Articles like the recent “ ‘We can’t turn a blind eye’ “ (Times-Standard, Aug. 26, Page A1) are getting ridiculous. Many valid points were made in the article and if they were presented responsibly, it might get a lot more support from the community.

Let’s be frank here, the reason that local officials are seeking federal help is because California has stopped funding marijuana eradication and now local principalities have nowhere to turn except the feds. The state Attorney General stated that no more funding for marijuana eradication is going to be dispersed and all that money is now going to “white collar crime.” It is not because the state is broke. And I fully endorse this stance. I have a computer science degree and worked for a subsidiary of Global Crossing and lost everything I owned in the dot.com crash. It’s about time someone starts going after corporate thugs who are robbing and pillaging our middle class at will with no repercussions.

The intimation that one of the breaking points was a large-scale opium grow has absolutely nothing to do with marijuana and linking the two like they are connected is ridiculous. Large-scale marijuana grows are becoming a bit over the top; something does need to be done. But if you make your bed with the feds, then you have to lie in it. Do you think the feds are going to stop at large-scale commercial grow operations? Don’t think of growers as so naive as to believe this line of propaganda.

The real problem is not marijuana grows. The big problem is tax and regulation. The people in the state of California have voted for it and whether certain factions like this or not is irrelevant. They are as much lawbreakers as they consider growers lawbreakers. What really needs to happen is a tax and regulation system. Now that doesn’t mean whoever has the most money to spend on licensing fees can grow. That doesn’t mean give big corporations the right to produce and leave all the “mom and pops” out in the cold.

Part of the reason marijuana is being produced on the scale as it is now is because the price is dropping so dramatically. Today you have to grow three times as much to make the same amount as growers did 10 years ago. Maybe if Humboldt County would start supporting this industry instead of fighting it, we could come up with a solution. Case in point: Humboldt County won’t give business licenses for marijuana-related businesses. So how is an individual supposed to operate a business and pay taxes if we are in constant fear of county and federal repercussions? Humboldt County’s willingness to work with the feds just scares them all the more.

What we need in Humboldt County is more cooperation between the county and the grower, not the feds and the county. The county only alienates itself more. If Humboldt residents could actually believe any of the political rhetoric that spews out of county officials’ mouths about the growing problems with cultivation, then they would be much more inclined to follow some set of rules. If they knew that the feds would stop at large-scale cultivation grows, much more support would come their way. It’s ironic that it’s the state of California that is pushing to protect the voters’ will and Proposition 215 and not the county of Humboldt, which actually should be protecting the growers and our economy in Humboldt. The county of Humboldt has turned its back on the industry just when we need them the most.

The reality is that marijuana cultivation is going nowhere. The state of California voted for it and it’s here. State after state in the union is also falling, one state at a time. There is going to be no more prohibition, and to try to protect the jobs of those involved in marijuana eradication is ridiculous. Tax and regulate is the order of the day if they want cooperation. And the reality is that if it becomes a commodity to tax and regulate a lot of marijuana eradication jobs are going to be lost. The military industrial complex along with the war on drugs isn’t going to give in freely. This is about money and who’s getting it, it’s not about the environment, morality, or any other facade that the feds and soon to be out-of-work “war on drugs” employees would have us believe.

John Myers resides in Arcata.