'Mary Jane: The Musical' examines Humboldt County's pot industry

BLUE LAKE, Calif. — Here in the heart of north Humboldt County (that's NoHum to the uninitiated), a little theater company is taking on a topic both taboo and omnipresent: marijuana.

Behind the Dell'Arte Company's ensemble of original songs and Emerald Triangle humor is a bittersweet, multi-generational tale about the cultivation culture that celebrates the herb while laying bare the industry's dark side.

An analysis presented before the Board of Supervisors recently estimated that the economic impact of pot — which "Mary Jane: The Musical" alternately refers to as "just a plant," "the demon weed" and "medicine" — on Humboldt County is more than $400 million annually.

At a time when sanctioned medical marijuana use has prompted an explosion of growers and dispensaries in the state, and federal officials are cracking down, the theatrical production tackles some resulting truths: environmental degradation from irresponsible outdoor farms, home invasion robberies that plague indoor growing operations and the panic over dropping prices that would plummet further if the bud ever made its way out of the shadows of the black market.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-marijuana-musical-20120624,0,5551110.story