Is California setting marijuana growers up to fail?
With the state’s adult-use cannabis market barely two months old, CalCannabis, a division of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), has issued more than 2,000 temporary cultivation licenses, sanctioning 400-plus acres of pot gardens.
Collectively these state license holders could produce nearly 4.2 million pounds of weed per year — more than double the amount Californians are expected to consume, according to estimates by the CDFA. More licenses are being approved every day as aspiring growers up and down the state rush to get in on a $5 billion market.
And in Humboldt County, only a small fraction of our local growers have gained access to the legal marketplace.