Pubdate: Thu, 11 Feb 2016
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Jeff vonKaenel

OUR MARIJUANA FUTURE

This 'Farm-To-Joint' Moment Could Mean Millions for Sacramento

Californians smoke a lot of marijuana. As you can imagine, it's not 
easy to get an accurate estimate of just how much. Marijuana has been 
called California's biggest cash crop, representing between $11 
billion and $17 billion a year in sales, nearly twice as much as 
California's next largest commodity, milk and cream.

Some say these California crop values are highly inflated. Regardless 
of who is right, legalized or expanded medical marijuana represents 
billions of dollars in sales. This is a mind-blowing number for any 
local community hoping to expand its economy.

The question now before the Sacramento City Council is: To what 
extent can Sacramento be California's marijuana breadbasket?

Sacramento has many advantages. We have agricultural expertise. We 
have land. We have low electricity rates. We have lower commercial 
costs than our coastal neighbors. And as other cities and counties 
reject marijuana production, they are leaving a greater opportunity open to us.

Corey Travis, owner of Two Rivers Wellness, told me that, if 
Sacramento embraces cannabis and its related industries and 
encourages investment and innovation, "We could expect to see 
cannabis market activity approach $500 million per year within 30 months."

He says that this will impact job creation, and that the region could 
see hundreds of jobs that would generate more than $8 million a year 
in new wages. And this could mean as much as $20 million in tax 
revenues to the city of Sacramento.

While these are just estimates, there is no doubt that a thriving 
cannabis industry producing products to be sold outside our market 
would be a real boon to our local economy. Instead of competing with 
other local businesses for sales within our market, these would be 
new jobs creating a product to be sold across California.

New money would come into our market and new jobs would be created 
here. And not just in the cannabis industry. When these new employees 
produce a product that is sold in San Diego or Los Angeles, they have 
money to go out to eat in a restaurant in Sacramento. They use a dry 
cleaner in Sacramento. They go to a grocery store in Sacramento. One 
new manufacturing job can often create five additional new jobs from 
this "trickle down" effect.

There has been concern about safety. Legalization will help address 
this concern. Criminals are not breaking into breweries. Criminals 
are not raiding farms. Once marijuana is legalized, it would become 
more like any other legal operation.

There are concerns about young people using marijuana. But, any local 
high school student with rudimentary social skills and some cash can 
already easily purchase weed on the black market. This was true when 
I was in high school 50 years ago, and is still true today. Marijuana 
is one of the most readily available illegal drugs in the state.

Sacramento has an opportunity to significantly boost its economy by 
becoming a cannabis manufacturing center. We should seize the moment.

Just as the farm-to-fork movement has been a real blessing for our 
region, I believe a farm-to-joint movement would also be beneficial.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom