California marijuana farmers don't want to go legal

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California is facing a major stumbling block in the effort to regulate marijuana farming: The farmers don't want to grow it legally. "More than nine months after California voted to legalize recreational marijuana, only a small share of the tens of thousands of cannabis farmers in Northern California have joined the system, according to law enforcement officers and cannabis growers," Thomas Fuller reports for The New York Times. Only about 3,500 of the 32,000 pot farmers have applied for permits in the Emerald Triangle, the nation's largest marijuana-producing region.

The legal cannabis industry has attracted investors and growers from around the world, so more legal growers may enter the system in the future, but why don't more local growers want to go legal? Because they make huge profits exporting it illegally to other states where marijuana is still illegal, Fuller reports, noting that California is estimated to produce about seven times more marijuana than it consumes. Also, Hezekiah Allen, the executive director the California Growers Association, told Fuller that most put growers are reluctant to apply for permits because of the extensive paperwork, fees, and taxes required.

Illegal growers mostly don't seem worried about the legal repercussions of getting caught. "Critics said the framers of the law might have also miscalculated because many growers say there is little upside from getting a permit. If they stay out of the system, they face lighter punishments and avoid paying taxes, fees and the cost of meeting environmental standards," Fuller reports. Thomas Allman, the sheriff of Mendocino County, told Fuller "You could have 1,000 pounds in your hotel room right now and you might be charged with just a misdemeanor."

More serious crime associated with illegal marijuana operations is still a problem. Mendocino District Attorney David Eyster told Fuller that pot-smoking urbanites "don’t realize that out in the rural areas where the marijuana is being grown, there are people being robbed, kidnapped and in some cases murdered." Illegal operations can also damage the environment. In an effort to stay hidden, growers hide operations in public forests. They can erode hillside soil, siphon water from creeks, and introduce pesticides into the water. Growers also often leave trash.