Dan Golden has grown cannabis for almost twenty years on a 70-acre Humboldt County farm and refinanced the land to pay for expensive fees and permits required for legal compliance. The property sits in a remote valley, three hours from the nearest store, and Golden describes cultivation as life-or-death work. California legalization since 2016 introduced complex laws, steep permit costs, and taxes that undermined legacy craft cultivators. Promised protections for small farmers largely failed, and many support programs either failed or were denied. A recent excise-tax increase and ongoing regulatory burdens risk further crushing remaining legacy growers and their communities.
Dan Golden has been growing weed for almost 20 years. As he hand-watered his plants on his 70-acre farm, he maintained a firm stare. He's long abstained from alcohol-ever since his daughter was born-and his daily routine begins at 6 am. "This is life or death for me. I've never done anything else," said Golden. The property is seated in a narrow valley in Humboldt County, California, a three-hour drive from the nearest store in Garberville, with large rock outcroppings running east to west.
Cannabis has long been part of counterculture in America, and arguably no place and its peoples have done more to fuel the evolution of the plant and its mythos than Humboldt County. And yet, perversely, no place has been as left behind by legalization. Through a series of broken promises, legislative missteps, and onerous compliance measures, the small, legacy farmers once on the front lines of normalizing marijuana for decades have been snuffed out.
Collection
[
|
...
]