See, it used to be law enforcement that threatened people growing marijuana (BTW, it still does, if they aren’t growing it at a licensed facility/farm, or if Los Federales get wind, because it is still illegal under federal law). Remember the fun days of Cheech and Chong movies? Now, it’s under threat because you drove a fossil fueled vehicle to work instead of biking
The Biggest Threat to Growing Marijuana in California Used to Be the Law. Now, it’s Climate Change
climate change joke
Valerie Leveroni Corral spent days after lightning set the Santa Cruz Mountains on fire not knowing if a cannabis crop her organization grows for the sick and dying had survived.
The one-acre crop sits on the site of a former Boy Scout campgrounds, off a rutted road so deep in the woods of unincorporated south Santa Cruz County that only fire could find it without a guide. In fact, the CZU Lightning Complex fire came close but skipped the woods, a lucky fluke. (snip)
In 1993, Corral was a co-founder, with her then husband, Mike Corral, of the nation’s first medicinal cannabis collective, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM). They grew marijuana organically in their backyard as medicine for WAMM members, people of all ages and walks of life who had incurable conditions and terminal illnesses.
Members received cannabis for free or in trade for working the garden. (Most donated their time, care and money). When federal Drug Enforcement Agency officials raided the farm and arrested the Corrals in 2002, an army of sick people rallied to defend them. So did Santa Cruz officials. They sued the DEA and the Department of Justice for raiding a respected community organization sanctioned by California’s 1996 landmark law legalizing medical marijuana, Proposition 215, which Valerie Corral helped draft. A Federal judge ordered the DEA to let WAMM be. (snip)
California’s law legalizing recreational marijuana, Proposition 64, which went into effect in January 2018, did what the DEA could not: It dismantled the collective. When its landlord’s mortgage holder, Wells Fargo, refused to allow it to obtain a state license, WAMM lost its headquarters, where it had held weekly meetings and dispensed cannabis to members for 17 years. Corral said the bank didn’t want a cannabis business there because the drug remains illegal under Federal law.
The collective’s cannabis is now cultivated in collaboration with professional growers in two plots, 40 minutes away from each other, because the law restricts where cannabis can be grown and made available, and affordable land that meets the regulations is scarce. The collective rented an office in midtown Santa Cruz months ago, but it is still months away from opening, because it has not yet obtained all the necessary legal paperwork under the new law to be able to dispense cannabis products to its members.
We now understand the law, right? Well, actually, there is a lot more information on it, including
Legalizing marijuana has not only stalled medicinal cannabis growers like Corral, whose collective includes cancer patients, it has also driven new and veteran growers underground, a trend with serious environmental repercussions.
Some have turned to indoor pot grows, operations that require enormous amounts of electricity for light fixtures, dehumifiders, heating and ventilation. Researchers estimate that indoor grow operations use about eight times the amount of energy per square-foot as do average commercial buildings. Other growers have gone deeper into forested areas than ever, cutting down trees to create plots that pose risks to humans and ecosystems.
And, that is mostly it for ‘climate change”. They blame the fires, most of which were set by humans, unintentionally and intentionally, and now California’s laws are causing it by driving growers to use more energy. It just goes to show, Climate Cultists have to drag their cult into everything, including a story on how California’s marijuana legalization laws actually cause problems for old school growers and real environmental issues.
By some estimates, at least 80 percent of the marijuana grown and sold in California is sold on the black market. In 2019, California sold $3.1 billion in legal cannabis, making it the largest market for legal cannabis in the world. It also sold an estimated $8.7 billion in unlicensed pot. Taxes from legal mariuana sales were supposed to stuff the state coffers with $1 billion a year. They have averaged less than half that amount.
Wait, you mean even the uber-liberals in California don’t want to deal with the burdensome regulations and pay their fair share of taxes? Huh.
