Last month, Frontline in association with KQED and the Center for Investigative Reporting produced a half hour special, ‘The Pot Republic,’ probing into the state of marijuana in California. Their timing was impeccable; a large scale raid, Operation Full Court Press, which would ultimately net almost half a million marijuana plants, was underway in the Mendocino National Forest. Filming started almost a year ago, in the heady days of Proposition 19 campaigning, when it seemed possible that California might be the first state to pass a sweeping legalisation law, changing the regulatory landscape and issuing a direct challenge to the federal government on a highly contentious topic.
Cultivation, sale, and possession of marijuana remain illegal under federal law, yet California, along with a number of other states, has legalised the use of marijuana for medical use. Proposition 215, passed in 1996, makes the production of wide-scale medical marijuana possible, and creates an environment where dispensaries operate publicly in many major California cities, growers cultivate their crops openly, and law enforcement struggle with an increasing regulatory tangle.
Local officials and federal officials work at odds with each other, highlighted in ‘The Pot Republic’ with the juxtaposition of two meetings in inland Mendocino County that occurred on the same day. One, with Sheriff Tom Allman, involved a collective of state officials discussing how to tackle cultivation of marijuana on public lands, state parks in particular, a growing problem in many California counties that makes it impossible for some residents to enjoy state parks for fear of attack dogs, armed guards, and booby traps. Another, with a deputy, a community-based meeting to discuss Mendocino County’s innovative zip-tie programme which allows growers to register their gardens and cooperate with the sheriff’s deputies, confirming that they are growing plants solely for medical use.
Since 1996, California has been viewed as a frontrunner in the race for marijuana legalisation, and the state has been widely praised by advocates for its liberalised approach to marijuana, even as federal investigators become increasingly concerned by cultivation activities within the state. Dispensaries in several cities have been raided by Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents acting with federal authority, highlighting a battle between state’s rights and federal law, to which California is subject. Individual states can pass more aggressive legislation, as seen with California’s tight air quality control laws, but liberal legislation like Proposition 215 is a different matter, from a federal standpoint.
‘The Pot Republic’ documented warning letters sent to a number of state officials, warning them that continued inaction on marijuana issues could make them vulnerable to prosecution. In Oakland, where industrial scale production of medical marijuana was briefly considered by city council to take advantage of potentially significant tax revenues, the US attorney effectively put the kibosh on any plans to liberalise enforcement of marijuana laws. But, as Tom Allman said in his interview, there are few alternatives; people are going to grow regardless, and law enforcement officers can either attempt to regulate, control, and monitor, or face an endless budget sink of constant marijuana raids that would eat all available time and personnel.
Allman knows what of which he speaks, working from the heart of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, where marijuana is a significant black market economy. Cash-strapped Mendocino County benefits from the revenues brought in by the zip tie programme, and Allman pointed out that under Mendocino’s Measure G, passed in 2000, his department was effectively hogtied by a mandate from the voters to make marijuana enforcement a ‘low priority’ and increase the number of exempt plants. Unfortunately, ‘The Pot Republic’ failed to delve into some significant shifts that have occurred in Mendocino’s marijuana culture since 2000, starting in 2008 with Measure B, which repealed Measure G (contrary to Allman’s claim that he’s received no notice from voters that they want to see more strict marijuana enforcement), and continuing in 2009 with an ordinance in the city of Fort Bragg effectively banning the use of “grow houses” for large-scale indoor cultivation of marijuana, passed in response to community pressure. These changes suggest that attitudes are becoming more conservative in response to marijuana-related problems in the community.
Frontline’s piece highlighted the regulatory issues California faces, operating within a nation that bans the cultivation of marijuana and struggling to cope with increasing numbers of growers, some of whom work on an industrial scale. The investigators did a reasonably thorough job of documenting issues already familiar to many Californians, especially those in the Emerald Triangle, like the use of 215 cards to legitimise crops, for example, though the documentary didn’t show the lively traffic in such cards, which holders can sell to growers who want to increase the number of exempt plants under cultivation. The growth of large-scale crops on public lands was also addressed, as were hints of the violence that exploded last summer, ending in multiple deaths and the forming of vigilante groups in some California communities.
In an interview with a pixelated anonymised source, ‘The Pot Republic’ also challenged the claim that industrial cultivation in California is linked to Mexican drug cartels, a claim often repeated by those who favor strict enforcement of marijuana laws and a repeal of Proposition 215. Their source suggested that many of the responsible parties were actually escaping the drug wars in Mexico, taking their knowledge to California to cultivate crops for shipment across the United States. A large percentage of California’s marijuana, the documentary points out, travels across state borders for sale in other regions where it can fetch a much higher price, although the risks become much higher as traffickers leave the safe environs of regions like the Emerald Triangle and enter zones where law enforcement is far less tolerant of marijuana.
The documentary unfortunately chose not to cover the environmental issues associated with marijuana cultivation, which are considerable. The raid in the Mendocino National Forest has concluded, but environmental cleanup crews are still out there, dealing with garbage, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and other legacies left behind. Meanwhile, former grow houses increasingly show up as foreclosures and become mold-laden time bombs with heavily modified electrical systems and stripped interiors. These sides of the marijuana industry, and the legalisation debate, often don’t make it to news coverage, and I had hoped that Frontline would buck this trend.
Producers were also careful to avoid a stance on legalisation. They highlighted the regulatory and legal issues, but ultimately avoided a position. This is to be expected of documentary works, but it’s unfortunate that ‘The Pot Republic’ didn’t include interviews with legalisation advocates to balance out the heavy focus on law enforcement. The lack of balance makes it difficult to recommend as a primer on the topic for people who may not be familiar with the issues surrounding legalisation in California.
Front page photo of marijuana plants by A7nubis, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license.