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U.S. NEWS Thursday 19 OcTOber 2017

Blazes light up California pot farms ahead of legalization

By PAUL ELIAS pected to rise significantly toking up on the sidewalk are expected to receive County permit to grow
Associated Press once evacuation orders is as socially acceptable as the first state licenses. But medical marijuana in an-
GLEN ELLEN, Calif. (AP) — ticipation of applying for a
Desperate to see if wildfires state license.
had damaged his farm, “This was the first time I put
Marcos Morales gunned a crop in the open,” he
his four-wheel-drive station said.
wagon along the hidden “This is the first time I put in
dirt roads that crisscross So- that many plants.”
noma County vineyards. In Mendocino County to
After evading police road- the north, growers com-
blocks and passing vint- plained that law enforce-
ners’ well-tended pools ment officials refused to
and houses, he finally ar- escort them to their farms
rived to a disheartening so they could water plants
sight: Scores of his mari- even though the same
juana plants had been courtesy was extended to
destroyed, and a barn wineries.
that held 1,600 pounds of A day later, Sheriff Thomas
ready-for-market pot was Allman announced that
a smoldering ruin. marijuana growers “in
The same fires that de- good standing” with per-
stroyed Northern California mits or applications for
wineries and threatened permits would be allowed
to taint grapes still on the to check on their farms in
vine also took a toll on the evacuation areas.
region’s marijuana farms, Meanwhile, people in the
which were about to begin industry now joke about
an important harvest less In this photo taken Oct. 15, 2017, Marcos Morales, co-founder of pot company Legion of Bloom, renaming famous strains to
than three months before walks through his farm of ready-to-harvest pot plants in Glen Ellen, Calif. A fire tore through his “Campfire Pot” and “Hick-
farm, destroying hundreds of plants and over a thousand pounds of ready-to-ship pot.
the nation’s largest recre- (AP Photo/Paul Elias) ory Kush.”
ational pot market opens The damage is expected
for business in January. are lifted and farmers popping a bottle of red in those damaged by fire to have little impact on the
Morales and the work- are allowed back to their a park. are now concerned they state’s overall marijuana
ers who made it around property. In Santa Rosa’s devastated may lose out if they don’t economy because thou-
the roadblocks Sunday Unlike neighboring winer- Coffey Park neighborhood, get back up and running sands of growers were un-
worked to cut down 2,500 ies, marijuana farmers do a half-dozen destroyed quickly. Many of them affected by the fires, espe-
smoke-damaged plants, not have crop insurance houses with obvious indoor have already paid fees cially in the three-county
which will be worth far less because the plant is still operations were clearly vis- and lawyers in their efforts region known as the Emer-
than the top dollar he had listed as an illegal drug un- ible in the ashen ruins. The to go legitimate. ald Triangle.
hoped to get for premium der federal law. That keeps smell of fresh bud over- “I did everything right and “The impact will be pretty
bud. financial institutions out of whelmed the ever-present by the book for the first time modest statewide,” said
“It’s not good,” he said the industry. odor of smoke on one this year,” said Andrew Lo- association President He-
Sunday. “But we’ll be OK.” The estimated losses do block. pas, who lost 900 plants zekiah Allen, who put the
His operation in Glenn Ellen not count indoor grows, The fire damage was espe- worth $2 million outside of economic losses in the tens
and other pot farms near- backyard greenhouses cially costly because most Santa Rosa next to a popu- of millions of dollars. “Even
by were still in a fire zone and converted garages farmers were about to start lar wild animal park. though the timing could
that was off limits to all lost to the fire in hard-hit harvesting. Lopas obtained a Sonoma not have been worst.”q
but emergency personnel Santa Rosa, the center of Many of the growers who
a week after flames tore Sonoma County’s blossom- suffered the greatest losses
through the area. ing marijuana industry. were working to obtain li-
At least 31 marijuana farms The figure also does not censes to grow recreation-
were destroyed and many account for illegal grow- al pot once state regula-
more damaged, accord- ers who want no part of le- tors starting issuing permits
ing to the pot industry’s galization and operate as on Jan. 1.
California Growers Asso- far undercover as possible Farmers with local permits
ciation. That number is ex- even in a region where to grow medical marijuana