Golden State Green Rush
Golden State Green Rush: Cannabis’ Promise and Problems
Will the marijuana El Dorado bring new wealth to California and its inhabitants, or will it produce an historic buzz kill?
Although medical marijuana use had been legal in California since 1996, it wasn’t until New Year’s Day that adults in this state could lawfully light up a joint for the sheer pleasure of it. Yet unlike the end of Prohibition 85 years before, the response was surprisingly subdued, and ever since then life in California seems to be business as usual. Except that it isn’t.
Everything is going to radically change, and probably sooner than later. For the legalization of pot is slowly unleashing a new gold rush — the so-called Green Rush — that, like many gold rushes before it, will likely lead to environmental dangers, racial injustices and economic disparities that we can only dimly perceive today. Will the cannabis El Dorado bring new wealth to California and its inhabitants, or will it produce an historic buzz kill?
Nearly two years ago Capital & Main presented a series of stories examining some of the possible effects of legalization, and this week, as the reefer-centric date of 4/20 approaches, veteran journalist Donnell Alexander looks at the ways some Californians are preparing for the coming wave of change. As he notes, “No state has a relationship dynamic remotely like the one between California and marijuana.” Partly that’s because annually we consume 2.5 million pounds of the drug, while producing more than 13 million pounds of it.
In a report from Oakland and copublished by Fast Company, Alexander writes of the attempts by that city to legislate “cannabis equity” in order to prevent marijuana’s perennially victimized neighborhoods of color from being completely left out of the Green Rush. The strategy is to give would-be pot entrepreneurs there a leg up on deep-pocketed competitors.
Alexander also profiles an African-American grower, Bryant Mitchell, whose journey has taken the University of Chicago MBA from being a Chevron consultant to a master grower whose Blaqstar operation in East Los Angeles has produced an artisanal strain of weed called Birthday Cake. (Also co-published by Fast Company.) And, in a third story, Alexander interviews an Emerald Triangle bud trimmer, a woman living on the lowest-paying and most exploited rung in the cannabis hierarchy. “Matilda” describes a world of guns, loutish bosses, outhouses and wild bears. And yet marijuana’s legalization may offer the nomadic workers employed by larger pot farms hope in the form of state-enforced workplace protections and the chance to join a union.
Copyright Capital & Main
Los Angeles’ Black Churches Join National Effort to Support Dementia Patients and Their Families
Critical Audit of California’s Efforts to Reduce Homelessness Has Silver Linings
Despite Promises of Transparency, California Justice Department Keeps Probe into L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Under Wraps
The Mission to Save the World Through Regenerative Farming
On the Chopping Block: California’s Climate Program for Low-Income Housing
Climate + Young Voters = Biden Victory, Right? It’s More Complicated Than That.
Organizing the Slopes
Dispelling the Stereotypes About California’s Low-Wage Workers
The Transatlantic Battle to Stop Methane Gas Exports From South Texas
700,000 Undocumented Californians Recently Became Eligible for Medi-Cal. Many May Be Afraid to Sign Up.
No, the New Minimum Wage Won’t Wreck the Fast Food Industry or the Economy
Critical Audit of California’s Efforts to Reduce Homelessness Has Silver Linings
Nurses Union Says State Watchdog Does Not Adequately Investigate Staffing Crisis
Economist Michael Reich on Why California Fast-Food Wages Can Rise Without Job Losses and Higher Prices
Los Angeles’ Black Churches Join National Effort to Support Dementia Patients and Their Families
In Georgia, a Basic Income Program’s Success With Black Women Adds to Growing National Interest
Report: Banks Should Set Stricter Climate Goals for Agriculture Clients
Unionizing Planned Parenthood
700,000 Undocumented Californians Recently Became Eligible for Medi-Cal. Many May Be Afraid to Sign Up.
‘They Don’t Want to Teach Black History’
CLASS WAR: The Temecula School Board Battle
Excavating the Future: Stopping AAPI Hate
Excavating the Future: Stopping AAPI Hate
Excavating the Future: Guarding the Hidden Archive
Excavating the Future: Breaking the Silence
Excavating the Future: Guarding the Hidden Archive
ILL HARVEST
Kaiser Therapists: Strike Is About Complying With the Law
‘What They Need Is Someone at Their Side’
Kaiser Therapists Say Patient Neglect Compels Them to Strike
-
State of InequalityApril 4, 2024No, the New Minimum Wage Won’t Wreck the Fast Food Industry or the Economy
-
State of InequalityApril 18, 2024Critical Audit of California’s Efforts to Reduce Homelessness Has Silver Linings
-
State of InequalityMarch 21, 2024Nurses Union Says State Watchdog Does Not Adequately Investigate Staffing Crisis
-
Latest NewsApril 5, 2024Economist Michael Reich on Why California Fast-Food Wages Can Rise Without Job Losses and Higher Prices
-
California UncoveredApril 19, 2024Los Angeles’ Black Churches Join National Effort to Support Dementia Patients and Their Families
-
Latest NewsMarch 22, 2024In Georgia, a Basic Income Program’s Success With Black Women Adds to Growing National Interest
-
Latest NewsApril 8, 2024Report: Banks Should Set Stricter Climate Goals for Agriculture Clients
-
Striking BackMarch 25, 2024Unionizing Planned Parenthood