99% of California Cannabis Growers Are Still Unlicensed

So far, that’s not happening. According to a report released today by the California Growers Association, a small-farmers advocacy group, fewer than 1% of California’s estimated 68,150 cannabis growers have secured state licenses to continue their businesses legally.

The CalGrowers report estimates that 80% to 90% of growers who did business with the state’s legal storefront dispensaries prior to January 1—when new licensing requirements went into effect—“are being pushed to the black market.”

The report confirms what many have already observed. Rather than regulate local cannabis companies, prohibition-minded lawmakers in marijuana-producing regions have banned them altogether. Other popular brands, including some owned by women, have gone into “hiatus” for want for a prohibitively expensive permit, or zoning requirements, or some combination thereof.

“[F]rom Oakland to Humboldt, from Los Angeles to Gold Country, from cultivation to delivery service, many of the hardworking pioneers of our cannabis marketplace are being left behind, primarily because they are unable to afford one time costs of regulation,” said Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association.

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