Is Commercial Marijuana Really Sustainable in Sonoma County?

Promoters of marijuana cultivation such as Cannacraft and SPARC assert this should become a “marquee industry” in Sonoma County that will generate wealth and create new jobs, yet somehow not exacerbate the housing shortages. This argument merits close examination. Land and labor are expensive in Sonoma County compared to many locations where marijuana can be grown in this nation, locations that don’t have water shortages during the growing season. Each year more states allow cultivation, and are beginning to produce marijuana more cheaply than is possible here. Even cultivators in Southern California are producing a cheaper product. Pot promoters sometimes proclaim that grass grown in Sonoma County is somehow “better” or “different,” which they say will persuade discerning consumers to pay more for what is becoming a commodity. But is Sonoma marijuana really different? The means by which the plants are actually grown here renders silly the notion of borrowing the concept of “terroir” from the wine industry. The “Sonoma soil” is manufactured from a mixture of chemicals and additives from elsewhere that is placed is large plastic tubs, often containing little or no soil from the property where it grows. The plants are often screened from Sonoma light and air by white plastic hoop houses. The legislature has adopted an appellation statute, and cannabis that is cultivated in hoop hoses or is not grown in the soil is ineligible to use any appellation.

Why should residents of Sonoma County accept the vast changes that are being proposed for our community for a business model that seems predicated on Barnum & Bailey’s infamous phrase “there’s a sucker born every minute.”

Maybe those sophisticated consumers are just later day version of Cheech and Chong who contentedly smoke dog poop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIZCvx4R2-8