CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2016, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“'FIRE SALES’ A HINT AT LIFE AFTER POT LEGALIZATION?”
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2016, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“'FIRE SALES’ A HINT AT LIFE AFTER POT LEGALIZATION?”
You’ve seen fire sales. They happen
when goods or real estate are discounted sharply after fire damages a store or
a building. But the term has new meaning in rural Calaveras County, where the
devastating Butte Fire swept through thousands of acres last year, the
seventh-worst wildfire in recorded California history.
It’s just possible that what’s
happening near towns like Mountain Ranch, Murphys and San Andreas could
foretell at least one aspect of life in fertile parts of California if
Proposition 64 passes this fall and legalizes recreational use of marijuana.
Here’s one example of what’s going on,
as told via email by a Calaveras County property owner (not personally involved
in this story): “An 80-year-old widower whose property burned near Mountain
Ranch decided to sell and move to 'town (San Andreas – population 2,783).' He
listed his scorched 37 acres at about $350,000 with a broker in town. Next day,
he gets a call to come in; there’s an offer on the table. He goes to the broker
and receives $500,000 in stacks of bills.”
It’s a fire sale in reverse, in part
because marijuana entrepreneurs figure pot will be completely legal in
California after the fall vote and in part because growers find burned-over
properties far easier to farm than wooded ones that need clearing.
This transaction was fairly typical
for the last year in a boom real estate market spurred by burned-off land, the
presumption Proposition 64 will pass easily and the fact that surrounding
Sierra Nevada Mountain foothill counties have tighter restrictions on growing
the weed.
One real estate broker in the hamlet
of Valley Springs reported selling 36 vacant properties in the month of March.
Another in San Andreas reportedly sold 16 parcels in three weeks.
But there’s more than a real estate
boom under way in the county. Residents report that longstanding deed
restrictions against driving heavy trucks on privately-maintained dirt roads
leading to remote properties are routinely ignored as start-up growers haul in
heavy loads of fertilizer and machinery.
There’s also the possibility of
violence in what is shaping up as a Wild West atmosphere. The same property
owner who reported the quick 37-acre cash sale at more than 40 percent above
the asking price also gave this report: “A resident near our land walked across
his property to the fence that divided his place from the grower’s next door.
Two men with rifles came toward him and warned him to stay away from the fence.
He’s decided to sell and leave the area.”
County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio did not
deny that this episode and others like it have occurred.
A non-grower who lived through the
land boom in Mendocino County in the state’s so-called “Emerald Triangle” after
medical marijuana was legalized in California via the 1996 Proposition 215 said
the scene there was similar until county regulations took hold and settled
things down.
Hoping to accomplish the same,
Calaveras County supervisors in May adopted local rules allowing pot grows of
up to a quarter-acre on properties of at least two acres and grows of a
half-acre on properties of four acres or more. These plots would be larger than
any permitted in California outside Humboldt County, another Emerald Triangle
area where legal cannabis fields can reach a full acre.
None of this includes illicit pot
farms long common in rural California, often operated by drug cartels. These
frequently poach state or federal lands and water.
“We definitely have some cartel
growers here,” said Sheriff DiBasilio. “But we eradicate those grows whenever
we find them. It’s hard to know who’s behind them, though, because once they
hear our helicopters, the workers disappear very quickly.” When such workers
have been caught, they’ve often been undocumented immigrants, many from South
and Central America.
“California has been a bit wild
compared to other states that have legal marijuana,” said Steve Gormley,
founder of Seventh Point LLC, a private equity fund that invests in marijuana
growing. “Law enforcement officials need to have a clear understanding of
regulations and enforce them in a careful manner.”
No one knows for sure whether the
atmosphere reported in Calaveras County will be duplicated elsewhere if pot is
legalized. But the scene’s similarity to previous pot booms indicates that’s a
good bet, and no one can be sure exactly where this might occur.
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Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, go to www.californiafocus.net
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, go to www.californiafocus.net
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