Grow cannabis... but not for growth

It’s hard to critique growth, I mean we hear 5 times a day about the GDP -- the monetary value of goods and services-- as if that defines wealth. And now with cannabis: The cannabis industry is $4.5 billion dollars in California retail in 2020, and forecast to reach $6 billion this year. The problem with growth is that it leads to collapse because it doesn’t account for the changes in heritage - social and natural - from which monetary value is drawn. That heritage is being damaged. So no, growth is not a smart indicator.

What would be a smart indicator? A combination of things, like the quality of the air we breathe, the availability of water, the labor conditions, the amount of leisure time, creative output as opposed to extractive output. And that has to be a radical breakaway from how we exchange today.

Back in 1972, Robert Meadows led a study called “The Limits to Growth” that looked at the limits of the ecosystem to sustain the waste and resource extraction that are the basis of our economic growth.

Also back in the 70s: hippies in the hills of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity actually living another way of life.

We’ve got the theory and we’ve got the experience of those who’ve led the way. Huge thank you to them. Let’s honor them by taking action.