Assemblymember Jim Wood Introduces Bill to Create Cannabis Cultivator Retail License
Press release from the Office of Assemblymember Jim Wood:
Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Santa Rosa) has introduced AB 2691, legislation authorizing the Department of Cannabis Control to issue temporary cultivator event retail licenses that would allow small-scale growers to sell their cannabis products at cannabis events in the state.
“This license will allow so many growers who cultivate cannabis on one acre or less to really showcase their products at these special cannabis events,” said Wood. “The opportunity to share their unique strains directly with consumers and allow them to reach markets previously unattainable.”
Current law allows small-scale growers to participate in cannabis events, such as the Emerald Cup, but does not allow them to sell their product limiting potential buyers’ ability to determine a product’s qualities.
“Assemblymember Wood’s bill is a lifeline for thousands of small family cannabis farms across California struggling to bring their products to market and achieve profitability,” said Genine Coleman, Executive Director of Origins Council. “This legislation will also advance destination tourism for heritage cannabis producing regions and expand consumer access to regulated craft cannabis products.”
This legislation would specify that the temporary cultivator event retail license would be valid only for the specific cannabis event for which it was issued, and would limit the number of temporary cultivator event retail licenses issued to each licensee to 12 per calendar year.
“As a small farmer of both cannabis and vegetables I understand the importance of bringing products directly to customers as a small producer,” said Blaire AuClair, a small cannabis and produce farmer at Radicle Herbs and Folk Life Farm in Mendocino County. “It is imperative that small cannabis producers be able to get our products directly into consumers’ hands, to educate them about our products, to share our story and to learn about the needs of consumers. The survival of our small cannabis farms relies on the passage of this legislation.”
“The Emerald Triangle is located in the district I represent and we need to do what we can to ensure that licensed cultivators, especially small-scale growers that are competing with larger cultivators, have an opportunity to fully participate in marketing their products,” said Wood.
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I can hardly wait!
It’s just a matter of time till Monsanto splices in a poppy gene.
Come on Monsanto, it’s time to get into the market.
Do these folks actually think they can out grow agro business.
Legalization was the worst thing ever for the North Coast
Even though large agribusiness dominates the food market, there are still thousands of small food farmers making a decent living. Primarily by selling direct to consumers. That’s all small cannabis farmers want. That same opportunity
Amen
Really? Because every small food farmer I know uses the profit from their weed to make the whole thing float. Or it’s a trustafarian hobby farm…
I guess you don’t know very many small vegetable farmers.
Same here.
Ask the local lab why they feel the need to splice genes in their plants
This could really help the small scale legals.
Meh… too little too late. They need to let the cultivator walk directly into a dispensary and sell their product. I hear a distributor license is easy to get so this bill does little help during these times of oversupply
Those were the good Ole days.
I thought that you cant even get a permit on less than 5 acres.
The size of the parcel cannabis is cultivated on isn’t the size of the garden one is permitted to grow on. Most small farmers grow on 10,000 sq ft or less. Our grow is about 4000 sq ft for instance–about the size of a large rural home’s veggie garden.
But the county does limit permits to parcels of 5 acres or more. At least that is my understanding. Can we get a definitive answer on this question?
I guess that would exclude indoor, but they tax them at triple the rate for that.
I don’t know about HumCo, but Trinity has no minimum parcel size
Yeah no parcel size limit, but way to restricted for canopy per parcel. You can barely break even regularly at 10k. I know there are many purists on here who think big farms are at 20k sq ft of mixed light but I disagree.
Oh and only 15 one acre permits is too few for Trinity. Not that it matters much with a ineffective planning dept that can’t process shit. They are more disorganized and without basic systems that a average legacy farmer.
Funny. It’s not the size of your garden that matters it’s how a grower uses it.
Thanks for the explanation.
Its such bullshit that they are considering an acres of cultivation space “small growers” that it would ahve never crossed my mind they were referring to crop size and not property size.
The reality is that an acre is q small plot in the scope of agriculture. Most commercial farms plant individual crops in blocks measured in 10s of acres.
Yes, that is wrong and should not be allowed in cannabis at all.
Why not?
1.0 allowed you to grow on less than 5 acres if you had pre-2016 cultivation that could be verified. The parcel itself also had to be greater than 1 acre.
So helpful, lol, now they just need transport, distributor, lab and pay thousands for a space. 44k sqft is a small mom n pop. So if you own 300 acres of land and sublease permits under family members or friends names at 20k to 40k sqft each your a mom n pop, lol.
Sounds about right for the cannabis people. Kinda like those celebrity veterans of the war on drugs who got profiled super hard by the police as youths. A mean stare, ya know, like the kind their momma or daddy would give’em when they was in trouble.
What made you change your tune? A month ago you were saying a 44sqft farm wasn’t small.
I only consider 10k sqft and below a mom n pop. You’d have to show me since I have never stated anything else unless it was sarcastic.
Am I misreading your comment above? Are you sarcastically saying 44k sqft is small?
Yes, kinda hard to tell though I see your point.
A “small” mom (no pop) grow is what I have. 250 square feet. It has been supplimenting my meager dole as a disabled senior for many years and no way will the county make it legal.
Cultivators can get all of the above licenses together with the exception of the lab testing license. People usually change the name associated with the licenses but it is being done.
Now, what will this permit cost? 50K? 100K?
Hitler only had one nut….so…the BCC has got a lot of room for negotiating.
I don’t know what it will cost, by my 10,000 sqft outdoor state permit costs $4820, so I doubt will cost $50,000
I think he’s talking about the temporary retail permit
I get that. Maybe you should look for yourself at how much a brick and mortar retail license costs, it’s not $50,000
It’s not the license fee “What!?” is talking about. It’s the costs associated with jumping through the hoops to get the license. Costs are variable depending on how much a person can do for themselves vs. having to hire high priced professionals.
Than that is what “what” should have said.
I’d like to hear or read a debate on this subject on all the pros and cons. Until then I’ll reserve judgement. It’s the actual legalization scheme we’re stuck with that gives me heart burn.
Does this man ever do something important.
Lol! This is a joke. They will still need a pos system that tracks and talks to metrc. The pos setup. Spend 1000s on not only booth setup but insurance, lodging, booth space, set up, distro space, testing, distro fees, transport fees, etc. They will have to sell somewhere around $10000 in sales just to break even if they are lucky. I was at emerald cup this year with a full booth setup and I can tell you most booths and especially the small Farmer booths didn’t even get close to the $10k sales for the 2 days. The writing is on the wall and woods and newsome lured x in small farmers all while crafting their demise.
If woods really wanted to make a difference he would be fighting tooth and nail to get rid of cultivation tax! Instead they raised it this year! He would be fighting to put a single tax at the retail level that stores needed to turn in and not put that burden on distributors and cultivators creating multiple levels of taxes that equal 40-50% of a cultivators funds. Instead it’s let’s waste time on a bill like this to let farmers think I’m helping them so they can sell at a few overpriced under attended weed events that have become a joke and a way for corporate cannabis to show off how much money they have to waste while the rest suffer. Sorry woods but your a wolf in sheeps clothing. Nice try.
I think the way this could work for people is with locally arranged farmers markets arranged by farmers and designed to mitigate those issues you identified.
But it very well could be too little too late
There is a tax reform bill out now, in fact several. Wood is a co-author of one of them.
I heard from a Distro that farmers were only selling 2-3 pounds at the Cup at best. After all the overhead and thousands in booth fees, it would be lucky just to break even for the event. Probably more profitable to be selling acid or Molly. Haha funny not funny. As someone with a small legal farm, this whole shitshow makes me fucking sick to my stomach and mad as hell! But I will be growing this year because our cost of production will be far less than last year since we have cleared several permitting projects. So here goes another year of working all day ever day to cover the bills and hopefully make a few grand more than we spend. At least I am my own boss and I get to work outside chilling with turkeys and deer all day. My advice for any legal farmer would be to tap into your inner outlaw and fuck over METRC and big brother any way you can, because that’s what they are doing to all of us… fucking us over with a smile all the while saying “we’re here to help you”.
Gotta do what you gotta do
I hear ya on saying f you to METRC. However, this talk about working all season to make a few thousand is insanity. I’d advocate for working on your business not in it. Otherwise burnout and bitter comments will only increase.
I think cultivators are expecting that this bill would allow them to sell at farmers markets. That could really help some folks.
I am wondering how important cannabis is to Humboldt’s economy. Im not confident I have a good feel for this. I believe I have heard that cannabis is the largest single source of income for Humboldt. Is that correct?
What percentage of Humboldt county residents are making more than 50% of their income DIRECTLY from legal or black market cannabis?
What about indirectly?
What will it mean for our local economy if prices do not recover next year?
The decline is obvious. Grow stores 1/4 of what they used to be. Restaurants dropping like flies. The keep your money in Humboldt marketing campaign running on every radio station. The mean times are upon us.
I think you can find info on the Humboldt state interdisciplinary cannabis institute (or some such academic name like that) but my memory is that they found that something like 35% of Humboldts economy resulted from cannabis activity.
No way to really know as the black market’s data is completely decentralized and undocumented.
Ya it is definitely just an estimate, there is no way to get a precise number
I hope that is not true but I fear it maybe even more than 35%. If that is the case we are going to see our local economy utterly devastated.
If only someone could have warned us that the removal of a cap on farm size would result in this.If only those with money (aka political representation) had cared when they were warned.
//What will it mean for our local economy if prices do not recover next year?//
Means our hills should be fully cleansed of greedy fucktards. Not many people I know are complaining to much about what’s goin on. Sure, some ain’t doin so well but they’ll survive enough to plant on as they have for decades upon decades.
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Axis of Love SF feels this is a step back in the right direction to farm direct medical cannabis crafted with love and affordable to our patients
Deep bow to Member Woods
Oh sure Assemblyman Wood is our hero. But wait- wasn’t he the guy who set up the vertical integration model where you were forced to sell to a state-licensed distributor and unable to do any retail? Yes. And why did he do that? Because his good friend Ted – a huge wine distributor- wanted it that way…This was all set up even before the idiot sheeple voted in the corporate “legalization”. Now here’s Wood throwing you a scrap and you think he’s awesome- because you cannot even remember what went down a few years ago. You were sold out by the same guy who is now pretending to be your friend! Ha ha!! I imagine the Rolling Stone article (flawed as it was) helped him see this was a good political move. He does not care one shit about any of you…
DIstro isn’t going anywhere. This is like throwing another lifeboat off the titanic. Still too many people hanging onto the listing ship.
So true.