The new DCC director (damn, I don't even remember his name, but whatever) tried to make out like he was basically a local, not an outsider who didn't understand the community, because he had family up in Mckinleyville, which is vastly different socially and economically from Southern Humboldt.

The way it came across was very much like a racist white person saying they couldn't possibly be racist because they have a black friend and two black employees.

Anyway, I doubt anyone there felt like he was "one of us" or that he understood or cared.

#Cannabis #DCC

Anyway, there was a line to speak, so I eventually got in it. I brought with me a box of many, many thousands of Metrc track and trace RFID tags that we're required to use.

I brought it as a prop, since if this is all theater, props are called for.

Briefly, we used to be required to have 3 licenses (with redundant compliance requirements, insurance, bonds, etc.) just to put some seeds in pots full of dirt, grow them in the sun for a while, then sell them when they're ready to transplant. This spring, we transitioned to a Microbusiness license that allows us to do all of those things will less duplication.

But we had thousands and thousands of these plant and package tags. The bureaucrats can just push a button and transfer all of these tags to our new license, right?

Nope. We have to order new ones and these have to be destroyed. We were supposed to cut or mark through the barcode of each one — of many thousands — by hand before disposing of them.

#FuckThat

I brought the box up to the mic and told them I had a present for them. Actually, I said, this box of e-waste that I'm supposed to pay an employee to manually destroy one tag at a time is emblematic of the absurd regulatory theater we're subject to and the crushingly wasteful and burdensome compliance theater we're expected to perform.

Then I dropped the 10-lb box on the floor with a loud thud.

Ultimately, I did leave it there and they took it away with them.

#Cannabis #DCC #CaliforniaCannabis #Buraucracy

I had a lot I was prepared to say, but they were wrapping it up at 5pm after only 2 hours and there were two other people behind me waiting to speak, so I focused on a couple of things.

I said that there is a maxim that goes something like "the purpose of a rule is what it does." Not what its supporters say, what its intention is, what's written in it, but what it actually does. The DCC (and their predecessor agencies) have been at this for 10 years now and in that time small businesses have been crushed out of the market by the hundreds due to untenable regulatory burdens.

The purpose of a rule is what it does. And what their rules are doing is causing massively disproportionate burdens on small businesses while favoring financialized cannabis brands where the product is money and it is investors, not land that is farmed.

It's been 10 years, so they can't say they don't know or it was a short-term oopsie.

#CaliforniaCannabis

I emphasized this point because in response to other, often very emotional, licensees discussing how the rules favor big business, the DCC guy repeatedly claimed that the same rules apply to everyone. Sure, they apply, but they land differently.

If I had been a little more on the ball, I would've repeated Anatole France's famous quote "In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."

Instead, I used an anecdote from my own business where we are required to pay $120/year to get a "Weighmaster" certificate from the CA Dept. of Ag., Division of Weights and Measures... even though we sell potted plants and never under any circumstance weigh anything. Yes, Glass House Farms, the biggest cultivator in CA also has to spend $120/year. But they have fairy godmother investor money that rains from the sky and that they are losing to the tune of many, many 10s of millions of dollars/year.

I looked at the DCC people at the table, took out my phone, and said if any of them think $120 is nothing, I'll give them my Venmo info and they can pay me right now. (I'm big on theatrics at these things.)

To say that the rules apply to everyone equally is completely disingenuous, the kind of thing a PR bureaucrat would say.

DCC guy had said to someone else that he'd never heard any talk in the office about how they should have two tiers of rules, one for rich and one for poor or that their rules should be designed to snuff out small cannabis businesses.

So, I agreed that probably no one had ever conspired in a smoky backroom to create a regulatory package that would kill small businesses.

But the purpose of a rule is what it does, I repeated.

It doesn't matter if anyone intended to do this. It's been happening for 10 years with no change and no sign of change.

I'm tired and don't want to spam everyone's timelines tonight, so I'll add a couple more and go to sleep.

I looked right at the DCC director and pointed out that another of their absurd requirements was for my little nursery to have a security guard during business hours. This is a financial and material impossibility for a small business in a rural area. Plus it's not the vibe of our place.

But I pointed out that, in order to get our license, I went and took the course and got myself a "guard card". I am an official licensed Proprietary Private Security Officer!

But then I pointed out that right at this very minute, my business, a mere 5 miles down the road, was open to the public and was out of compliance because — the official security guard — was at this meeting and not on "duty."

And what the fuck were they going to do about it?

I asked the DCC director if they were going to revoke our license for failure to comply with that rule. Or if they were going to revoke it for failure to have a valid Weighmaster certificate. Both times he looked uncomfortable and mouthed "no." Everyone in the room saw that and can attest to it. It was also recorded but I'm not sure if his "no" was loud enough to record.

Put him right on the spot.

And this is how we have to do it. Confront them directly with the facts of how their rules favor rich people and investors over small businesses, especially the pre-legalization legacy businesses. Call them on their bullshit about laws being equal for everyone. Push back against untenable rules and say "I am not going to do that." Force their hand. Use theater, civil disobedience and whatever else to force rule changes. Or to at least not go bankrupt.

I honestly hate all this so much. While I like the theatrics and calling bullshit, it's all getting far too heavy and stressful.

#cannabis