North Bay fires impacting cannabis industry, locals come together to help

Just as the fires in Somona County destroyed California wineries, the same has happened to at least 34 of the area’s marijuana farms, but unlike many neighboring vineyards, even legal cannabis farmers do not have crop insurance because the plant is still listed as an illegal drug, keeping financial institutions out of the industry.

“There is no insurance whatsoever, we are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars of infrastructure uninsured,” North Bay grower Chris Leenhouts said.

Many of the farmers who suffered the greatest losses were working to obtain licenses to grow recreational pot once state regulators started issuing permits on Jan. 1. It’s not only having an effect on those up north, but also on dispensaries like Kind People’s Collective in Santa Cruz.

“Some of the breeders we carry here, their houses burned down, so all of the genetic stock, the mothers, the seeds, all of the buildings blocks are these genetics we use for our medicine here at Kind People, that was all lost by the fire,” said Christopher Carr, who handles Public Relations for the company.

Ultimately, the dispensary and patients will be fine as there are plenty of other suppliers that weren’t affected by the fire, according to Carr. Regardless, he and several others in the Santa Cruz County cannabis industry decided they needed to help, not just those who lost grows, but all fire victims. They’ve been collecting donations of basic necessities, which SC Labs, an institution focused on education and testing of cannabis, along with the Sonoma County Fire Relief Fund, have been driving up weekly.

“If it affects our neighbors up North, it kind of affects us as a whole,” Carr said. But the effort is now switching from physical donations to monetary ones. “Now that you’ve got your toothbrush and your clothes on your back, what’s next?” Shellsea Stoughton with the Sonoma County Relief Fund said. “You lost your grow, you lost your catering business, you work from home, you lost your computer. How do we get the right people the right stuff at the right time?”

The answer to that question, according to Stoughton, is through their website, where you will be directed to a number of different GoFundMe Pages for the fire’s many victims.

You can donate to the Sonoma County Fire Relief Fund HERE .