Part 1: The Myth of Bud Tender
Today, there is this strange romantic vision of Proposition 215. I think we all forgot what it was: a lie. Yes, we had a more open market, a better market. We also had cyclical raids, dispensary owners that would rob you, lower safety standards, and the same grift and corruption (maybe less visible) with city officials and law enforcement profiting robustly, the same as today.
I remember when Proposition 64 was being bound into law. The California Growers Association meetings in Los Angeles resembled a low rent organized crime peace deal negotiated inside of a comic book convention. A wiry blond man with a ponytail bounced around while a few other sleazeball types talked on a microphone. The ones within the association with any shred of character left, stood close to the stage, quietly watching with an occasional under the hand whisper to a compatriot. Those were the growers, the ones who hadn’t gotten far enough or enough out of the last five to however many years inside of prop 215. They had yet to build relationships with money or were partners in a dispensary that was always under duress.
At those CGA meetings there were more men worried about missing the meal he was going to eat next month. Leftover players watching the game go by calling next. I had been out of the industry for 2 years, a lot had changed, and I had no skin in this game. So I observed without a hook.
There was a lot of talk of the canopy size, how it was measured, and most important, the limits. It was confusing and I don’t think I fully understood it until I had a chance to visit Salinas, California.
Salinas is an agricultural center nested in a dusty and …
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Author: Nelson Lindsley / High Times
