Graham Farrar (Photo: Glass House Farms)
By edhat staff
The Carpinteria School Board appears to have joined forces with local cannabis growers for the money, according to a new Los Angeles Times article.
This past September an article in Carpinteria’s Coastal View News pictured members of the Carpinteria school board at Glass House Farms wearing hats and shirts with the cannabis grower’s logos. The article detailed a $189,000 donation over three years from the nonprofit cannabis farmers group, CARP Growers, to Carpinteria Unified School District for a full-time school counselor at Carpinteria Middle School.
One member of the Carpinteria City Council, Rogelio Delgado, dissented over the decision to accept the donation on August 27.
The photo further divided Carpinteria residents between those who praise the massive influx of cannabis farming for providing jobs and revenue while others contend with the proximity of farms to homes and schools providing a pungent odor that’s changing the landscape of the small seaside town.
After the photo was publicized, critics voiced their concerns over the local school system and politicians being in the pockets of cannabis growers beholden to out of town investors.
The LA Times interviewed a former Carpinteria school board member who felt forced to resign over voicing concerns by taking donations from cannabis organizations.
Read the full LA Times article here.
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priceless….deal must have been brokered by Das Williams. Now we can all say what good Corp citizens the Cannabis Corps are. Sell outs!!
It’s a controlled substance, heavily regulated and licensed, so no there isn’t a free market. Ironically, the government-is-the-problem libertarian-wannabes would go bonkers (and rightly so; we all would) at the results if the government folded up and all those laws and regulations and enforcement went away.
Pot growers did not need to compromise the schools to provide a “counselor”. They could have offered this on their own, or made a donation to a local community health organization. Don’t touch this money, Carpinteria. You will later regret its harvest.
Yes Money talks I hear it sometimes in my wallet…”Get off of me.”
Das Williams? Is he that guy who now gets his mug in almost every photo in the Montecito Journal gala photos this week. He must be running for something.
The alcohol industry comes to Carp school board and offers $200K to fund an alcohol abuse” counselor”, but makes no promises they will work to keep pot out of minor’s hands The pharmaceutical company comes to Carp schools and offers $200K to set up an RX drug abuse “counselor”, but makes no attempt to keep their unprescribed drugs out of minor’s hands. The Chumash come to Carp schools and offers $200K for a gambling abuse “counselor” but makes no promise to keep minors from becoming gambling addicts. They all know this stuff is bad for kids and we know this stuff if bad for kids, so they offer a little smokescreen bandaid for good public relations. Parents, step up to the table and provide your own “counseling” to your own kids. Don’t farm this out to the schools and the pushers.
I am just so sick of the anti-cannabis bullies. For one thing, the money donated to the school district for counseling is definitely needed since the school district will do nothing about the bullies having free rein at the middle school. Some children in this country commit suicide because of being bullied. A friend’s 6th grade daughter at the Carp Middle School was bullied so severely she no longer wanted to go to school. Multiple times the parents met with the principle and finally administrator but with no results just babble about, “Not all parents are as concerned as you,” Also, they offered to pay for the bullied child to get “counseling”. How about the bullies, several girls following the young girl and not leaving her alone. Anyone talk to them? Nope. Or their parents? Nope. Finally it got so bad the bullied girl had to go to another school. So yes, take the cannabis donation for counseling and pay for help that the school principal and administrator refuse to even consider stepping in to help the bullied kids. A really sick situation when a child can’t attend school in her own district because bullies are allowed to run the show.
Parents can contribute if this position is so critical. Don’t ever rely on drug money for anything. Plus once the drug money dries up, parents will get stuck with the bill anyway because this is such a “critical” position.
+1 Flicka. Who frigging cares? The cannabis folk have largely gotten a grip on the odor, with the exception of one or two miscreants who will be shut down by New Years. The greenhouses are industrial operations that contain plants instead of Amazon packages. Most were already built for the flower growing industry, which was then outsourced to Central and South America because inputs are cheap. The land they cover will never return to orchards, but without profit, will become suburbs and warehouses. The local cannabis growers want to support the local community, if not for philanthropy, than for self-preservation marketing. Integrating those businesses into Carpinteria, which is also becoming a serious tech hub if you’re not paying attention, is just fine. Stop whining and take a gummy.
Cannabis is out of control. The legalization process was not thought out, especially the consequences to neighbors. My daughter lives in a suburban area of Camarillo and has significant ‘skunk’ smell from Hemp growers miles away. Funny how some people get outraged about rotten egg smell from water wells, but give the pot skunk smell a pass, while having hissy-fits about people smoking or vaping in the great outdoors. Weird.
HAHAHA Roger, you hear those dollar bills too? Spend Me please spend me hahaha
HAHAHA yes they should eat a gummy, Or two 🙂
Just a reminder, Cannabis grew wild all over north America and yes here in California as a wild weed, that is why they call it weed , It is not new and that smell is most common for most of this countrys history. It was just about a hundred years ago did the Pharma companys and oil and cotten pay to ban it. Read a history book
I love Frosty Freeze, But how much did they donate to local schools?
Politicians who sell out to any industry which harms a small community, whether it be pollution, noise, danger, or related threats often find out in the next election that the majority still rules. Good luck Carpinteria School Officials and Das Williams, because you are going to need it if you think cozying up to the cannabis industry is going to fly with the neighbors whose homes are permeated by cannabis stench.
Which homes? Granted, it was a significant problem last Spring, but all the legit growers have implemented odor control measures that largely work, and the few remaining miscreants are being forced out. The steer manure that CalTrans is spreading on the shoulders of the revamped 101 in Carp is much worse, and there’s no odor control implemented there.
The real scandal is that public schools need to take donations to meet their needs.
Prop 98 guarantees 50% right off the top goes to public education in this state, this 5th largest economy in the world. The scandal is what are they doing with all that money and why are the results so consistently poor. Voters decades ago voted to strongly support public education with the Prop 98 guarantee. Money is not the issue – how the money is getting spent and why is the scandal.
A bunch of mindless idiots almost none of whom live in Carp.
We are happy here. Everything is fine. Leave us alone!
Generic aspirin is comparable to a drug that is still illegal according to the feds? When is the last time anyone in Carpenteria complained about the smell of the local aspirin plant, or the effect of aspirin donations to Das Williams? Pretzel logic, like Steely Dan said.
About the t-shirt issue: Considering the rude, lewd and aggressive messages on t-shirts people–including kids–wear daily, it’s a non-issue. That teachers have to reach into their own pockets to buy school supplies for their classes and that art & music classes, both of which are extremely valuable to developing minds, have been eliminated due to budget cuts, are a REAL issue.
It is objectionable that any private business get such an endorsement from a public school which should be neutral in these areas. Money should not buy support. If the business wants to help the schools it should do so for reasons independent of the staff having to sign on as endorsers of their product. Real simple stuff.
My heavens, I think some of these commenters must have watched the propaganda film “Refer Madness” or read some of Hearst’s yellow journalism articles condemning hemp as the “devil plant” because it could be used to make paper and he and his cronies owned forests for paper, they didn’t want the competition. I believe most of the cannabis here in Carp are meant for medicinal use. So, if CVS wanted to donate would their “drug money” be turned down?
Should we call it Deapster’s law instead? Seems appropriate to name it after your old moniker Facto……………….. You seem overly infatuated with people who use pot. Sounds like a personal issue drives your position here. Maybe you should reassess your position on this issue since the majority of people in society hold no such issues, have no real problems and have no emotional holdovers from decades of overt lies, gross miss-characterizations and clear propaganda…
I think a better comparison is to the people who make generic aspirin. Yes they should have skipped a photo, but I’m glad the school system took their monetary support. BTW, the farms’ employees’ kids go to school too.