Americana: Blowing Smoke

A few weeks from now, Ted Eriksen, the Mendocino County, Calif., agricultural commissioner, will publish his annual crop report. It will be seriously in error—not for any lack of meticulousness on Eriksen’s part, but because his bosses will not let him mention marijuana.

In last year’s report, Eriksen matter-of-factly stated that pot patches provided far more farm income in Mendocino County—he estimated 1979’s harvest at $90 million—than any other cultivated crop. Says Eriksen: “I thought it was a realistic thing to do.” The county board of supervisors did not: when the smoke cleared, Eriksen had torn the offending page from every copy of his findings and promised never to report on m——a again. So this year, wine grapes will be called the county’s biggest agricultural moneymaker. But that is a politician’s pipe dream.