You’ll have to excuse Humboldt County cannabis farmers if they feel they’ve been had.
A trio of state agencies released emergency regulations Nov. 16 that will govern the launch of the state’s recreational and medical cannabis industries next year, dictating how cannabis products can be grown, manufactured, transported, tested, bought and sold (see NCJ Daily). There is a lot of information packed into the 278 pages but, in the eyes of locals and others who have watched this process closely, there’s also a glaring omission. The regulations effectively leave no limit on how big a cannabis farm can be.
While the regulations do limit the sizes of grows depending on the type of license a grower obtains — with a cap of one acre per license — there is no limit to how many licenses a farmer can have, meaning there’s apparently nothing to stop a large corporation from going huge and cultivating dozens of acres or more. It’s the average Humboldt farmer’s nightmare.
And it’s a bit baffling how it came down. A cap has long been part of the conversation and generally regarded as a given. While it wasn’t written into Proposition 64, it was a talking point used to get buy-in from growers. Previous draft regulations included a 4-acre cap, and a Department of Food and Agriculture environmental impact report released Nov. 13 went further and recommended a 1-acre limit.
But when the same agency released the regulations a few days later, the cap was effectively gone. Questioned on the about-face, department spokesman Steve Lyle told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that the cap was “left out following evaluation of the emergency regulations, including input from stakeholders, that went on right up until the regulations were finalized.”
That sure makes one wonder who those “stakeholders” were but it’s a safe bet they weren’t small farmers.
The same Department of Food and Agriculture released a study last month estimating that Californians consume about 2.5 million pounds of cannabis annually while the state produces more than five times that amount — some 13.5 million pounds. There is a lot more supply than demand, and farmers going legit and forgoing the more lucrative — and risky — path of taking their harvests across state lines really wanted to see something that held the supply side of the equation in check and, in turn, held cannabis at a workable price point. The market is already totally saturated, with tales of growers struggling to find buyers and sometimes selling at a loss.
California Growers Association Executive Director Hezekiah Allen told the San Francisco Chronicle he thinks the absence of a cap could be catastrophic for the industry, giving deep-pocketed corporations or individuals a clear advantage. This, he said, could create market forces that push growers currently trying to become compliant back into the black market.
“There will be an abundant supply of dirt-cheap cannabis in the state and there is a real possibility that this marketplace could go through a bubble burst collapse,” he said.
Last week, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to issue temporary permits to the hundreds of growers stuck in the application backlog at the county planning department. The temporary permits will allow those growers to remain in good standing and in line to receive state permits, which are contingent on a grower being in local compliance.
The canary in the coal mine for Allen’s theory that the emergency regulations will send growers scurrying back to the black market may be these temporary county permits. If local growers who had been standing in line to become compliant begin backing away from that process, it’s a pretty clear sign they believe the state just hopelessly stacked the deck against them. We should know pretty soon.
Thadeus Greenson is the news editor at the Journal. Reach him at 442-1400, extension 321, or thad@northcoastjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @thadeusgreenson.
This article appears in 2017 Holiday Gift Guide.
Whenever activism rear its ugly face it seems common sense runs for cover. Local growers can run to the black market all they want, but who’s going to buy their cannabis when you can get it cheaper at the liquor store? Seriously, I think what we have here is a stakeholder group that has gotten to used to a captive market. Within a year of outright legalization California cannabis producers will move their operations closer to main markets. There will be no need for middlemen to drive all the way to Humboldt when that can get it from greenhouse operations in the valley. Wanna be a player, in five years most of the cannabis grown for smoking will be processed into resin and sold as vape pen cartridges.
With all the permitting fees and taxes legal growers are going to have to pay theres no way in hell youre going to get it cheaper in a liquor store. The annual indoor permit costs $78000. Every year. Plus $3 a square foot every year. Plus income and sales taxes. Amounts to black market product being less than half price. Be prepared for the whole thing to fail because of greedy capitalists and corrupt politicians.
Our state. Oregon had, in the past tense a residency requirement. Now it’s gone and medical is dead. Unfortunately patients pay the price when people see green money and not the benefits for people’s lives and health.
When will people realize that “marijuana” is a legal term that criminals in office use to trap people in subjection and servitude to the sytem. All this registration and legislation is a religion of State that people bow to.
Don’t legalize, Decriminalize!
This is perfect just desserts for Humboldt County. The stupid, arrogant and greedy marijuana growers and long-complicit community (businesses and individuals) created the economic and social cesspool that continues to engulf and drown Humboldt County. All of this couldn’t happen to a more deserving populace.
If anyone is interested please sign the petition to reinstate the 1 acre cap. It’s at
calgrowersassociation.org/1_acre_letter
In California the dispensary culture has ONLY been interested in indoor flowers and dabs. However, having passed a law that gives counties and municipalities great latitude to make their own rules, many places have adopted regulations that favor outdoor growers. At great peril from NIMBY odor CEQA challenges, in Humboldt County, where most of the large outdoor crops went to the out of State black market, I predict permitted growers will struggle to sell their outdoor. Likely they will be out-competed by indoor cannabis, produced cheaper by the black market or elsewhere in California. Who is going to want to pay twice as much for lower grade pot?