Editor's Note: This article from Grit very eloquently addresses one of the most pertinent issues in the industry (well, banking, tax and legal issues aside). I'd love to hear some comments on this. With some states' application fees in the tens of thousands of dollars, and licensing and renewal fees ranging in the thousands to even hundreds of thousands of dollars, there seems to be a case here … and, as I've heard time and again, a fear among those who don't want to see the cannabis culture taken over by large-scale corporations.
Perry asked me not to use his last name. It wasn’t because of the plants in his basement – they’re perfectly legal now – but more out of garden-variety stoner’s paranoia. He worried some enemy might see his name in the news and come looking for him.
Whatever – his identity isn’t important. It’s not like he was leaking potentially false information about weapons of mass destruction. I was just there to talk to him about his experience and his opinions. He has red hair, thinning on top, but growing vigorously in a bushy beard beneath. He’s wearing rectangular framed glasses, a Grant Farm concert T-shirt, and shorts.
Perry is passionate about pot. In fact, that’s why he moved to Colorado. “I came here in 2006 because Colorado needed my vote,” he told me.
Now that cannabis is legal in the state, there’s nothing he’d like more than to set up shop as a farmer. But that’s not going to happen. The regulations are simply too onerous for family pot farms, he said.
