When the Compassionate Care Act of 1996 became law, California opened itself up to medical marijuana. It set the pace for other states to legalize weed, and many changes have taken place since. Now, there seems to be a crisis, and farmers are crying foul as their livelihood is being threatened.
Tax figures show that the state makes up to $5 billion in revenue from the sale of adult-use medical marijuana that you can order through https://askgrowers.com/deliveries/california for same-day delivery. Adult use is the same as recreational use, which is legal in California. It makes up a massive chunk of the weed sales made throughout the state, so business has been good for growers until recently.
It is hard to tell how much cannabis the state produces, but rough estimates from a 2017 publication estimated that people use about 2.3 million pounds of weed annually. This was such a good number for anyone thinking of growing it, but now it is reportedly too much on the market that small farmers may have to exit while they can. Some reports say that the total amount of weed from registered – by the Department of Cannabis Control – legal grows in the state could amount to six million pounds. That is three times the demand for medical and adult use.
What’s Happening?
Three counties in the state, namely Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino, have been known for the growth of this herb since the 1960s, so much so that they are collectively called the Emerald Triangle. All was well until the 2016 Proposition 64 vote. Now, we’ll take things back to 1996 to get the background before proceeding to Prop 64.
Is weed legal in California? Yes, it is. When the Compassionate Care Act – Prop. 215 – became law and legalized medical marijuana, the government used the Act to bring native illicit farmers to the fore. Their trade was sanitized, and Prop 215 provided them with the protection they needed to stay in business without competing with big acreage farmers. The farmers were required to run legal businesses that reported their profits and paid taxes to the local authorities. This worked well as they had regulatory bodies shielding them from over taxation and other matters.
After the people voted in favor of adult-use marijuana in 2016, Prop 64 was crafted to protect the small-scale farmers once again. The provision tried to get legacy growers to support the proposition by promising that no grower would be allowed to farm an area larger than one acre until 2023. This made them join the vote as they would be protected for this long. They would have figured out how to face off with multi-acre farmers by the end of this time.
Two months before Prop 64 became effective, lobbyists convinced the California Department of Food and Agriculture to change the one-acre provision that protected small-scale farmers. The limit was removed, making it possible for farmers that could afford multiple licenses to stack up as many as they wanted and effectively suffocate the smaller farmer. That is what is now happening to California weed.
When Did the Struggle Start?
It started in 2016, even though there were skirmishes even before. Legalizing adult-use weed brought a new competition where larger growers with more capital realized how much they could make from competing with smaller growers. The charges for growing licenses are now higher than before, and it’s even costlier to sell marijuana, as some small-scale farmers are finding out. With too much being produced, supply is higher than demand, and some smaller farms are already selling their businesses so they can exit while it’s still possible.
At the moment, exorbitant licensing fees and permits are killing small businesses, but the root of all evil seems to be the lifting of the one-acre licensing cap. Legacy farmers feel like they were used to pass Prop 64 only to get duped at the last minute. The lift led to the current overproduction and consequent market flooding with high-quality marijuana.
What Happens Now?
There is no telling whether things will get better in the future. Farmers who have been in the business for decades may have to leave as they can no longer compete with corporates that do not need any financing from the banks.
Some growers feel the legacy farmers cannot afford to take off time from their farms to learn the commercial aspects of the business, which makes it hard for them to compete with these large corporates. The larger businesses are able to market their product throughout the state, while the small businesses rely on the methods that have worked all along. If they hope to compete, they may have to ditch their old ways, or they will have to fold and go home.
There are concerns of legacy farmers going back to the illicit market that was abolished when the trade and growth of legal weed California. This would be a setback in work that has taken so much effort to bring everyone to the table, but it could be what forces the government to act in favor of small businesses.
Conclusion
Legacy farmers have made it clear they will not go quietly. They have been reporting the extortion they face from licensing bodies and demanding to know what will happen to them. While some threaten to abandon the legal market and go back to their illicit ways, others are fighting to the end, saying if things don’t work, it will not be due to a lack of trying.
Their noise and activism are not in vain. This year alone, activism by Humboldt County Growers Alliance led to the reduction of cultivation tax by up to 85 percent. As they work for more reforms, many mom-and-pop farms are trying to cut their costs as much as possible.