California Wildfires Scorch Marijuana Crops
California Wildfires Scorch Marijuana Crops
(18 Oct 2017) The same fires that destroyed Northern California wineries and threatened to taint grapes still on the vine also took a toll on the region’s marijuana farms, which were about to begin an important harvest less than three months before the nation’s largest recreational pot market opens for business in January.
Marcos Morales and the workers who made it around the roadblocks Sunday continued to cut down smoke-damaged plants, which will he said will be worth far less than the top dollar he had hoped to get for premium bud.
His operation in Glenn Ellen and other pot farms nearby were still in a fire zone that was off limits to all but emergency personnel a week after flames tore through the area.
At least 34 marijuana farms were destroyed and many more damaged, according to the pot industry’s California Growers Association. That number is expected to rise significantly once evacuation orders are lifted and farmers are allowed back to their property.
Unlike neighboring wineries, marijuana farmers do not have crop insurance because the plant is still listed as an illegal drug under federal law, which keeps financial institutions out of the industry.
The estimated losses do not count indoor grows, backyard greenhouses and converted garages lost to the fire in hard-hit Santa Rosa, the center of Sonoma County’s blossoming marijuana industry.
The industry figure also does not account for illegal growers who want no part of legalization and operate as far undercover as possible even in a region where toking up on the sidewalk is as socially acceptable as popping a bottle of red in a park.
At Morales’ Legion of Bloom farm, a drying barn with 1,600 pounds of ready-for-market bud was destroyed, and smoke damaged 2,500 plants still in the ground, he said.
Many of the farmers who suffered the greatest losses were working to obtain licenses to grow recreational pot once state regulators starting issuing permits on Jan. 1.
Farmers with local permits to grow medical marijuana are expected to receive the first licenses. But those damaged by fire are now concerned they may lose out if they don’t get back up and running quickly. Many of them have already paid fees and lawyers in their efforts to go legitimate.
Overall, the damage is expected to have little impact on the state’s marijuana economy because thousands of growers were unaffected by the fires, especially in the so-called Emerald Triangle of Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino counties.
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Marco 😍😍
It’s just too coincidental that there are suddenly CA and Australia bushfires at the same time that cannabis is legalized. Is Big Pharma behind them to destroy the competition?