GLEN ELLEN, Calif. (AP) – The same wildfires that destroyed Northern California wineries also took a toll on the region’s marijuana farms.
Growers were about to begin an important harvest less than three months before the nation’s largest recreational pot market opens for business in January. An industry group says at least 31 marijuana farms were destroyed and many more damaged. That number is expected to rise once farmers are allowed back to their property.
Unlike wineries, pot farmers do not have crop insurance. Because the plant is still listed as an illegal drug under federal law, financial institutions stay out of the industry.
In this photo taken Oct. 15, 2017, Marcos Morales, co-founder of pot company Legion of Bloom, stands on the ruins of a state-of-the-art drying shed in Glen Ellen, Calif., where 1,600 pounds of ready-to-ship bud were destroyed in a fire. (AP Photo/Paul Elias)
The damage is expected to have little impact on the state’s overall marijuana economy because thousands of growers were unaffected, especially in the three-county region known as the Emerald Triangle.
In this photo taken Oct. 15, 2017, Marcos Morales, co-founder of pot company Legion of Bloom, walks through his farm of ready-to-harvest pot plants in Glen Ellen, Calif. A fire tore through his farm, destroying hundreds of plants and over a thousand pounds of ready-to-ship pot. (AP Photo/Paul Elias)
In this photo taken Oct. 15, 2017, Marco Morales, center background, and farm manager Michael Hausmann, right background, fetch gasoline from a tank that surprisingly survived a fire at the large marijuana farm they operate in Glen Ellen, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Elias)
In this photo taken Oct. 15, 2017, pot farm manager Michael Hausmann looks over damaged marijuana plants at Legion of Bloom pot farm in Glen Ellen, Calif. Fire damaged 1,600 pounds of drying bud and smoke ruined 2,500 plants still growing when a blaze ripped through Glen Ellen last week. (AP Photo/Paul Elias)
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