UP IN SMOKE
Harvest-ready pot in Calif. fires’ path uninsured
The wind-blown wildfires raging in Northern California have destroyed at least six of the area’s marijuana farms — and local industry insiders fear the number is likely to rise as more reports from the rural counties come in.
The fires, raging out of control across Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties couldn’t come at a worse time as farmers were just about to begin harvesting plants, part of a $16.2 bil- lion legal and nonlegal market.
As a result of the ruined crops, marijuana prices across the country could rise.
For farmers raising marijuana, the fire damage could put them out of business because insurance is not available as it is with most crops. Insurers will not sell policies on a crop that is illegal under federal law.
“These losses will put many farmers out of business because the industry just doesn’t have access to basic financial services,” Derek Peterson, chief executive of the cannabis-focused agriculture company Terra Tech, told The Post.
“It’s just sad that we live in this underground world where we can’t discuss the true extent of the damage,” Jessica Lilga of Alta Supply, a statewide wholesale cannabis distributor based in Oakland, told USA Today.
Some growers will suffer personally as well as professionally, Peterson added, given their tendency to “share their residential properties with their farms — a lot like a winery would.”
In total, there are 10,000 to 15,000 marijuana farms in the area, according to the California Cannabis Industry Association.
The wildfires have ravaged a total of 191,000 acres of land since Sunday, consumed 3,500 structures, claimed the lives of 29 people and destroyed many vineyards.
The disasters’ only silver lining is for marijuana growers who escape the fires unscathed: a rebalancing of pot’s supply and demand.
Economists retained by California recently estimated that state farms produce about 13.5 million pounds of cannabis a year — of which 2.5 million pounds are consumed by state residents.
Much of the 11-millionpound surplus flows into black markets outside of California, the economists said, making the state’s surplus of cannabis an easy target for federal scrutiny and stepped-up enforcement efforts.