Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
Redway, Humboldt County - In the forested hills near Salmon Creek, a lush hideaway long identified with cannabis culture, Robert LeClair has a new dream.
A black-market pot farmer for two decades, LeClair, known as "Frenchy," is finally going legit. The passage last week of Proposition 64, the statewide measure allowing recreational use of marijuana, forced him to reluctantly come out of the shadows, and now he plans to use his gift for gab to promote his ganja.
"I've been growing mostly indoors in the area for 24 years because doing it outdoors was a jail cell, but I'm switching because the more knowledgeable consumers go for outdoors," said LeClair, 64, as he strolled along a dew-moistened hillside pocked with the harvested stumps of his potent brand, Humboldt Blue Diesel. "I've been an outlaw long enough."
The legalization of weed has catapulted thousands of growers in Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino counties - the Emerald Triangle - into the frenzied forefront of a new retail industry that experts say will usher in an economic boom across the state, but also will bring fundamental changes and market forces that could lift some in the pot world while burying others.
Despite serious concerns, voters in all three counties in the famed growing region supported Prop. 64, with Humboldt leading the way at 59 percent. That was a reversal from the three counties' pivotal rejection of California's last bid to legalize recreational marijuana in 2010.
Nonetheless, there is little doubt among cannabis connoisseurs that many small farmers are going to suffer as the state prepares to license pot businesses and levy a 15 percent excise tax on sales starting Jan. 1, 2018. Marijuana prices have already plummeted from about $3,200 a pound a decade ago to between $1,200 and $1,600 today, making it harder for mom-and-pop gardeners to turn a profit.
The prices are expected to drop even further once a regulatory framework is established and the loosey-goosey bud trade of the past two decades is no longer kosher. Crops in forests or other places not zoned for agriculture will be restricted, while standards for growing, labeling and using water will be implemented.
New infrastructure, inspections and track-and-trace systems for plants are expected to cost growers thousands a year. That doesn't include the cost of lawyers, accountants, security and marketing. The measure will also tax growers $9.25 for every ounce of bud they produce.
"All the permits and fees and the taxes are going to make it very difficult to survive on a small farm," said Nikki Lastreto, who with her husband Swami Chaitanya grows their signature brand Swami Select on a remote farm near Laytonville (Mendocino County). "To be a small grower will be equal to being a vintner in Napa. It will be a rich man's sport."
People in the region expect venture capitalists, who can afford the costs and hassle of ramping up for legalization, to eventually drive out many of the small farmers who helped rev the North Coast's economic engine after the big timber companies left. High rollers are already snapping up ranches, logging tracts and forested parcels in the region.
It's no mystery why those who produce the psychoactive plant were so divided over Prop. 64. The 646 members of the California Growers Association were evenly split.
"A lot of people are going to get shut out," said Justin Crellin, the general manager of the Mateel Community Center in Redway, where the annual Humboldt Hemp Fest was held over the weekend. "I think the fear is that if the average person doesn't have a place in the cannabis economy, the community itself is going to take a hit."
Most growers said they ultimately voted for the ballot measure because the so-called "green wave" appeared to be unstoppable and it was time to put a halt to marijuana raids and arrests.
"I feel sorry for the small farmers, but for the patients it is going to be an incredible boon," said Tim Blake, the owner of Healing Harvest Farms in Laytonville and the organizer of the Emerald Cup cannabis flower competition. "If you look at the big picture, it's like a wave, a new culture moving in, and there's no turning back. We weren't going to let all that business go to Colorado, Oregon and Washington."
Prop. 64 is prompting entrepreneurs to plan grow operations in many places, including the Central Valley. That could threaten longtime farmers in the Emerald Triangle, but LeClair and others see a solution: high-end, hand-cured bud grown in the sun the "California way."
"The only way I can compete is with a boutique brand," said LeClair, who this year grew 100 plants on two properties, which he calls Salmon Creek Farms. "Not everyone is going for it, but to me it was a no-brainer. It makes your property values go up. Salmon Creek here is going to be like an appellation."
Others envision opening "bud and breakfast" inns, restaurants and other cannabis-related businesses in the Emerald Triangle, which by some estimates currently produces 60 percent of the weed consumed in the United States - including a significant portion of what has been sold for 20 years to California's medical marijuana dispensaries.
The pot industry now infuses more than $400 million a year into the Humboldt County economy, according to county officials and pot industry analysts. The hope is that the county thrives by adapting.
"I think there would have to be some cannabis tourism, especially when you consider this region being the epicenter of all things cannabis," said Josh Meisel, the co-director of the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research at Humboldt State University.
The numbers, however, suggest that legalization will render quite a few losers.
At least 370 Humboldt growers will have applied for permits to cultivate weed before the year is out, said Steve Lazar, the county's senior planner. That's out of roughly 8,400 pot farmers. In the end, thousands of growers will either remain in the black market or be out of luck, industry experts said.
Hezekiah Allen, the executive director of the California Growers Association, said the fight to maintain middle-class jobs and family businesses is as important as ever after the presidential election.
"California is very unique, especially the North Coast, because there are still rural progressives, and that's because there is still a thriving family farming economy," he said. "I think the Emerald Triangle is going to lead the way protecting small farming in the same way California is going to lead nationally."
One of these rural progressives is the white-robed Swami Chaitanya. The image of his bearded-guru face decorates the signature violet glass jars holding the cannabis flower he grows on his farm.
"We refer to ourselves as the Hogwarts wizard community and everyone else are Muggles because we've had this secret society," Swami said. "Some people say, 'Oh, legal cannabis, what's the fun in that?' Well, nobody has a crystal ball. We'll just have to see what happens."
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Small Growers In Emerald Triangle Adjusting To Legal Pot
Author: Peter Fimrite
Contact: San Francisco Chronicle
Photo Credit: Gabrille Lurie
Website: San Francisco Chronicle
A black-market pot farmer for two decades, LeClair, known as "Frenchy," is finally going legit. The passage last week of Proposition 64, the statewide measure allowing recreational use of marijuana, forced him to reluctantly come out of the shadows, and now he plans to use his gift for gab to promote his ganja.
"I've been growing mostly indoors in the area for 24 years because doing it outdoors was a jail cell, but I'm switching because the more knowledgeable consumers go for outdoors," said LeClair, 64, as he strolled along a dew-moistened hillside pocked with the harvested stumps of his potent brand, Humboldt Blue Diesel. "I've been an outlaw long enough."
The legalization of weed has catapulted thousands of growers in Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino counties - the Emerald Triangle - into the frenzied forefront of a new retail industry that experts say will usher in an economic boom across the state, but also will bring fundamental changes and market forces that could lift some in the pot world while burying others.
Despite serious concerns, voters in all three counties in the famed growing region supported Prop. 64, with Humboldt leading the way at 59 percent. That was a reversal from the three counties' pivotal rejection of California's last bid to legalize recreational marijuana in 2010.
Nonetheless, there is little doubt among cannabis connoisseurs that many small farmers are going to suffer as the state prepares to license pot businesses and levy a 15 percent excise tax on sales starting Jan. 1, 2018. Marijuana prices have already plummeted from about $3,200 a pound a decade ago to between $1,200 and $1,600 today, making it harder for mom-and-pop gardeners to turn a profit.
The prices are expected to drop even further once a regulatory framework is established and the loosey-goosey bud trade of the past two decades is no longer kosher. Crops in forests or other places not zoned for agriculture will be restricted, while standards for growing, labeling and using water will be implemented.
New infrastructure, inspections and track-and-trace systems for plants are expected to cost growers thousands a year. That doesn't include the cost of lawyers, accountants, security and marketing. The measure will also tax growers $9.25 for every ounce of bud they produce.
"All the permits and fees and the taxes are going to make it very difficult to survive on a small farm," said Nikki Lastreto, who with her husband Swami Chaitanya grows their signature brand Swami Select on a remote farm near Laytonville (Mendocino County). "To be a small grower will be equal to being a vintner in Napa. It will be a rich man's sport."
People in the region expect venture capitalists, who can afford the costs and hassle of ramping up for legalization, to eventually drive out many of the small farmers who helped rev the North Coast's economic engine after the big timber companies left. High rollers are already snapping up ranches, logging tracts and forested parcels in the region.
It's no mystery why those who produce the psychoactive plant were so divided over Prop. 64. The 646 members of the California Growers Association were evenly split.
"A lot of people are going to get shut out," said Justin Crellin, the general manager of the Mateel Community Center in Redway, where the annual Humboldt Hemp Fest was held over the weekend. "I think the fear is that if the average person doesn't have a place in the cannabis economy, the community itself is going to take a hit."
Most growers said they ultimately voted for the ballot measure because the so-called "green wave" appeared to be unstoppable and it was time to put a halt to marijuana raids and arrests.
"I feel sorry for the small farmers, but for the patients it is going to be an incredible boon," said Tim Blake, the owner of Healing Harvest Farms in Laytonville and the organizer of the Emerald Cup cannabis flower competition. "If you look at the big picture, it's like a wave, a new culture moving in, and there's no turning back. We weren't going to let all that business go to Colorado, Oregon and Washington."
Prop. 64 is prompting entrepreneurs to plan grow operations in many places, including the Central Valley. That could threaten longtime farmers in the Emerald Triangle, but LeClair and others see a solution: high-end, hand-cured bud grown in the sun the "California way."
"The only way I can compete is with a boutique brand," said LeClair, who this year grew 100 plants on two properties, which he calls Salmon Creek Farms. "Not everyone is going for it, but to me it was a no-brainer. It makes your property values go up. Salmon Creek here is going to be like an appellation."
Others envision opening "bud and breakfast" inns, restaurants and other cannabis-related businesses in the Emerald Triangle, which by some estimates currently produces 60 percent of the weed consumed in the United States - including a significant portion of what has been sold for 20 years to California's medical marijuana dispensaries.
The pot industry now infuses more than $400 million a year into the Humboldt County economy, according to county officials and pot industry analysts. The hope is that the county thrives by adapting.
"I think there would have to be some cannabis tourism, especially when you consider this region being the epicenter of all things cannabis," said Josh Meisel, the co-director of the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research at Humboldt State University.
The numbers, however, suggest that legalization will render quite a few losers.
At least 370 Humboldt growers will have applied for permits to cultivate weed before the year is out, said Steve Lazar, the county's senior planner. That's out of roughly 8,400 pot farmers. In the end, thousands of growers will either remain in the black market or be out of luck, industry experts said.
Hezekiah Allen, the executive director of the California Growers Association, said the fight to maintain middle-class jobs and family businesses is as important as ever after the presidential election.
"California is very unique, especially the North Coast, because there are still rural progressives, and that's because there is still a thriving family farming economy," he said. "I think the Emerald Triangle is going to lead the way protecting small farming in the same way California is going to lead nationally."
One of these rural progressives is the white-robed Swami Chaitanya. The image of his bearded-guru face decorates the signature violet glass jars holding the cannabis flower he grows on his farm.
"We refer to ourselves as the Hogwarts wizard community and everyone else are Muggles because we've had this secret society," Swami said. "Some people say, 'Oh, legal cannabis, what's the fun in that?' Well, nobody has a crystal ball. We'll just have to see what happens."
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Small Growers In Emerald Triangle Adjusting To Legal Pot
Author: Peter Fimrite
Contact: San Francisco Chronicle
Photo Credit: Gabrille Lurie
Website: San Francisco Chronicle