the way they don't buy locally. The most significant contribution the growers make to the local economy is eating at local restaurants, or buying clothes or gifts at local stores. While this is a good thing for a few merchants, it hardly rises to the level of actually supporting the local economy.
In a county that is so environmentally conscious, it seems strange there is little mention of the impact of marijuana growing on our precious water supply. Water, as we all know, is a very serious topic in these parts, with local and county governments, as well as private citizen groups, investing a lot of time trying to figure out how to stretch our water resources to supply our needs.
Being the curious type, I did some research on the internet and found 526,000 sites about marijuana water requirements. No specific figures are given, it depends on the soil, temperature, etc, but it seems to be important the plant roots are kept moist. A member of the sheriff's marijuana eradication team had mentioned in a presentation that a pot plant requires about 15 gallons of water per day. When I used this figure at a board of supervisors meeting, I heard some snickering in the background, so maybe without having empirical knowledge, I think it's reasonable to lower the estimate to between one and five gallons per day per plant as a working number.
According to the sheriff's department, 334,000 pot plants were eradicated last year, and this is generally estimated to be anywhere from 10 and 25 percent of the total crop grown in the county each year. Using the conservative figure of 25 percent, that works out to more than 1.3 million pot plants each year.
Requiring five gallons of water per day during a growing season of four months means the marijuana crop uses 780 million gallons of water per year, or 2,394 acre feet compared to 886 acre feet used by Willits water customers each year. If someone wanted to argue that point, we could lower the daily usage figure to one-gallon of water per plant, and still come up with almost 479 acre feet used to grow pot.
Many people have been advocating growing more of our food locally, but one of the constraints has always been the amount and availability of water needed to irrigate the crops. But at least that water would be used to grow food, not some cash crop that is used to "improve" someone's day. Remember, if it was really about medical use, there wouldn't be anywhere near this amount of pot needed.
But if the amount of money that pot growing brings to the local economy is the most important argument in favor of legalizing pot, maybe we need to get ambitious and grow even more valuable crops such as cocaine. Some Third World countries seem to have a monopoly on this, and maybe it's time that we got our share, don'cha think?
Of course, that raises other issues of self-image, which is still kind of important to some folks. Just how far down the road do we want to go to be known as the marijuana/or other drug capitol of the world?
The image issue brings me to another commentary that was printed in last week's The Willits News.
Don Forest, who moved to Willits from a large metropolitan area several months ago wrote a piece entitled "You know you're in Willits when " I don't know about you, but after living here for only a few months, I was feeling like I learned something about Willits if I was able to drive from one end of town to the other without going on Main Street and without getting lost. But I guess coming from the Big City enables Don to get into the soul of Willits fairly quickly, although he claims "you can't find the police station and the Chamber of Commerce is usually closed." (Don, the police station is next to city hall right behind the big sign that says "police," and the chamber of commerce is not usually closed!)
There's an old saying: "I can say anything I want about my wife/husband, but you can't!" meaning you need to get to know the subject, have a relationship and get invested before criticizing. And one of the best ways to be accepted in a new town, especially a small one, is definitely not to make fun of it.
We are all aware of the "warts" in our community, and we joke about them because there's only so much that can be done, and sometimes it's best to grin and bear it. But they don't define us. Don can't be aware of the many efforts underway to improve our town's image because he hasn't been here long enough, or apparently, gotten involved.
Am I being overly sensitive? Probably, but I just get so tired of hearing people bad-mouthing our community, especially when they don't have a clue what they're talking about. Contribute something to our community, then you might have earned the right to be critical.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ron Orenstein is a Willits resident and a former city councilman.
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