Sean Parker, known for co-founding Napster and presiding over Facebook, announced that he would lend considerable financial backing — a rarity in the crowded field of legalization initiatives — to the so-called Adult Use of Marijuana Act. “The measure would allow adults 21 and over to buy and possess up to an ounce of marijuana at a time, as well as marijuana-infused products, at licensed retail outlets,” the Associated Press reported. “They also would be allowed to grow up to six pot plants simultaneously for personal recreational use.”

Under the Act, the California Department of Consumer Affairs would regulate medial and recreational pot, added the wire service, with state and local sales taxes applied to the latter. “Pot cultivation would be taxed as well, at a rate of $9.25 for every ounce of dried buds and $2.75 an ounce for leaves. The initiative stipulates that all tax proceeds would go into a fund dedicated to marijuana oversight, including reports by the state auditor and by a public university on the implementation and effect of legalization.”

In a statement, Parker praised the diversity of pro-pot advocates in order to push them toward lining up behind the Act. “It’s very encouraging to see a vibrant community of activists … coming together around a sensible reform-based measure that protects children, gives law enforcement additional resources and establishes a strong regulatory framework for responsible adult use of marijuana — one that will yield economic benefits for all Californians,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Playing kingmaker

Rumors swirled late last month that Parker would jump into the Golden States’ weedstakes, with high-profile politicians holding off on choosing an initiative to support until he did. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has already begun rolling out policies under the aegis of his early campaign for the 2018 governor’s race, gave his stamp of approval to the Act in a statement of his own.

“I am pleased that this thoughtful measure is aligned with the Blue Ribbon Commission’s recommendations, and presents California its best opportunity to improve the status quo by making marijuana difficult for kids to access,” he said, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. “It is backed by the broadest coalition of supporters to date and I believe that Californians will rally behind this consensus measure, which also serves to strengthen law enforcement, respect local preferences, protect public health and public safety, and restore the environment.”

Thinning the herd

Newsom and Parker’s political relationship could make the difference in the tight competition among the 18 different groups filing legalization initiatives. “Newsom is close to Parker (he attended Parker’s high-profile wedding) and has gotten to know many of the other key players in the state’s cannabis movement during his time chairing the commission,” the Chronicle added. “He is seen as someone who can bring together the often-fractious cannabis community behind a single ballot measure.”

But Parker’s preferred initiative has so far failed to unite the pro-pot constituency and clear the field of competing choices. “If the initiative filed today by proponents associated with Sean Parker were the only cannabis reform initiative on the ballot, I would vote for it,” said Steve DeAngelo, Executive Director of Harborside Health Centers, in an emailed press release. “However, I think California can do better — and the language also filed today by longtime activist and cannabis attorney George Mull is closer to the mark.”

“It is much shorter and easily understood, firmly closes the door to Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol, and mandates more appropriate penalties for cannabis infractions. I continue to believe our best strategy for victory in November is bringing the entire cannabis community together behind one initiative, and call on all initiative proponents to work towards that goal.”

Legal, illegal and quasi-legal pot farms all faced an extraordinary risk from the blazes. And those which were wiped out were not expected to return. In a report, the International Business Times noted, “because their crops are still illegal federally, these farmers can’t take advantage of wildfire safety net programs offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to other farmers and ranchers, and very few of these growers likely had marijuana insurance policies that have only recently been developed.”

That augured a sea change in the way marijuana is cultivated and sold in California, whose voters are expected to give strong consideration to legalizing recreational use of the product on the 2016 ballot.

Crops and consequences

Timothy Anderson, purchasing manager at Harborside Health Center, captured the problem in a series of interviews with local and national media. This August, he told NBC Bay Area that “about a quarter” of Harborside’s pot “comes from growers near Clear Lake, and the smoke from the fire is damaging another growers’ crops. He expects the drop in supply will raise prices around the Bay Area, for dispensaries who buy from outdoor grows.”

The risks posed to marijuana farmers by fire exceed those of other crops. “Unlike an apple or tomato, you can’t wash a cannabis plant off. The sticky resin is going to grab onto any environmental grit or grime from the air,” Anderson told NBC.

This month, amid the aftermath, he told the IB Times that the fires and the upcoming vote would likely combine to remake the market, to the advantage of larger corporate interests that traditional medical marijuana growers and supporters often fear will squeeze them out of business anyway. “Someone whose farm burns down or loses his crop and he doesn’t come back for a year, by that point our business relationship could have changed,” he told the paper. “Any time someone steps out of the market, you find someone else to replace him with.”

With statewide regulations in place, the IB Times observed, “now is not a good time for established cannabis growers to lose their foothold in the developing industry. ‘If you don’t have a crop in these crucial years,'” asked Anderson, “‘where are you a year or two down the road when the whole market is ready to shift?'”

Community costs

The loss of marijuana farms promised to worsen the fires’ adverse impact on the struggling rural counties it hurt most. “In Amador and Calaveras counties, the Butte fire has destroyed 475 homes, killed two people and burned through nearly 71,000 acres,” the Los Angeles Times reported. With the lucrative marijuana business largely shut down, and growers poised at best to restart their farms elsewhere, the economic impact could be pronounced.

In an effort to blunt the impact on medical marijuana smokers, who were doubly hit by the fires, two companies have offered not to charge for their products. “Care By Design and AbsoluteXtracts,” the Times noted, “are offering free products at five dispensaries in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Lake County.”

“Patients eligible for the free products must have a prescription and home addresses in Cobb, Kelseyville, Middletown or Hidden Valley Lake — among the hardest hit communities over the last three weeks, where the Valley fire has ripped through 118 square miles, destroyed nearly 2,000 homes and claimed four lives.”

In the meanwhile, the shift away from traditional rural marijuana farming could exacerbate a worrisome trend closer to urban centers: large-scale residential grow houses. Rialto firefighters recently discovered that a renter was stealing electricity to help raise some 200 plants in a home he didn’t occupy, bypassing the meter to avoid detection, according to NBC Los Angeles.