Many moved to Humboldt during the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s as part of the back to the land movement or to simply get away from the mainstream American machine. Corporatization, the military industrial complex, the nine to five – whatever the reason for getting away, Humboldt was (and still is) a bastion for those moving a different direction than the masses.
These people are the counter culture of America. A profit driven materialistic society is what they fled. Cannabis was their misunderstood companion plant. They didn’t move to the emerald triangle to get rich from growing weed – as later generations intended. They moved to get back to the land, to be around like-minded people, and live a simple life, protesting with silent civil disobedience.
Weed was apart of this equation. First as a way to “turn on, tune in, and drop out” as Timothy Leary put it, then as a way to pay the bills, weed, already apart of the (counter) culture, became an asset.
Slowly many-a-counter-culture-forefather/mother watched the plant, which first opened their doors to another reality, become increasingly mainstream. Like hip-hop in the late 90’s, cannabis moved from counter culture counter part to mainstream pop icon. It now seems cannabis has defected and is opening the door for mainstream takeover of the emerald triangle. With legalization on the horizon, land is being snatched up that was once owned by back-to-the-landers (who nursed it back to health after clear-cut logging). Increased demand leads to increased prices as many living a subsistence life style might become priced out.
Diesel rigs have replaced old VW vans. Kush has replaced Haze. Times are changing, and like the Haight and Mission districts in San Francisco, is Humboldt and the emerald triangle gentrifying? Is it inevitable? Must we adapt or move? Whatever one decides, the old man in the hills reflects as he watches from afar…