Six years ago, just weeks before California voters legalized cannabis for adult recreational use, I visited a couple named Swami Chaitanya and Nikki Lastreto in a remote part of Mendocino County, where they’ve grown high-quality, organic cannabis for the medical marijuana market since 2003.
We sat in the rustic living room of their sprawling wood home shaded by giant Douglas firs. As we spoke, Chaitanya, who is old school when it comes to cannabis consumption, lighted a joint.
What, I asked, is going to happen to small growers like you after California opens the floodgates to recreational use? Won’t big companies with rich investors drive you out of business? How will you compete?
The couple were optimistic and confident. They had, after all, a great reputation in the industry and their brand, Swami Select, was well known to pot connoisseurs.
“Mass market pot is going to come from greenhouses in places like Fresno,” Chaitanya told me at the time. “That stuff will supply the vape pens. But if you want to survive in Mendocino County, you’ve got to be growing something close to the quality of the best cigars. We have to become the Cuban cigars of pot.”
And not incidentally, the law, if enacted, would be on their side. [Read More @ The LA Times]
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