Page 2 December 1, 2016 Film Review Werner Herzog’s Into the Inferno is a Different Kind of Nature Odyssey Marijuana from front page federal government to rethink that. However, federally-chartered banks are forbidden from accepting cash from businesses that sell or grow pot. Legal pot growers are shut out of the banking system and must keep large sums of cash on the premises as a result. Or, they keep it off-premises for safekeeping. The threat of robbery and violent crime might escalate as more pot growers and sellers get licensed. Medical marijuana dispensaries would benefit from a change in the federal banking laws, though there’s no word from Washington, D.C. about its position on legalizing marijuana. The Department of Justice chooses not to prosecute more marijuana users and sellers as long as the latter follow state and local laws, California goveernment officials say. What Californians did last week was to commercialize marijuana too. It was a big business already because medical marijuana has been legal since 1996. Now, companies already in the medicinal side of the business can expand their growing and retail operations. One of those - Ocean Grown Extracts - is based here in the South Bay. The Manhattan Beach-based grower and supplier of marijuana-derived products for patients is reportedly looking to move into a vacant prison in Central California where it would grow marijuana and produce cannabis oil. Ocean Grown Extracts makes and sells flavored oils and juice made from THC, the extract from marijuana plants that produces the euphoria or “high” that pain-patient advocates say relieves symptoms from chronic illnesses and late-stage cancer. Ocean Grown Extracts is a player in a California market that is reportedly the largest producer of marijuana in the nation. While proponents of Prop 64 were collecting signatures to qualify the measure for the November 8 ballot, leaders in Sacramento were busy creating an agency to oversee California’s number one cash crop. The newly created Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation will create the system to license, regulate and tax the sale of all marijuana. The bureau has its work cut out because the commercial licensing of growers will start in 2018, though the agency could be ready sooner. There are rules about recreational marijuana yet to be drafted, reviewed and approved, according to Lori Ajax, chief of the bureau that’s been in existence only since February. Public hearings will be held as part of the rulemaking process--giving citizens, local government officials, medical and child safety advocates a say in how the marijuana industry operates. For now, it appears that marijuana-growing operations are looking at properties outside populated areas. Desert Hot Springs has created a pot-friendly business environment with passage of local ordinances there. In fact, the desert community near Palm Springs could become the “Silicon Valley of cultivation” of marijuana for use in California and in other states where it’s legal. The Palm Desert City Council originally created its ordinance for the medical marijuana trade. The city allows growing operations and taxes them at $25 per square foot for the first 3,000 square feet, and a reduced $10 per-square-foot tax on additional commercial production space. At least two growers have set up shop in Palm Desert, including Los Angeles-based Pineapple Express. Pineapple Express bought several acres of land in the community and warehouses to grow marijuana. The company’s vice president of business development credited the State for giving companies the green light to enter the marketplace before Prop 64 became law last week. “The legal cannabis industry is a reality,” said Teresa Flynn with Pineapple Express. The creation of the marijuana regulation agency means that legal commercial operators have guidelines to follow for the first time, she said. A Costa Mesa-based cannabis company plans to build California’s first large-scale marijuana greenhouse in Desert Hot Springs, according to reports. CalCann Holdings will apply for a mega license and plans to hire 40 employees who will begin work in 2018. The operation will generate $400,000 in local taxes per year for Desert Hot Springs, the holding company estimates. Will the smell of marijuana plants be wafting over South Bay cities and in the industrial areas anytime soon? Probably not because cities have the authority to ban the cultivation of marijuana within their borders. Homeowners can grow up to six marijuana plants for personal use under the newly approved law. However, growing outdoors can be banned in cities and unincorporated areas Prop 64 safeguards changed voter attitudes about marijuana use by adults. of Los Angeles County. Numerous cities in California banned marijuana growing ahead of last week’s statewide vote. With or without ordinances, many commercial building owners don’t welcome marijuana-growing operations because of the lingering odors created even after the business closes down. John Erickson, senior vice president with commercial property firm Colliers International, has fielded numerous inquiries over Prop 64’s appeal was new taxes on marijuana growing and sales. the past 20 years from medical marijuana companies looking for warehouse space. The answer he hasgiven them time and time again is no. They bring too many problems, including odor and water damage from broken pipes, he said. Still, a growers association thinks there could be 50,000 places available to grow marijuana within California. While the demand for space to grow will be high by 2018, the supply of available space in urban areas will remain low. Growers persuasive enough to sign a lease pay dearly for it too. They’re renting space at higher-than-market rates, according to one commercial broker. Ron Berndt with Daum Commercial estimated that a pot business will pay $1.25 per square foot for a space that would normally rent for about 85 cents. The amount of power needed to grow the crop requires upgrades, which can take Edison six months to schedule and install, he said. Growing outdoors remains illegal under the strict wording of Prop 64, which means that law enforcement will continue to monitor national forests and rural areas for illegal pot farms. Environmental protection - and cleaning up California’s pot industry - seems to have been on the minds of voters this time around. A ballot measure to legalize pot failed in 2010. Though public attitudes have softened about prosecuting minor crimes for selling and possessing marijuana, largescale growing operations in national forests and on public land remain a concern. Lawenforcement officials say that pot farms in remote areas are a danger to fauna, wildlife and unsuspecting hikers who stumble across the illegal grows. Prop 64 includes money for law enforcement. People convicted of marijuana crimes are eligible for immediate re-sentencing under the less-harsh Prop 64. Jail sentences could be shortened and marijuana offenders could petition to have a conviction removed from their records if, for example, their crime was possession of marijuana and the amount would be legal under the 2016 user-friendly version of the law. • By H. Nelson Tracey for www.cinemacy. com In director Werner Herzog’s own words, “This is not something you will find playing on the National Geographic channel.” And with all due respect to NatGeo…from the very beginning, the sounds of an angelic chorus singing hymns over images of a fiery chasm of volcanic magma reveals that we are in for a different kind of nature odyssey. Over the next 100 minutes, we follow Werner Herzog and volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer across the globe as they witness some of the world’s most deadly volcanoes and talk to those nearby who call this adjacent land home in the documentary Into the Inferno. About halfway through the movie, I had a realization that completely invigorated the remainder of the film’s runtime: Herzog has no intention of making a movie about volcanoes and their properties. Again, let’s leave that to the educational documentaries. This is hardly a film about volcanoes at all, but in fact a story of humanity. Herzog’s journey is about humankind’s relationship to these fiery infernos and how these relationships are portrayed from place to place throughout the world. These chasms have produced legends of all kinds that vary from the Photo courtesy of Netflix South Pacific, Antarctica, the Caribbean and, most surprisingly, North Korea. The myths themselves are intriguing, but the heart of the film is the power that these volcanoes strike into the hearts of those who witness them up close. Some view them as gods, some as ancestors and some as government. But the action of exalting is found globally. So when the film makes a detour to talk about the beginning of civilization, I was initially puzzled--but then recognized this as a confirmation of its focus on humanity, despite being led to believe it’s all about the volcanoes. This type of bait-and-switch artistry is what makes Herzog so essential to the documentary world. He playfully rejects the notions we have grown accustomed to of the informational documentary and views the medium more as art than educational thinkpiece. This demands an extra level of attention from the viewer, but for cinephiles this is a delightful treat to the stimuli. My personal realization that he had in fact made a movie about humanity disguised as a volcano film is the type of exciting realization that makes this so engaging, yet I wouldn’t be surprised if another viewer read into an entirely different argument. In fact, I’d welcome it. Unlike many films that come out in the fall when we typically only get specialty releases in the major cities, Into the Inferno is already available to view on Netflix. In other words, there is no need to wait another moment to dive into this adventure. Let the ferocity of the world’s volcanoes matched with the insight of a documentary master be your companions of choice on your next night in... Into the Inferno is not rated. 104 minutes. Now streaming on Netflix. •
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