By Mikal Jakubal
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Besides trying to make a film, I run a small plant nursery Plants For The People that is right on the county road. I have a big “open” sign out, trying to draw people in from the road to look at my plants. (I also run a portable sawmill and backhoe.) I’m the only road-front business in this area, so it is common for people to stop in and ask directions, ask to buy a gallon of gas, ask where the nearest payphone is…and ask where they can buy weed.
Really.
It happens half a dozen times each year. This time of the year, they usually ask if I sell pot plants. Once when I said no, the guy replied sarcastically, “well, aren’t you a nursery?” Well, yes. A nursery, not a pot dispensary. If you want pot plants, there are some pot collectives in Oakland that will hook you up. I’ve been asked where to get pounds of weed, pounds of bud trim, if I’m buying weed, where to get trimming work and about everything else. Other times, people casually ask very unusual and pointed questions about my finances or they make a few too many innuendos for me to believe they are on the level. Most people in business around here have had this same experience.
Just an hour ago, a guy pulled up and asked me where he could buy an ounce of weed. Claimed he was from Georgia and was just in Honeydew (a little town a couple ridges over) where someone gave him a bud that was the best he’d ever had. Said he wanted to get an ounce to mail home to Georgia and explained his crafty scheme to hide it in a can of coffee and ship it Fedex.
I can never tell whether people like this are cops trying to entrap me or are sincere but painfully naive individuals. Or both. It doesn’t really matter because I’m not dealing weed and don’t have any to sell them. Now, from a legal standpoint, I should answer such questions with an abrupt “no” and send them on their way. But, I’m always interested in people and always looking for stories, so I can’t help but engage a bit. I realize that if Georgia-dude was in fact an undercover cop wearing a wire, anything I say might lead them to think I was hiding something or was actually considering making a deal. Remember that people asking strangers where to buy weed are as nervous and suspicious as the stranger being asked, though this guy was so casual and talkative that it smelled a bit “off.”
While talking to these people entails that risk, it also has interesting side benefits. Immediately after he left, I tweeted about the encounter. KHUM radio picked it up and put me live on the air for a couple minutes to talk about the film. That resulted in a bunch of new Twitter followers and likely quite a few visits to this site. I’ve also received access to some interesting interview tapes someone made and a reporter recontacted me about doing a story on the film.
So, Georgia-dude, good luck in your quest for weed and, if you are from law enforcement, keep up the good work! I’ll be able to build a very exciting publicity campaign around your visits.
Tell us more about the conversation!
Pretty direct. Something like this:
“Do you know where I can buy some weed? I’m from Georgia and want to send some home.”
Well, there is lots of it around here [waving my hand toward the hills]
“I was just in Honeydew and asked people there. Some guy said he could give me a bud out of his stash. I smoked it and it was the strongest weed I’ve ever had.”
[this is all truncated, since I don’t remember the entire back and forth. At this point, I probably said, “huh.”]
He asked again. I said he should keep trying in town, that there are probably people around who have an ounce here and there, that I only sell legal plants here. [pointing toward the nursery and bamboo plants]
He said he wanted to ship it back. I started to recommend against that because it was risky and he interrupted and said, “Oh, not the Post Office. I’d send it Fedex in a coffee can.” He then described some method of cutting the side of the can open, burying the oz. in a baggie in the coffee and somehow gluing the can back up so no one could tell it had been opened. Said that it was invisible to x-rays, dogs and so on. I didn’t quite follow it. Seems like he could just carry it home. Whatever.
I don’t really think he was an undercover cop, though he could have been. Doesn’t really matter to me. It’s actually kind of funny. What is interesting is how common such occurrences are here. That sort of encounter may soon become a thing of the past, if it becomes legal to go into a licensed store and buy an ounce.
if they really are just naive and incredibly stupid pull out your camera next time and ask if you can do an interview, you know, perspective on the industry from the perspective of the visitor from georgia kind-of-thing. you might just get something priceless!
David, well, that could be funny, but in all fairness, imagine you’re from out of state and you’re in Humboldt and you just know that there is weed to be had…somewhere. It would feel kind of risky asking strangers (though around here, the actual risk that you’d be asking an undercover narc or a snitch is pretty minimal), so you’d want to try and be direct and casual…I suppose. I’ve never asked anyone if they’re selling weed! I doubt anyone who is trying to buy weed from a stranger would want to be on camera, though, I agree it might be rich.
Great site you have here Mikal. I just discovered it while reading a post on Redheaded Blackbelt’s blog today.
I linked your site to mine (As It Stands) to follow your future posts. You really have a great project going and I can’t wait to see the results.
Your daily posts are entertaining and informative.Keep up the good work.