As California political winds shift, separating counties by cannabis, one that enticed marijuana farms bans them

Calaveras County (Wikipedia map)

Marijuana farmers in Calaveras County, California, say they feel betrayed after county supervisors enticed them to do business there but banned them when political winds shifted.

The county of 45,000 was devastated after the 2015 Butte wildfire caused millions of dollars in damage. After medical marijuana was legalized in 2016, supervisors saw marijuana farming as a way to bring in revenue and lured pot farmers in with friendly laws and cheap land. The gambit paid off: the county earned nearly $10 million from a cultivation tax, and $3.7 million in registration fees in less than two years. But soon after, anti-marijuana supervisors were elected, and the board voted 3-2 in January to order growers to cease operations by June.

"The county’s stance has some growers feeling betrayed. Cultivators say they started businesses here with good intentions and want to provide tax revenue to the government. Now, they feel officials have stabbed them in the back — after taking their money," Sarah Parvini reports for the Los Angeles Times. "The debate here reflects a different side of the mania that has swept the state since the sale of recreational marijuana rolled out in January. As some places move to position themselves as pot havens, more conservative counties have decided they want nothing to do with cannabis — either selling it or growing it."

Residents offered different reasons for supporting the ban. Some say they dislike recreational drugs and think funds earned from marijuana farming are "dirty money." Others say they fear gang violence and worry that open cultivation will encourage more illegal operations. One woman said gang members grew marijuana illegally on an nearby property and were storing guns and other illegal drugs there. The sheriff says there are about 1,000 illegal pot farms in the county, and doesn't have the money to keep track of them all. Dennis Mills, an anti-pot county supervisor, says he worries that the pesticides used on cannabis fields could contaminate the Mokelumne River and argues that the ordinance allowing the farms was always meant to be temporary.

But marijuana farmers argue that the money the county earns from them could pay for resources to help protect the environment and beef up law enforcement, while not allowing any legal farms at all opens the door to more illegal sites, more gangs, and less revenue for the county and local businesses. Pot farmer Prapanna Smith told Parvini that illegal growers won't buy equipment and supplies at local stores: "The underground guys are going to buy elsewhere and bring it in. . . They're not going to the Ace Hardware." Marijuana growers and their supporters are trying to push out the anti-pot supervisors, and some plan to file suit.