Behind the redwood curtain: The Prohibition Oral History Project
start here!
1) Read This First: A guide to staying out of trouble
2) Getting good audio: Using Voicemail to tell your story
3) Tell your story : call 707-932-5607
Our stories are secrets.
We can tell our families, and some of our friends, but we cannot tell
the world. So our history is being written by outsiders. (i.e., Weed
Country, Pot Cops, and Pot City USA)
This project's goal is to empower local voices to speak for themselves. By building an archive of recordings for use in academic research and public journalism, we hope to reclaim our narrative. To tell our own stories, before history tells them for us.
Contributors are free to remain anonymous or may also choose identify themselves -- but please remember to exercise your 5th Amendment rights. Avoid self-incrimination on anything not yet past the statute of limitations.
The Prohibition Oral History Project is looking for local first- and second-person narratives about life, death and work from the underground culture of the Lost Coast and surrounding Emerald Triangle. Say something funny, beautiful or heartbreaking about last year's harvest. Share the struggles of getting into the industry. Or getting out.
But in a media landscape where our story is being told by reality TV producers and advocacy-journalists, this is your chance to set the record straight. And hopefully, to do so without necessarily having to out yourself as a worker, farmer, or felon.
This is your chance to enter your story in the permanent record, and share it with the outside world. Stories submitted to the LCOHP may be shared with local media, and will be available for the general public to access online. Plus, you can participate in this project anonymously from any working telephone.
This is your story. Tell it yourself.
This project's goal is to empower local voices to speak for themselves. By building an archive of recordings for use in academic research and public journalism, we hope to reclaim our narrative. To tell our own stories, before history tells them for us.
Contributors are free to remain anonymous or may also choose identify themselves -- but please remember to exercise your 5th Amendment rights. Avoid self-incrimination on anything not yet past the statute of limitations.
The Prohibition Oral History Project is looking for local first- and second-person narratives about life, death and work from the underground culture of the Lost Coast and surrounding Emerald Triangle. Say something funny, beautiful or heartbreaking about last year's harvest. Share the struggles of getting into the industry. Or getting out.
But in a media landscape where our story is being told by reality TV producers and advocacy-journalists, this is your chance to set the record straight. And hopefully, to do so without necessarily having to out yourself as a worker, farmer, or felon.
This is your chance to enter your story in the permanent record, and share it with the outside world. Stories submitted to the LCOHP may be shared with local media, and will be available for the general public to access online. Plus, you can participate in this project anonymously from any working telephone.
This is your story. Tell it yourself.
Need an idea? We have some suggestions
occupational hazards : tracking health risks in an underground labor market

Virtually every workplace in America's above-ground economy is regulated to some extent. Whether you work in kitchens or construction, the federal government's Occupational Safety and Hazard Adminstration has observed and analyzed a typical work environment in your industry. Unless you work with marijuana.
Modern marijuana growing is still an emerging industry -- and most of it's regulations fall under the penal code.
Because marijuana is illegal and the industry operates in secrecy, health hazards are rarely investigated. Workers are often uninsured, and they have little legal recourse against manufacturers and employers that put their health at risk. Essentially, we're all participating in an ongoing round of human experiments -- but so far no one's tracking the results.
Are you experiencing health problems as a result of your years in the marijuana industry? Have you experienced asthma, PTSD, or side effects from exposure to fertilizer and agricultural chemicals? Tell us about it. We've set up an anonymous survey to start the data-gathering process necessary to find out how the marijuana industry is affecting the health of it's workers.
Please also consider calling in to tell your story at 707-932-5607.
Modern marijuana growing is still an emerging industry -- and most of it's regulations fall under the penal code.
Because marijuana is illegal and the industry operates in secrecy, health hazards are rarely investigated. Workers are often uninsured, and they have little legal recourse against manufacturers and employers that put their health at risk. Essentially, we're all participating in an ongoing round of human experiments -- but so far no one's tracking the results.
Are you experiencing health problems as a result of your years in the marijuana industry? Have you experienced asthma, PTSD, or side effects from exposure to fertilizer and agricultural chemicals? Tell us about it. We've set up an anonymous survey to start the data-gathering process necessary to find out how the marijuana industry is affecting the health of it's workers.
Please also consider calling in to tell your story at 707-932-5607.