User:SarHasUCSC/Cannabis in California

Cultivation [edit]
Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties have long been known as Northern California's Emerald Triangle, as this region produces more cannabis than anywhere else in the State. Registering and applying for permits has not been an easy decision for many long time growers in these three counties, so both the legal and black market cannabis industry continue in this region.

Due to the historically illicit status of cannabis in California, cultivation of the crop often occurs on remote private lands. The Emerald Triangle became a favorable place to cultivate cannabis because it is remote, rural, densely forested, and undeveloped. Furthermore, private parcels in this region are difficult and dangerous to locate by law enforcement, making cultivation of the illicit crop even more practical.

The extensive cultivation of illicit cannabis in the Emerald Triangle has led to negative environmental implications. Because many cannabis grows are located on remote, private lands, they often don't receive water from county municipal services. Therefore, grows tend to concentrate in small, upper watersheds in order to secure irrigation water. Research has found that unregulated groundwater wells and direct stream diversions used for cannabis irrigation in this region have the potential to significantly decrease streamflow or completely dewater streams. Decreased streamflow is positively associated with warmer water temperatures, and warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen. This can have detrimental effects on locally endangered salmonid and amphibian species that rely on cool, clean, water for various stages in their life cycles.

While the Emerald Triangle produces the majority of cannabis in the state, the top cannabis-producing counties in California include Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Monterey, Nevada, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Trinity, and Yolo counties. Together, these counties comprised 98% of cannabis cultivation permits issued by the California Water Board in 2018 and 2019. In Santa Barbara County, cannabis growing has taken over greenhouses that formerly grew flowers. In the first four months of legalization, the county had almost 800 permits issued for legal cultivators, the most of any county in the state.

Calaveras County registered more than seven hundred cultivators after county voters approved a tax in 2016.