Suspicion and Fear of Marijuana Workers

Some of the problem with the marijuana industry is that neighbors are suspicious and afraid of these "new people".   

They look different.  They aren't Hispanic; they are white.  They don't look poor; they look prosperous.   They must be up to no good.

I hear a repeated theme among people who are neighbors of marijuana growers.  They are frightening and they must be up to no good.   My informants are most often people in the comfortable middle class or upper middle class.  They are typically white, baby-boomer, educated professionals.   About half of them voted for Trump, half for Hillary.  The Trump voters would vigorously deny being racist or xenophobic and indeed they would say they voted for Trump despite his comments on Mexicans and Muslims, not because of them.  They voted for Dole, Bush, Romney, and now Trump.  They are brand-loyal Republicans.

The Democrats, too, would insist they, too,  are not racist or xenophobic, and Trump's appeal to white resentment were significant in their decisions to vote for Hillary, notwithstanding reservations about her, particularly among people who preferred Bernie in the primary.  

Bottom line:  I know no one who admits to xenophobic motivations.  Indeed, they resent the implication.

Yet many don't like marijuana growers.  I hear lots of suspicion of the workers in the marijuana industry.   I hear none about the primarily-Hispanic workers who work in the farms and orchards of southern Oregon.  The vast majority of the outdoor farm and orchard work done in my area is done by Hispanic men and women.   I do not have numerical data, but I have direct observation.  The men on ladders pruning pear trees and picking fruit and moving irrigation pipes are Hispanic.  They are also a significant portion of the people doing the indoor jobs of washing dishes at restaurants and serving as hotel-motel maids.  They work hard, in near poverty.  There are lots of them.

Worker Permit Card.  Click for FAQ from Oregon website

Hispanic workers don't disturb the social order, and indeed they confirm it.  In general and with exceptions, of course, white people own the businesses and farms; Hispanics work at them for wages.  Everyone in his place.

Marijuana workers disturb that status quo.  The response is suspicion and fear. 

One friend called them "unsavory".  He observes them as they come and go on property near his.  He notes many of them drive expensive new vehicles: Ford Expeditions, Lincoln Navigators, Chevy Suburbans--the vehicles used by presidential candidates and the Secret Service.   In the context of a Rotary meeting parking lot these would be markers of upper middle class income and status, but in the context of marijuana, it is suspicious.   He notes that some of them are stay at an his town's most expensive motel. More suspicion.

Marijuana worker vehicle.  Something must be wrong.

Another friend assumes they must be bad employees, stoned from sampling the product.  I told him my observation was to the contrary, people hard at work in heat and smoke, caffeinated, not stoned.  He heard me say it then repeated that he just knew they must be stoners.  I repeated, "no, they are ambitious, trying to get ahead through hard work, just like you when you were in your twenties."  He said they must be laid back and stoned.  He could not integrate what I said.  

A cousin saw a dark-complected person near my farm (in fact half Chinese- half white, like my son) and warned me that those were bad people, likely a member of Mexican drug cartel.   "Those Mexicans are up to no good."   I told him the person was half Asian, like my son.  He said he was sure he was part of a Mexican gang.  I said I had talked with him.  He is Asian.  My cousin repeated that Mexican gangs are dangerous.   He, too, couldn't hear it.

An ongoing theme of this blog is the realization that believing is seeing.   First impressions matter.  People interpret information into pre-existing assumptions and frames. Contrary information is ignored.  

Nothing suspicious here

Marijuana workers in southern Oregon are different from the normal farm-orchard worker.  They are primarily "White" and white people don't do farm work anymore, unless they own the farm.  Farm workers are expected to be Hispanic and when marijuana workers break that assumption then something is off and suspicious.

My observation--and my own first impressions--come from interviewing about twenty five people working in the marijuana industry.  There is, indeed, a pattern to them.  They are entrepreneurial, ambitious, driven, middle class, and come from middle class families,  eager to be legal, and they recognize that they are being watched.  They work in the marijuana industry for that simplest and most straight-forward reason in a capitalist economy:  it is where the jobs and opportunities are and they can make money doing it.  Why settle for $10.50 and hour when you can work for more.  Why work for wages when you can work for a share of business revenue and capture some of the upside? 

Work hard, work smart, build equity, retire comfortably, while young if possible.  The American Dream.   

Marijuana profits are available because of the arbitrage between what is possible in southern Oregon but difficult or impossible elsewhere.  Marijuana growing is legal here and--unless the forest fire smoke wrecks things--southern Oregon grows a superior product to that grown outdoors elsewhere.  And there is apparently enormous demand.  This is the basis of all trade and commerce.  Soon California marijuana may flood the market and destroy the arbitrage opportunity, but for now there is money to be made.  The growers are going for it.

Klondike gold rush, 1896.  Seeking their fortune.

Neighbors and observers do not see young capitalists, and welcome their spirit of get-up-and-go.  They see a new, different, and numerous people working outdoors, behind opaque fences.  They look different and do things differently.  They buy soil amendments in sacks.  They don't buy overhead sprinklers; they buy expensive drip irrigation equipment that facilitates different fertilizer mixes.  They buy trimming equipment, not hay balers.  Their background is urban and suburban, not rural.  They weren't 4-H and FFA  kids; they were college bound before being seduced by the marijuana gold rush and the hope to make money while the opportunity is here.  Because most were not raised on farms they can miss certain social cues and farm ways.  Some drive too fast on dirt roads.  Some don't wave to neighbors. 

The response is suspicion, fear, and dislike.

Still Available

The punditry regarding Trump's election focused on the fear and resentments of less-educated working class white voters, people who voted overwhelmingly for Trump.  The Hillary message of welcome and inclusion for the outsiders fell flat.  They bought "I'm deplorable" tee shirts.  

Suspicion of outsiders is not a matter of social class or education.  Everyone is susceptible   Upper middle class people who live in farm areas have something fragile and valuable to lose, as important to them as are jobs for the blue collar worker threatened by immigrants: the serenity and value of their property.   Marijuana industry people are outside the familiar mold.  

People wonder what they might be up to.  It might be bad.  Better watch out.


NOTE:   On Wednesday I had a related post on Neighbors and Marijuana.  You might find it of interest:  How Neighbors view Marijuana: