While marijuana activists have been pushing for legalization for decades, some of those associated with California's medical-marijuana industry are nervous about what such a development could mean for them.
Anna Hamilton, a California medical marijuana worker, recently told the Times-Standard newspaper in Humboldt county that legalization could be "devastating" to the Emerald Triangle, the so-called northern California region that's home to Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties -- the biggest marijuana producing counties in the county.
In other words, full-scale repeal of marijuana prohibitions could wreak havoc on the thousands of people who quietly grow, process and sell weed in the area -- and that could mean trouble for the entire region. A Mendocino County study found that pot accounted for up to two-thirds of the county's economy.
That's why, last week, Hamilton held an unprecedented meeting of local business people, area officials and those involved with medical marijuana to consider a "pot-pot economy." (Such meetings aren't as unprecedented in Colorado; lately our medical-marijuana industry, though considerably smaller, has been less clandestine than California's.)
While there's no word yet as to the meeting's results, Hamilton told the Times-Standard she hoped the area could leverage in its "Emerald Triangle" designation after potential legalization -- embracing branded marijuana products and services and even marijuana tourism.
As Colorado's medical-marijuana industry matures and advocates like SAFER's Mason Tvert move toward putting a similar legalization effort before this state's voters, medical-marijuana workers may be faced with the same conundrum. So they may want to start preparing now.
We can see it already: Ganja tours of Denver hosted by colorful bus driver Banjo Billy -- and the transformation of Boulder County into the Napa Valley of pot.
