North Coast marijuana growers fear a takeover by 'Big Alcohol'

[Jesus Malverde]

Humboldt farmers, Sonoma County's subterranean tasting rooms and Tuscan affectations offered a glimpse into a rarefied realm of legal intoxicants.

The marijuana growers had driven south from redwood country to the oak and grass hills to take part in an event called “The Women of Wine & Cannabis,” a chance to visit boutique wineries and learn about appellations and branding in the $200-billion retail alcohol market.

But as they sipped wine on a vine-covered terrace of the Mayacama Golf Club that evening, some of them began to see an insidious subtext to the affair.

The moneyed establishment was shouldering into the marijuana game, legislating the system to its favor, and the small growers who had built the industry had better accept the new model or get bulldozed by it.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-pot-distributors-10102020-snap-story.html?track=lat-pick

[Auggie]

1. Big money cannabis is just waiting to roll ...

if the Mom and Pops were smart they'd begin to assemble any cooperatives now. Better to be prepared than to sit on their hands and complain. Big cannabis going to happen, unless California legislates otherwise.

[msongs]

2. 1st thing corporate cannibis will try is to kill/severely restrict "grow your own"

[bobmartel]

3. Compete

Corporate product will be weed, poisonous as always. Health comes from good economics. Cannabis is a natural health product best grown by your neighbors.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. That is ridiculous.

Regulation of an above-board industry in a transparent legalized framework means consumers actually know what they're getting.


https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/Pesticides/Pages/CannabisPesticides.aspx

[Warren DeMontague]

4. I think the AUMA is the best chance for legalization to come along in a generation.

If growers, etc. torpedo it because they like the status quo, it will be detrimental- to say the least- to the momentum of legalization everywhere; the narrative won't be "California wants better or different legalization", it will be "see, even California doesnt want to legalize the evil weed"-

It will be a green light for prohobitionists to try and stop or roll back progress.

This isnt some craptastic initiative like Ohio's- it contains provisions allowing growing at home, etc.

To be reflexively allergic to things like regulation and taxation is childish and counterproductive in the long run.

Some parts of the industry in CA need to grow up a bit, I think.