It\u2019s been two years since I\u2019ve seen Oaky Joe, a charismatic cannabis cultivator whose been growing medical marijuana in California for decades and who claims to have had more indictments against him dismissed than anyone else in the state. Those were two long years.<\/p>\n
The last time I saw the exuberant old grower was in 2017, right before\u00a0the Tubbs Fire devastated his home county of Sonoma<\/a>, on a visit to his farm\u00a0during a cannabis tour<\/a>. By the time I spot him in the crowd at the 2019 Emerald Cup \u2014 the world\u2019s leading outdoor cannabis competition taking place on Dec. 14-15 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, California \u2014 Oaky Joe says he\u2019s going to quit growing cannabis.<\/p>\n Oaky Joe is wearing a hat embroidered with his slogan \u201cDo Some Good\u201d and a shirt with his own name on it. He\u2019s handing out packs of 15 seeds to the people he meets, and he says he\u2019s given out over a thousand seeds so far.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are my \u2018f*ck the government\u2019 seeds,\u201d he says with a laugh. After more than 30 years cultivating the plant, Oaky Joe says 2019 will be his last. He says he grew 70 plants this year as the primary caregiver for his longtime roster of medical patients, but got in trouble with the state (again) and fined thousands of dollars under California\u2019s new legal cannabis regulations.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m done,\u201d he says. \u201cThe state of California has made it illegal to grow cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n A toothy grin peeks out from his grey beard as he admits, perhaps joking, that he\u2019s thinking about growing on public land next year. \u201cThen at least I can just walk away, and I\u2019m not living right next to my grow where the state can find me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Among the 30,000 people present at the Emerald Cup this year, Oaky Joe is one of the hundreds of cannabis growers on the bustling fairgrounds who have a bone to pick with the state of California. Since California\u2019s adult-use cannabis regulations went into effect on Jan. 1, 2018, cannabis growers in California \u2014 particularly small legacy growers set up on land not easily brought into compliance with the state\u2019s strict laws \u2014 have struggled. They\u2019ve faced\u00a0expense after expense<\/a>\u00a0along the licensing process, they\u2019ve watched their neighbors\u00a0quit the game<\/a>\u00a0or turn to the\u00a0underground market<\/a>\u00a0and now they\u2019re\u00a0looking at another tax increase<\/a>\u00a0on New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n For the past 16 years, the Emerald Cup<\/a> has served as a place where cannabis advocates could come together after the harvest, not just to compare bud, but to connect and rebuild for the year ahead. And so, of course, this year, the consequences of a tough year couldn\u2019t help but make themselves apparent. In panel discussions, in casual conversation and in the general hype level, cannabis advocates made it clear at the 2019 Emerald Cup that morale was dipping across the industry.<\/p>\n \u201cHundreds, maybe thousands, of legacy growers in Mendocino advocated for legalization, but state barriers to permitting mean that they can\u2019t succeed,\u201d said Mendocino County Supervisor John McCowen in a panel on local cannabis politics. \u201cIt\u2019s really physically difficult for people and what we\u2019ve done is guarantee a robust black market.\u201d<\/p>\n McCowen added that Mendocino is looking to change its regulations so that it will be easier for larger grows to establish themselves in the county.<\/p>\n Later in the Emerald Cup, a panel about reversing the damages of the War on Drugs illustrated how some of the people particularly struggling against California\u2019s new cannabis regulations are people of color who have been pushing not just for equity programs but for support for people of color in general across the cannabis industry for years.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m tired of having this conversation. We\u2019ve all been on panels like this for years at big festivals\u2026 but what do people actually walk away and do afterward?\u201d said co-founder of the cannabis delivery service\u00a0The People\u2019s Dispensary<\/a>\u00a0Chaney Turner.<\/p>\n Turner\u2019s solution, like many others who\u2019ve wrestled with regulators for long enough: \u201cI\u2019m not looking for the government to save us.\u201d<\/p>\n But this year\u2019s Emerald Cup also displayed a tricky phenomenon: that when two people who are having a hard time are brought together to celebrate, they often start to have a good time.<\/p>\n \u201cHope springs eternal,\u201d said cannabis farmer Casey O\u2019Neill of HappyDay Farms, in his presentation on the regenerative practices his farm uses. He told the crowd that he looks to his farming peers for support and inspiration, and encouraged people to continue to push together for something better.<\/p>\n Josh Sarvis of\u00a0Dragonfly Earth Medicine<\/a>\u00a0had a similar message a few hours later. \u201cWe want to encourage people to keep going,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s look to our allies and the people around us to give us strength.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarvis concluded, \u201cThe times are a\u2019changing, but so are we.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0did you go to the Emerald Cup this year?<\/p>\n The post A Much-Needed Morale Boost for California Cannabis at the 2019 Emerald Cup<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been two years since I\u2019ve seen Oaky Joe, a charismatic cannabis cultivator whose been growing medical marijuana in California for decades and who claims to have had more indictments against him dismissed than anyone else in the state. Those were two long years. The last time I saw theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1143,148,50,478,69,65],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40137,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40136\/revisions\/40137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: A Much-Needed Morale Boost for California Cannabis at the 2019 Emerald Cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"