UC’s Napolitano fights for free speech on campuses

Good morning! No doubt we’re all just killing time until the vice presidential debate tonight, so we’ll do our part, starting with a story about the First Amendment. 

With a single op-ed, UC chief Janet Napolitano has become an unlikely ally of conservative and traditionalist critics of the speech-policing movement among campus crusaders nationwide. 

In a Boston Globe op-ed entitled “It’s time to free speech on campus again,” Napolitano unburdened herself of judgments she appeared to have been forming over the past several years in the hot seat of one of the country’s most progressive university systems.

“As president of the University of California system, I write to show how far we have moved from freedom of speech on campuses to freedom from speech,” she wrote. “If it hurts, if it’s controversial, if it articulates an extreme point of view, then speech has become the new bête noire of the academy. Speakers are disinvited, faculty are vilified, and administrators like me are constantly asked to intervene.”

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• “While some legislators may find humor in (passing resolutions), taxpayer groups and other critics say they are no laughing matter. They argue that they have become excessive and costly, and that there is little public benefit from them,” writes the San Francisco Chronicle.

• “The push to legalize pot for all has deeply divided the medical marijuana community,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

• “Blocked by lawmakers at the 11^th hour and facing a fiscal emergency, the State Bar of California has gone directly to the state Supreme Court seeking authority to levy dues on thousands of attorneys. The Bar, which filed the request Friday, said it would go out of business early next year without the money generated by the dues. The Bar has about 500 employees and an annual budget of $146 million.” Capitol Weekly has the story.

• ICYMI: CalWatchdog highlights some of the most significant legislation from the most-recent legislative session. 

Legislature:

• Gone ’til December. Although the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture will meet today in Bodega Bay to talk crabs.

Gov. Brown: 

• No public events announced.

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

Follow us: @calwatchdog @mflemingterp

New followers: @change4solar

This November, California voters will vote on

But advocates of legal recreational marijuana use in the Golden State and everywhere in the United States got a sharp reminder last week that the federal government reserves the right to have the final say on whether legal pot is OK at the state level. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration brushed aside years of lobbying and ruled that marijuana would remain illegal — still considered a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act and formally classified as having no medical use.

Though the federal government continues to pursue charges against some individuals and some high-profile dispensaries — such as Oakland’s Harborside Medical Center — the Obama administration has said it will not attempt to overturn state marijuana laws. But any future administration could take punitive actions against states with laws allowing recreational or medicinal use, suing in federal court, withholding federal grants or more.

However, a new federal court ruling offers some reassurance that no federal authority can pull the plug on state-approved medicinal pot use, at least.

In a case involving 10 pending prosecutions in California and Washington state, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling Tuesday that said the U.S. Justice Department cannot target marijuana growers, suppliers or users in cases where the drug is being used for medical purposes.

Reagan appointee knocks Justice Department argument

The decision — written by a conservative Reagan appointee, Diarmuid O’Scannlain — cited language included by Congress in budget resolutions that bans federal interference with state medicinal marijuana laws. The language was first inserted into budget measures in 2014. So long as Congress continues to renew the ban on federal action — which has bipartisan support — medical users are protected.

The Obama administration had argued that using federal laws to target medical marijuana users or suppliers wasn’t an intrusion on state law. O’Scannlain disagreed: “If the federal government prosecutes such individuals, it has prevented the state from giving practical effect to its law.”

A U.S. Justice Department official said no decision had been made yet on whether to appeal the ruling, which mirrored the finding in a previous case decided last year by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco.

California became the first state to legalize medicinal use of marijuana with Proposition 215 in 1996.

After a failed attempt last year, so-called asset forfeiture — the controversial nationwide practice used by cops to permanently seize property belonging to individuals who have run afoul of the law but have not been convicted — could soon be reformed in California after all, with a once-dead bill making a sudden return.

Laws and loopholes

Senate Bill 443, a popular piece of legislation that went down to defeat once before, “aims to close a federal loophole that allows state and local law enforcement officials to pocket the proceeds and assets seized from a defendant — even if that person is only suspected of a crime,” BuzzFeed News reported. “If passed, the bill would require that a defendant be convicted first before cash and property can be permanently seized.”

“In 2015, despite a near 80 percent approval rating according to some polls, the bill lost 24-41 when it came up for a vote on the Assembly floor. However, California’s legislative process allowed for it to be placed in the inactive file[.]”

The defeat underscored the paradoxes surrounding the practice of asset forfeiture in the Golden State. “California law prohibits local authorities from permanently seizing most property without a conviction, but there’s a loophole in the law — called ‘equitable sharing.’ Local police can seize your property, hand jurisdiction over the feds, and get rewarded with up to 80 percent of the goodies even if prosecutors fail to convict — or even charge — an offender,” Debra Saunders recalled at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Until very recently, following the SB443 setback, in-state civil liberties activists and advocates have struggled to get the traction they hoped for. “California has been a challenge,” as Reason noted. “Not only do state regulations allow law enforcement agencies to seize and keep money and property without actually convicting people; in addition, restrictions the state has put on police (like restricting how much they can keep for themselves) can be bypassed by participating in the federal asset forfeiture program. As California cities dealt with drops in revenue during the recession over the past decade, that’s exactly what governments did — participation in the federal program skyrocketed.”

Successful negotiation

But in May, state Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, reactivated SB443, amending it for a vote. Faced with an end-of-summer deadline to put the legislation before her colleagues, Mitchell managed this month to strike a deal with key law enforcement groups, clearing a huge hurdle toward passage.

“Under changes to Mitchell’s bill introduced Thursday, any property seizure in California worth less than $40,000 would now require a criminal conviction before police could take permanent action,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “Seizures higher than that amount would still allow for a lower burden of proof, such as the standard used in civil cases. The $40,000 threshold is an attempt to balance advocates’ desire that those in poverty don’t lose their property unless they’re convicted of wrongdoing and law enforcement’s interest in preserving its ability to go after large criminal enterprises, Mitchell said.”

A stubborn practice

Despite the deal, however, high-profile asset forfeiture cases have cropped up in California throughout the summer. James Slatic, owner of licensed medical cannabis extraction company Med-West Distributors, was raided for the second time this June by a narcotics task force. In January, officers seized “more than 30,000 cartridges of cannabis oil and a couple of pounds of concentrate,” along with “$1.4 million in cash, product and money from various bank accounts” belonging to Slatic, according to Inc. magazine. And in June, “San Diego law enforcement used federal asset forfeiture laws to freeze and seize the company’s cash and the money in Slatic’s personal bank account, the bank account of his wife (who is a federal employee at Veterans Affairs), and his kids’ college savings accounts. The San Diego Sheriff’s Office and San Diego County District Attorney’s Office declined to explain why they seized Med-West’s and the Slatic family’s money, but neither has charged Slatic with a crime.”

In another notable — if less sympathetic — case this month, a judge ruled that the U.S. government “can seize money from life insurance policies taken out by a shooter in the San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack,” the Associated Press reported.

Trump, eggs and the CAGOP convention

Good morning and welcome to May.

California Republicans greeted all three remaining GOP presidential candidates over the weekend, a big deal for partisans in a state that rarely matters in the primary process. 

The main event, or at least the one with protests, was Donald Trump’s speech Friday. Compared to a situation where protestors were throwing eggs at police, busting through barricades and rerouting a candidate’s entrance through a hole in the fence along the 101, the appearances of Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich were quite tame.

Cruz’s VP pick — unsuccessful presidential and Senate candidate Carly Fiorina — also spoke. Like Kasich and Cruz, no one hurled eggs in her name either. 

California Republicans also changed the party’s rules to allow for up to two more terms for their popular chairman, Jim Brulte. CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• A new poll suggests that more than one-third of Bay Area residents are ready to leave within the next few years due to traffic and housing costs. The San Jose Mercury News has more. 
• Cruz has traveled the country criticizing the Obama economy. But at the CAGOP convention this weekend, he had to change his tune slightly in a state where the economy has improved during the Democratic administration of Gov. Jerry Brown, reports the Los Angeles Times.
• “The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation is touting a new study that suggests people who see condoms in adult video are more likely to use them in their own sex lives,” reports LA Weekly.
• California voters may have to decide in November on whether to legalize recreational marijuana. But the $2.7 billion medical marijuana industry still lacks comprehensive oversight, reports The Orange County Register. 

Assembly:

• In at 1 p.m. 

Senate:

• In at 2 p.m.
• Packed Appropriations Committee agenda. 

Gov. Brown:

• At 10:30 a.m. on the west steps of the Capitol building, Brown will attend the California Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony. 
• At 1:30 p.m., Brown will attend a Wildfire Awareness Week event in McClellan.

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

Follow us: @calwatchdog @mflemingterp

New followers: @CASenatorJim @robviglione

With legal recreational marijuana potentially around the corner in November, California’s public and private sector has scrambled to keep up. In both cases, observers have suggested, the likely result will be increased centralization of what was once a scattered, underground industry.

Although the legislature in Sacramento has labored to stay on top of California’s shifting cultural and legal sands when it comes to marijuana, even at the highest levels, growing pains have been apparent.

Lori Ajax, chief of the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation, “has two years to set up California’s first system to license, regulate and tax medical marijuana,” as the Los Angeles Times observed; but she has already had to prepare for adopting a much broader role if state voters approve a ballot initiative that would legalize the recreational use of the drug as well.

Broad new powers

In February, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Ajax, a Republican and the first person to hold the position — a job paying $150,636 a year and requiring state Senate approval, the Associated Press noted.

“Some of the key features of the medical marijuana framework the Legislature approved — such as limiting how many licenses an individual person or business can hold — were modeled after California’s alcohol license laws,” the AP added. “Ajax was chief deputy director of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, where she has worked as an investigator and administrator since 1995.”

But if voters do approve legalized pot, they will have handed Ajax increased powers. “The measure,” reported the Times, “includes a provision that would transform Ajax’s office into a Bureau of Marijuana Control that would also be responsible for regulating non-medical cannabis, significantly expanding Ajax’s responsibilities. Ajax’s office has been loaned $10 million by the state to set up a 25-person bureau that can begin issuing licenses on Jan. 1, 2018.”

Remaking an economy

A yes vote had analysts braced for changes that would reverberate throughout the California economy, far beyond the direct market for marijuana, accessories, and snack foods. For years, regulators and officials have already witnessed turf wars between conservationists and growers, whose crop demands substantial amounts of water.

If pot goes legal, indoor growing will be poised for a tremendous expansion. “Warehouses for cultivation are expected to be in high demand,” the LA Weekly noted. Jason Thomas, CEO of a Colorado firm that provides pot-related commercial real estate services, told the Weekly that the rate for warehouse space in Denver nearly doubled since 2013.

“Three years ago, just as Colorado was implementing adult use, warehouse vacancy rates sat at 6 percent and rent was $5 a square foot. Many warehouses were underutilized and set to be replaced with condos. That is, until Colorado’s pot boom. Now the vacancy rate is 3 percent, and warehouse rent is $13 to $18 a square foot — if you can even find a place zoned for pot cultivation.”

A cultural crossroads

In California, the Weekly added, cities authorizing marijuana cultivation have seen a run on applications and parcels of land. Desert cities like Adelanto and Desert Hot Springs, the New York Times reported, “have raced to be first to permit commercial marijuana cultivation,” with some long-time industry figures worrying “corporate money will squeeze out not only the small-time growers, but also the hippie values that have been an essential part of marijuana’s place in California culture.”

Not all of the state’s old heads have sounded the alarm, however. Tommy Chong, who has “long been synonymous with California’s outlaw stoner culture,” has begun negotiating through representatives with an Adelanto company that would crank out his “Chong’s Choice” brand of weed for the mass market, according to the Times. “If conglomerates come in, my answer is: God bless ’em — it saves me the hassle,” he told the paper.

At fault was a drafting error in a key piece of legislation designed to bring uniformity and predictability to the state’s pot regulatory structure, with the possible legalization of the drug around the electoral corner. “California’s new medical marijuana laws were supposed to provide more structure and clarity for the state’s loosely regulated, billion-dollar industry, but in the past few weeks, dozens of municipalities have ignored that intention by moving quickly to ban delivery and other activities codified by the legislation,” the San Francisco Chronicle noted.

Moving too quickly at the tail end of Sacramento’s fall session, lawmakers passed a law “that imposed a deadline of March 1 for local governments to adopt land-use regulations for marijuana cultivation,” as the Sacramento Business Journal noted. “Under the law as adopted, those governments that miss the deadline would turn that authority over to the state.”

Domino effect

That triggered a rush to codify cities’ own regulations. In an abundance of caution, although the League of California Cities became aware that lawmakers decided they goofed, it “is advising cities without regulations already in place to quickly pass complete bans on cultivation to assert their authority over the state,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “Cities would retain the latitude to soften cultivation rules later,” the paper noted, adding that in San Diego, city officials are contemplating a moratorium rather than an outright ban.

In response to the unwelcome surprise, legislators have switched into high gear to reverse the trend. “The law’s authors are now scrambling to pass Assembly Bill 21, a bill that would eliminate the deadline and give local governments more time,” the Journal reported. Co-author Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, said municipal governments won’t face any pressure to slap on a ban by the first of March.

Gov. Brown promptly threw his weight behind the effort as well. “The governor supports allowing local municipalities a reasonable amount of time to come up with regulations that work for their communities,” Deborah Hoffman, his deputy press secretary, explained via email, according to the Journal.

A unified front

At the same time, the march toward marijuana legalization has advanced apace. “California’s legislative analyst and finance director estimate that legalizing marijuana for recreational use could net as much as $1 billion in new tax revenue for the state and local governments,” the Associated Press reported. “Finance Director Michael Cohen and Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor produced the estimate based on the provisions of the leading pot legalization initiative proposed for the November ballot.”

That effort, backed by Silicon Valley heavyweight Sean Parker, has managed to sideline the state’s other major initiative. ReformCA has yet to officially endorse the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which Parker and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom have supported. “But last month a majority of its board members voted to suspend the ReformCA initiative,” as the LA Weekly observed; “the suspension of ReformCA’s own effort means, essentially, there is one initiative that appears to have the cash and organization to make it to the ballot in 2016.”

Fresh embarrassment

California recently suffered a new setback at the intersection of law enforcement and marijuana regulation. “Dozens of drug cases in Yuba and Sutter counties may be irreparably tainted and facing dismissal after a narcotics strike team officer and two associates were arrested on charges of transporting 247 pounds of marijuana to Pennsylvania,” the Sacramento Bee reported, referring to officers based in California. Sacramento attorney George Mull told the Bee, “Heath’s arrest stokes long-held suspicions in the cannabis community about rogue cops stealing pot in ‘smash and grab’ raids on growers. ‘Perhaps some law enforcement officers are seizing cannabis not because they see it as a violation of law but to seize a valuable crop for their own benefit,’ Mull said.”

Concentrated support

His initiative, which counts Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom among its supporters, brought on the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform. “Coalition board member Antonio Gonzalez, who is also president of the Latino Voters League, said the coalition withdrew its rival initiative after Parker’s measure was modified to protect children, workers and small businesses,” Reuters reported.

“In California, amendments filed this week to Parker’s proposal would allow local governments a greater say in where marijuana can be sold, toughen protections for children, including a ban on marketing to minors and explicit warning labels on marijuana products, and require safety standards and enforcement of labor laws for people who work in the industry.”

In another victory for the Newsom-Parker proposal, some of California’s so-called “legacy activists,” among California’s early major medical marijuana players, threw their support behind the effort. “The members include Richard Lee, the founder of Oaksterdam University in Oakland and proponent of 2010’s unsuccessful Proposition 19 legalization effort; Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition; Stacia Cosner, deputy director for Students for Sensible Drug Policy; Nate Bradley, executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association; and David Bronner of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, a top-selling brand of natural soaps,” noted the Sacramento Bee.

Activists have nursed concerns that big corporate interests, backed by regulators, could swoop in and squeeze them out of the medical pot industry. “[G]rowers and marketers on the pot-rich North Coast are waiting to see how much the massive regulatory structure will cost them and whether to stick instead with the prosperous but risky outlaw status they have lived with for nearly two decades,” as the Press Democrat recently observed.

Bracing for change

The prospect of statewide legalization has also accelerated the push in some municipalities for fresh local restrictions. Input has been sought from law enforcement in states where marijuana decriminalization has already had time to take effect. After a recent visit to Colorado, where “law-enforcement groups such as the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area continue to portray the situation in sky-is-falling terms,” officials from the City of Indio drew up an ordinance, ready for a vote in January, that would ban medical marijuana cultivation, according to Westword. “While medical marijuana has been legal in California since 1996, not every city allows cultivation and/or dispensaries that would sell it,” as the Desert Sun noted.

In fact, with a raft of new state laws aiming to bring marijuana fully within officials’ regulatory reach, the League of California Cities has set forth new guidelines for cities “within their legal rights to enact total bans on medical cannabis cultivation,” according to Cannabis Now. “Citing a 2014 case in which the California Supreme Court upheld a decision to permit local cities and counties to ban personal cultivation, Maral v. Live Oak, the organization reiterates that these bans can prevent the cultivation of small amounts of medical marijuana for personal use by qualified patients.”

At the same time, officials have begun eyeing new technology that would enable law enforcement to crack down on impaired driving. In conjunction with UC Berkeley researchers, Oakland outfit Hound Labs has begun work on a breathalyzer that detects marijuana, according to Inquisitr. “Initially the new handheld marijuana breathalyzer device will be tested by law enforcement agencies in the San Francisco Bay area and Lynn says depending on the results, will eventually be used across the country,” the site noted.

Already, state officials have begun their search for the right candidate to head the new Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation. In a development that will have pot advocates divided on the balance between increased freedom and increased bureaucracy, the position will combine “the drudgery of administering — say setting up IT systems for the bureau and crafting the minutiae of regulation policy” — with the kinds of perks and powers that are the envy of career policymakers, as the San Francisco Chronicle suggested:

“The chosen candidate will get a rare chance in Sacramento — the opportunity to create a brand new wing of the bureaucracy. The weed czar will hire perhaps 40 to 50 people, whose salary would be paid for with the waves of new cannabis licensing fees created by California’s recently passed medical marijuana law.”

Growing independence

The job has opened up at a time when elected officials have ratcheted up their support for decriminalization. Members of California’s Congressional delegation have kept up a testy exchange with federal prosecutors cracking down on high-profile dispensaries. Last week, Reps. Barbara Lee and Dana Rohrabacher implored Attorney General Loretta Lynch “to reconsider enforcement actions against California’s medical cannabis dispensaries following comprehensive, stringent and enforceable industry regulations recently signed into law,” as The Weed Blog noted.

“We are concerned that the Department of Justice continues to threaten individuals and businesses acting within the scope of state law on the medicinal use of marijuana despite formal guidance on exercising prosecutorial discretion and recent changes to federal law. It is counterproductive and economically prohibitive to continue a path of hostility toward dispensaries,” wrote Lee and Rohrabacher.

Coming to grips

But new regulations out of Sacramento have been put in place that would tighten the screws on the state’s longstanding laxity on prescriptions for pot. As ABC News reported, although California “has disciplined only eight doctors in 20 years for improper marijuana recommendations,” the “laid-back approach may change. The state recently enacted legislation to require the Medical Board to crack down on doctors who write recommendations without a proper patient exam or valid medical reason.”

Nationwide, California’s status quo had inspired other states grappling with marijuana regulation to take an even tougher approach. “Lawmakers in Illinois, New Jersey and other states have tried to avoid California’s drop-in, instant exams by attempting to define in legislation a legitimate doctor-patient relationship,” added the network. “Laws commonly call for a ‘bona fide’ relationship with a physical exam and review of medical records. New Jersey doctors must register in a publicly viewable database and take courses in addiction medicine and pain management.”

Changing labor

Among the wrinkles in the marijuana economy that regulators have yet to iron out, the influx of so-called “trimmigrants” has drawn increased attention. Annual migrants who flood into California pot country to cash in on the crop preparation season have crystallized California’s love-hate relationship with gray-market labor. “The migrant workers contribute to the economy, but many effectively are homeless,” the Press-Democrat reported. “Though the growers who employ them typically provide housing or a place to camp, when not working, they camp illegally in parks, alleys and along railroad tracks and rivers. Some can’t find jobs and turn to panhandling and frequenting food banks.”

On the other hand, native Californians have proven unwilling to compete for the jobs. Wheres trimmers “previously tended to be local residents and people who followed the music festival circuit, then stayed on the North Coast at the end of the festival season to process pot,” the new outside migrants “tend to be educated, hard workers who also cook and clean. Some marijuana farmers prefer them over locals, some of whom act as though they’re entitled to high pay and free meals,” the founder of one of the area’s premier festival pot contests told the paper.

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.