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Issue 8 • Spring 2010 JOURNALISMwww.ForthMagazine.com 29FORGET IT MARCO...IT’S THE L.A. ZOOClearly, the Zoo has a relationshipwith Billy that is so obviously special, this“representative” of Tom LaBonge did notwant to be mentioned by name. Not since the2008 Presidential Election have two politicalsides been so diametrically opposed to eachother. And, as usual with any Shit Storm, theFacts get buried under tons of feces while theOpinions reign supreme. All I can make outof this mess is that just as we don’t blame thetroops fighting in Iraq for following orders, wecan’t point fingers at the Zoo’s diligent stafffor this whole elephant debacle. No sir. Asusual, the problem lies within Management.Access to too much money with not enoughoversight is a tune we’ve been forced to listento for a while now -- and I don’t know aboutyou, but my ears are bleeding. Has greedpermanently infected the very last fibers ofthis great nation’s DNA? Is there no cure tothis chronic corruption?Jesus. Listen to me ramble. Here I wasgoing to the Zoo to find out how “Green”they are, and I come back with the elephantequivalentof Chinatown. What’s next?Elephant incest? This much is clear: AsianIs therechronicno curefor thiscorruption?Elephants are fucked. They apparently havetwo choices in this world: lose their minds in acage, or get hunted for ivory in their quicklydwindlingnatural habitat. Come to think of it,us humans pretty much face the same dilemmaevery day. It turns out, Zoochosis ain’t just foranimals. Herded along highways and crowdedinto cubicles, are we really any better off thanBilly or his fallen comrades? When you take astep back (and it’s any two-bit journalist’s jobto do just that) the entire Modern Conditionis so utterly insane it’s hard to take sides anymore.That the City of Los Angeles is spending$36 million for elephants that we shouldn’teven have in the first place… while 82,000human beings are left starving and sick on itsvery own streets on a nightly basis… is too depressingto fathom. Tell you what, L.A. -- thenext time us taxpayers have to cough up $36million, it sure as shit better be for a state-ofthe-arthomeless shelter on 6 th Street in downtown,where the nightmare of the human soulknows no end. Otherwise, you run the risk ofa good, old fashioned riot -- the kind whereman and elephant alike can stand together inthe righteous conviction… that basic moraldecency is still worth fighting for… even inthis unfair city we call our home. REVENUE. Continued from p. 15REVENUE: THE LAW,AND THE GROWERS“You gotta look at how the governmentworks,” Jeff Joseph, the owner of thedispensary Organica, explains. He’s beenrunning Organica since 2007. The majorityof his clientele are card-carrying cancerpatients. As a State Board of Equalization taxpayingbusiness owner, he has a sharp graspof revenue, and the keen understanding ofhuman nature that anyone dealing with thepublic on a regular basis must possess.“[The government] has two differentaspects. They have taxation, but they alsohave law enforcement. The laws that they’reenforcing, that’s their business. Their businessis not law changing. That’s our job. The lawmakers want to represent their constituents.But until the constituents’ voice is loudenough, they don’t really want to do anything.It’s a hot potato. Law enforcement is going tointerpret the law to benefit them. Everybody’sgoing to interpret the law to benefit them,whoever’s interpreting.”When asked about the potential revenueprovided to the government by taxation, Jeffsays, “Let’s look at this way.“They already have a revenue basis. Thepeople who are able to actually enforce the lawalready have the revenue base. They look at thetax as a threat to the revenue base.”But this fear about a threat to the revenuebase is not purely on the side of the law. Iflegalization were to become a reality, howwould large-scale marijuana growers feel abouttaxation?It should be noted that interviewing largescale growers is a bit like using carrier pigeons;it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work, but itdoes, somehow. As it happens, large-scalegrowers in California are pro-legalization.They foresee that if marijuana is legalized,large-scale corporations will take over, and a“King of Beers” situation will result, turninghomegrown growers into the equivalent ofmicrobreweries, whose high-end product willattract the discerning buyers.Since the first wave of dispensaries opened,these large-scale growers have witnessedan increase in their sales. In some places,such as Humboldt county, growers feel thatlegalization would “bring legitimacy to a veryold industry.”But taxation does not necessarily excitethem. Much like law enforcement, they aresomewhat reluctant to part with a revenuestream that is working for them, in favor of anuntested method.So what is the solution?As Jeff says, “[The law is] enforcing thestatues that are there. We get the other sidesaying, well, people voted for this, we want tosee this happen. You got a conflict of interest.People need to make a clear law. That’ll be thefirst thing.”LAWSUITS AND FEESBefore a clear law can be made, however,it’s much better to start suing people. At least,as of March 2010, this seems to be the solutionof city attorney Carmen Trutanich, who fileda lawsuit against Organica, among others, toprevent over-the-counter sales of marijuana.But not to worry. Public advocacy groupAmericans for Safe Access filed a counterlawsuitagainst the city on behalf of thedispensaries.The lawsuits were prompted by theFebruary 3 rd signing of a city council billlimiting the number of dispensaries to 70.The law hasn’t quite taken effect, as its passagehinges on the city approving the fees that thedispensaries will pay to remain in operation.It’s the revenue, stupid.