Robert Celt
New Member
Hundreds of marijuana plants from colorfully named strains like Gorilla Glue and Holy Grail and Super Sour in various stages of development are lined up in a former cut flower greenhouse in North Monterey County.
Miles away, toward the coast, hundreds more known by similarly fanciful names spend their days under bright lights in an unassuming warehouse in an industrial complex.
Surrounded by barbed wire-topped fencing or sitting behind opaque windows, with security measures and a low profile, Gold Coast Garden and Ethnobotanica produce medical marijuana for patients all over the Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay areas, two of an estimated 250 or more existing medical marijuana operations in the county – most of them involving cultivation.
While Gold Coast owner and CEO Jeff H. (an assumed name to protect his identity) and Ethnobotanica founder Ryan Booker insist their operations are already legal under state law, specifically the 20-year-old Compassionate Use Act of 1996, they both say they're looking forward to state and local regulations currently under development.
While the state regulations aren't expected to be finished until 2018, Monterey County officials are in the midst of a fast-tracked effort to develop a medical marijuana ordinance governing the industry outside the county's cities. Many of those cities have also addressed the issue in various ways from outright bans to moratoriums to allowing a limited number of operations.
A series of draft county ordinances released earlier this month envisions issuing up to 100 permits for the kind of cultivation operations that Gold Coast and Ethnobotanica are already engaged in – indoor grows in existing greenhouses and warehouses. There is still an open debate about allowing outdoor grows in some areas, but for now indoor cultivation is what the draft county ordinance contemplates.
Attorney Aaron Johnson, who specializes in cannabis law and founded a medical marijuana trade organization called Coastal Growers Association that includes Gold Coast and Ethnobotanica, said local regulations are a boon to the "legitimate" medical marijuana industry because they clarify what to date has been what he admits is a "gray area" around exactly where the businesses should operate.
"We settled the moral issue 20 years ago, and now we need to resolve where (medical cannabis business) goes," Johnson said. "Nobody in the legitimate cannabis business wants (illegal operations), and nobody in the political arena wants that. It's a gray area, and we've been doing the best we can with what we have (in state regulation). It will be a much better market and a safer market by taking this (local regulation) approach."
Gold Coast's Jeff H. and Ethnobotanica's Booker said local regulations will allow them an opportunity to expand their operations, including into new areas of the industry, and gain more legitimacy, which they say is worth the additional risk of county oversight and public scrutiny for a cash-only business involving a high-value crop that is still considered illegal at the federal level. Regulation is also expected to exponentially increase the profit potential in the industry, with big investors increasingly interested in the local market, raising concerns about local proprietors getting edged out.
Gold Coast
Jeff H. became interested in the medical marijuana industry when he saw what an oil containing a cannabis extract called cannabidiol did for his autistic nephew, who went from suffering three to four "rage" episodes per day to one a week, and prompted the son of a farming family once engaged in the devastated cut flower business to look into possibly running his own operation.
Gold Coast's North County operation has been under way for about two years, joining an older operation in neighboring Santa Cruz County.
Jeff H. said he employed many of the same techniques from the cut flower industry – with the exception of pesticide use – for his medical marijuana growing operation, which resides in a leased 20,000-square-foot greenhouse and other buildings in a gated, fenced complex that he says was in bankruptcy just three years ago. The plants are placed in specialized soil and fed by fertilizer blends with industrial fans overhead chasing away mold and emitters delivering recycled water. The plants are tested by Santa Cruz Labs for quality and levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN), all of which have various medical applications. They are marked with colored tabs to identify different strains.
The operation runs on a continuous cycle nearly year-round with harvesting every two weeks, Jeff H. said. After harvest, the marijuana is hung and dried, then run through a trimming machine to separate the buds, which contain most of the active properties, from the chaff in a nearby building. The end product is shipped to dispensaries and extraction operations from Santa Cruz and the Bay Area to Southern California.
According to Jeff H., the facility has been visited by Monterey County supervisors' staff, as well as the San Benito County supervisors and Agricultural Commissioner, an earned praise for the efficiency of his operation.
Ethnobotanica
Booker also started up Ethnobotanica's local operation about two years ago after seven years of operating in Santa Cruz County. His indoor grow facility, which is certified green and offers organic medical marijuana, has been under some county scrutiny after being red-tagged over a dispute about whether the operation was allowed to operate in its location as a continuation of previous agricultural use.
Operating in a variety of spaces in a two-story warehouse, the business produces 29 strains – all tested for quality by Santa Cruz Labs – under 380-watt lights and fans in 16-week cycles from clone cutting to harvest, followed by processing. Most of the marijuana the operation produces is used to supply the Ethnobotanica delivery service, which operates primarily in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, serving 3,500 active members by delivering two-ounce jars, Booker said.
A product of the Cabrillo College horticulture program, Booker said he decided to start a medical marijuana business because it was an "easy crop among many to get involved in," and offered a level of informality and opportunity for creativity that he compared to the high-tech industry.
While Booker acknowledged the industry's future is "really hard to predict," he said he expects it will get a lot more competitive and less casual.
To that end, Booker said he's looking into other opportunities in the industry including dispensary and independent processing and manufacturing operations.
The bottom line benefit, he said, offered by regulation is consistency and legitimacy.
"Customers want to go into a business to buy their product," he said, "and not have to buy from Joe Schmo on the street and not know what they're getting. With us, they know what they're getting."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: CA: A Look At Two Indoor Monterey County Medical Marijuana Grow Operations
Author: Jim Johnson
Contact: Monterey Herald
Photo Credit: Vern Fisher
Website: Monterey Herald
Miles away, toward the coast, hundreds more known by similarly fanciful names spend their days under bright lights in an unassuming warehouse in an industrial complex.
Surrounded by barbed wire-topped fencing or sitting behind opaque windows, with security measures and a low profile, Gold Coast Garden and Ethnobotanica produce medical marijuana for patients all over the Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay areas, two of an estimated 250 or more existing medical marijuana operations in the county – most of them involving cultivation.
While Gold Coast owner and CEO Jeff H. (an assumed name to protect his identity) and Ethnobotanica founder Ryan Booker insist their operations are already legal under state law, specifically the 20-year-old Compassionate Use Act of 1996, they both say they're looking forward to state and local regulations currently under development.
While the state regulations aren't expected to be finished until 2018, Monterey County officials are in the midst of a fast-tracked effort to develop a medical marijuana ordinance governing the industry outside the county's cities. Many of those cities have also addressed the issue in various ways from outright bans to moratoriums to allowing a limited number of operations.
A series of draft county ordinances released earlier this month envisions issuing up to 100 permits for the kind of cultivation operations that Gold Coast and Ethnobotanica are already engaged in – indoor grows in existing greenhouses and warehouses. There is still an open debate about allowing outdoor grows in some areas, but for now indoor cultivation is what the draft county ordinance contemplates.
Attorney Aaron Johnson, who specializes in cannabis law and founded a medical marijuana trade organization called Coastal Growers Association that includes Gold Coast and Ethnobotanica, said local regulations are a boon to the "legitimate" medical marijuana industry because they clarify what to date has been what he admits is a "gray area" around exactly where the businesses should operate.
"We settled the moral issue 20 years ago, and now we need to resolve where (medical cannabis business) goes," Johnson said. "Nobody in the legitimate cannabis business wants (illegal operations), and nobody in the political arena wants that. It's a gray area, and we've been doing the best we can with what we have (in state regulation). It will be a much better market and a safer market by taking this (local regulation) approach."
Gold Coast's Jeff H. and Ethnobotanica's Booker said local regulations will allow them an opportunity to expand their operations, including into new areas of the industry, and gain more legitimacy, which they say is worth the additional risk of county oversight and public scrutiny for a cash-only business involving a high-value crop that is still considered illegal at the federal level. Regulation is also expected to exponentially increase the profit potential in the industry, with big investors increasingly interested in the local market, raising concerns about local proprietors getting edged out.
Gold Coast
Jeff H. became interested in the medical marijuana industry when he saw what an oil containing a cannabis extract called cannabidiol did for his autistic nephew, who went from suffering three to four "rage" episodes per day to one a week, and prompted the son of a farming family once engaged in the devastated cut flower business to look into possibly running his own operation.
Gold Coast's North County operation has been under way for about two years, joining an older operation in neighboring Santa Cruz County.
Jeff H. said he employed many of the same techniques from the cut flower industry – with the exception of pesticide use – for his medical marijuana growing operation, which resides in a leased 20,000-square-foot greenhouse and other buildings in a gated, fenced complex that he says was in bankruptcy just three years ago. The plants are placed in specialized soil and fed by fertilizer blends with industrial fans overhead chasing away mold and emitters delivering recycled water. The plants are tested by Santa Cruz Labs for quality and levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN), all of which have various medical applications. They are marked with colored tabs to identify different strains.
The operation runs on a continuous cycle nearly year-round with harvesting every two weeks, Jeff H. said. After harvest, the marijuana is hung and dried, then run through a trimming machine to separate the buds, which contain most of the active properties, from the chaff in a nearby building. The end product is shipped to dispensaries and extraction operations from Santa Cruz and the Bay Area to Southern California.
According to Jeff H., the facility has been visited by Monterey County supervisors' staff, as well as the San Benito County supervisors and Agricultural Commissioner, an earned praise for the efficiency of his operation.
Ethnobotanica
Booker also started up Ethnobotanica's local operation about two years ago after seven years of operating in Santa Cruz County. His indoor grow facility, which is certified green and offers organic medical marijuana, has been under some county scrutiny after being red-tagged over a dispute about whether the operation was allowed to operate in its location as a continuation of previous agricultural use.
Operating in a variety of spaces in a two-story warehouse, the business produces 29 strains – all tested for quality by Santa Cruz Labs – under 380-watt lights and fans in 16-week cycles from clone cutting to harvest, followed by processing. Most of the marijuana the operation produces is used to supply the Ethnobotanica delivery service, which operates primarily in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, serving 3,500 active members by delivering two-ounce jars, Booker said.
A product of the Cabrillo College horticulture program, Booker said he decided to start a medical marijuana business because it was an "easy crop among many to get involved in," and offered a level of informality and opportunity for creativity that he compared to the high-tech industry.
While Booker acknowledged the industry's future is "really hard to predict," he said he expects it will get a lot more competitive and less casual.
To that end, Booker said he's looking into other opportunities in the industry including dispensary and independent processing and manufacturing operations.
The bottom line benefit, he said, offered by regulation is consistency and legitimacy.
"Customers want to go into a business to buy their product," he said, "and not have to buy from Joe Schmo on the street and not know what they're getting. With us, they know what they're getting."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: CA: A Look At Two Indoor Monterey County Medical Marijuana Grow Operations
Author: Jim Johnson
Contact: Monterey Herald
Photo Credit: Vern Fisher
Website: Monterey Herald