Marijuana crop could bring cash to California’s next Napa
The heart of California’s marijuana production, the “Emerald Triangle,” consists of sleepy Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity, the largest pot-producing counties in the U.S. A county-commissioned study suggested local economies in Mendocino are already two-thirds based on pot — with an estimated billion dollars in untaxed revenue.
Many people, including government members, say legalization is likely by the end of the decade.
“It will launch the birth of legal multi-billion dollar industry, that some think could one day overshadow the wine business, and make Napa Valley just a side trip on the way to the Emerald Triangle,” said Aaron Smith, California policy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington, D.C., which advocates the legalization of the drug.
Some real-estate agents suggest large tracts of bare land, good candidates for marijuana production, are poised to rise if legalization occurs, and are already on the mend, even as the rest of California real-estate slumps.
“Oh, this can go upwards. It’s already up, despite the recession elsewhere,” a real-estate agent at Ferndale Real Estate of Humboldt County, who asked his name not be used, fearing federal reprisals, said. “Clients often inquire about tracts of land up here and the feasibility of growing pot on them. Most of the best tracts are long gone. With legalization prospects constantly in the news, few land-owners would sell now, which naturally props up land values by diminishing the supply.”
Agriculture land value has historically marched to a different beat than the rest of the economy since its value is closely correlated with the value of the crop grown on it, and the crop’s price in the marketplace.
In the 1960s land in Napa county cost a few thousand dollars an acre. Californians considered it a backwater — not a Golden State gold mine. Now, even with the real-estate collapse, it’s hard to find an acre of land in the wine region for less than a few hundred thousand dollars. Nearly 5 million tourists visit the area each year; only Disneyland has more tourists in the state.
Marijuana has some of the best profit margins of any cash crop. Pot plants can grow 10-20 feet tall, and one plant can produce as much as $5,000 worth of marijuana, at a street price of about $200 an ounce. By comparison, a single grape vine rarely can produce more than $100 of wine — and only after its been processed and shelved for months, then shipped. Marijuana buds can be picked and shipped and smoked immediately.
“One main issue for growing marijuana commercially is the land zoning,” Smith said. “When California does legalize pot, it’s likely to at first be carefully regulated and controlled.”
Some experts think special zoning will be required for commercially grown marijuana, as well as distinct water rights to protect connected farm lands and forests. The California Coastal Commission, which regulates property development near the Pacific coastline, likely will interfere with ambitions to grow as well, in an effort to protect the environment. Owning land that could commercially grow marijuana may not prove lucrative without proper permits.
Still, pot billionaires and hemp empires are expected to be forged after legalization. There will likely emerge a Robert Mondavi of the marijuana business. Agriculture companies will race to build marijuana harvesters, tractors and seeders. New pot-specific fertilizers and pesticides will be sought. Commercial development catering to hemp outfitters and smoke shops, like those in Amsterdam, will break ground and revitalize infrastructure. Counties will immediately see the benefits of increased tourism, which industry experts expect to surge in the region.
In 2005, a visiting professor of Economics at Harvard University, Dr. Jeffrey Miron, wrote a paper arguing that marijuana legalization could create more than $10 billion a year in the United States. Other experts have since agreed with him, and some suggest the amount is even higher.
“There will be a trickle down effect in everything, from real-estate value increases to new tax revenue,” said Debbie Bills, who’s worked for four years at a small hemp shop called the Hemp Connection, in Garberville, CA. “That could help us out of this recession.”
A Washington Post news video on the “Emerald Triangle” and cannabis:
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If you choose to you can invest tons of money growing anything. The point is, you do not have to, you just need to be disciplined and stick to it. Over time your marijuana will find a market and you will be able to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. Those that choose to fashion themselves in the mold of Larry Ellison or Bill Gates, well they will have to spend tons on manufacturing and marketing. The point is there is a place for anyone who wants in. If California made pot legal, the entire country, the United States, could send every DEA agent it had into the area and it wouldn’t make a dent. The war is over, time to sue for peace.
Lary Waldman
“Oh, this can go upwards.
or the price of marijuana could colapse
and the whole industry could suffer massive losses
nothing creates a bubble economy like prohibition
I know this lady that hasn’t smoked pot in over 10 years, but still knows a handful of people that do. None of them want it legal because even stoners (the kind with jobs and stuff) know big gov will tax the heck out of it.
I have absolutely no problem with legalizing marijuana.
Tax the Hippies!
They sure tax my Budweiser or smokes. It’s about time the Hippies started carrying their fair share of the load as California taxpayers.
Best of all it will cut the Mexican gangs out of the business and keep profits with local farmers. Who needs Al Capone when you can get a joint at the the local coffee shop?
What California is doing will seem like common sense natiowide in a few years. Remember all the controversy over Riverboat Gambling? Sheesh. You can gamble in a dozen states now.
Evolution works.
Marijuana is a states rights issue. If the voters of a particular state want to legalize it for medical reasons, paper production, recreational use or to wipe their arses, it is nobody’s business. I would rather encounter on the street a person that just took a few tokes than someone that is drunk.
When the times get tight, the tax man goes lookin…for anything. That’s generally when you see “Change” and not before.
What are these dorks smoking ??? Uhh,,nevermind. The unintended consequences of this are going to be quite harmful.
Like what?
Interested to know what some of there harmful, unintended consequences would be.
Well, butinski doo-gooders the nation over will be apoplectic that so many people are enjoying themselves. Oh, and it will be hard to find a 7-Eleven that isn’t sold out of Twinkies and chocolate milk.
So we’re gonna need more cows.
You must love stereotypes.
Somewhere in Sacremento a group of overpaid, do-nothing-talk-a-lots are weighing the moral ramifications of fixing California’s budget problems by legalizing an already existing cash crop while guzzling mimosas like Mel Gibson at an Easter brunch.
Welcome to the new California, a land where the education was among the best of the best, the economy was the world’s envy and the health care system a model for our nation. But these days California can’t even figure out if smoking pot is bad for you.
Smoking pot is bad for you… but now you can vaporize pot and it’s pretty harmless to your body…
I’ve heard rumor that one joint is the equivalent of 10 cigarettes, but I’ve never known too many recreational pot smokers to consume and entire joint in any one sitting (as my age, I now only know a few). How can marijuana be any worse than alcohol? I’m more of an alcohol man myself (I prefer to stay within the limitations of the law), but I would still argue that marijuana is likely a safer vice.
Our nation drinks soda like water and you’re worried about the affects of marijuana? Eesh…