A January raid on a “model” politically connected farm in Santa Barbara County, Calif. raises questions about the blurry line between California’s legal and illegal industries.
Los Angeles Times
- Raids on four parcels of land owned by the same person turned up “off-book marijuana sales associated with the farm,” a small volatile extrication lab, about 20 pounds of illegally stored cannabis and “1,000 pounds of cannabis crude,” worth up to $1.6M on the California legal market and much more out of state.
- Last year the Orange County Register looked at businesses involved in both markets. They called it the industry’s “most widely known yet difficult-to-prove secret.”
- A column in MJBiz looks at how lack of unity among operators and the ongoing temptations of illegal market business, hold the state industry back.
- An L.A. Times op-ed called for keeping Big Ag out of cannabis.
Meanwhile in Napa: Tensions between weed and wine businesses are heating up.
Politico
- The California Department of Food and Agriculture proposed regulations for cannabis “appelations” akin to France’s system for recognizing wine’s region of origin.
