On Friday, US senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) introduced legislation to legalize marijuana at the federal level—a bill called SR 420, of course. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have so far expanded access to weed in some form. But with federal law lagging behind, the states have landed in a tangle of rules that are at times contradictory, self-defeating, and lacking in scientific support.
For the many people affected by the marijuana industry, some of the most pressing questions center on what the industry itself should look like as it morphs from small, underground farms to explore cannabis, particularly its health effects. And universities haven't exactly been clamoring to fund studies into how and where cannabis is grown.
But late last month, UC Berkeley opened the Cannabis Research Center to start tackling some of these social and environmental unknowns. With its proximity to the legendary growing regions of Northern California, the center can start to quantify this historically secretive industry, measuring its toll on the environment and looking at how existing rules affect the growers themselves. The goal is to create a body of data to inform future policies, making cannabis safer for all.
In California’s Humboldt and Mendocino counties, growers fall generally into three groups. Some growers work on their own land, but without the permits the state now requires to produce cannabis; a second cohort does the same but with permits. The third contingent is the trespass growers, who schlep equipment into federal land and set up ad hoc operations. If you’re a researcher trying to study these different operations, the first hurdle is figuring out how many are out there in the first place. Even if you were able to hike across the entire Northern California countryside and find every last grower, many of them are not going to be happy to see you.