https://archive.ph/34dSc https:// www. latimes. com/california/story/2021-06-14/california-struggling-marijuana-industry-cash-grants-budget
California offers $100 million to rescue its struggling legal marijuana industry
Marijuana-growing businesses would get help in meeting environmental review requirements for state licenses under a $100-million proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom that has been supported by legislative leaders. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
By PATRICK MCGREEVY | STAFF WRITER
JUNE 14, 2021 4:15 PM PT
SACRAMENTO — The California Legislature on Monday approved a $100-million plan to bolster California’s legal marijuana industry, which continues to struggle to compete with the large illicit pot market nearly five years after voters approved sales for recreational use.
Los Angeles will be the biggest beneficiary of the money, which was proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to be provided as grants to cities and counties to help cannabis businesses transition from provisional to regular licenses.
The governor’s proposal to extend provisional licenses has drawn objections from a coalition of seven environmental groups including Sierra Club California, Defenders of Wildlife and the Nature Conservancy.
They said in a letter to Newsom that the proposal allowing the extension of provisional licenses and interim alternatives to CEQA rules goes against what voters were promised and is “wholly inadequate to protect local communities and the environment.”
Each cannabis grower must provide evidence that they met the requirements for environmental review. If their city and county do not provide the required document, the applicants must prepare one, which often means hiring environmental consultants.
A bill by state Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Salinas) would have allowed the state to extend provisional licenses six years until 2028, but she shelved it after it drew opposition from the coalition of environmental groups.
The groups sent a letter to lawmakers saying that the bill “does not provide adequate environmental protection.”
The Cali farmers who grow food crops get fucked over at every turn, including water. But they'll throw money at weed farms.
And whenever there is water issues liberals blame the farmers. Farmers have been doing more with the same amount of water for decades; it's the cities that have increased the usage. And even then where the fuck do they think that food is going?
Tbh, it's kind of fucking stupid that there is mass farming in California, land of the annual drought mudslide fire, than growing in the south east. Massive amounts of water pumped from elsewhere in the country, instead of just people and farmers living where the water is.
The actual reason they do this is you can always irrigate if it is too dry but you can't do shit if it's too wet.
Huh, I hadn't considered that aspect of how you can drown plants. Thank you for the explanation.