The Humboldt Chronicles

Wholesale prices for cannabis have suffered a precipitous decline over the last 18 months, creating severe hardships for Humboldt County cultivators. Some claim that the cost of production now exceeds what the crop can bring at market. In our January episode, we look at the problems facing growers and one possible short-term fix. Our guest is Natalynne Delapp, Executive Director of the Humboldt County Grower's Alliance.

For our final episode in 2021, we sat down with former Humboldt County Supervisor Mark Lovelace, who is now Senior Policy Analyst for HdL Companies, in which capacity he advises cities and counties in California on cannabis policies. Our conversation with Mark included discussions of marketing, the value of the "Humboldt Brand", the tax and regulatory structure in the cannabis industry, and the impact of the large unregulated cannabis market.

Large, well-funded corporate cannabis entities are operating in Humboldt County. Competing with these entities poses significant challenges for Humboldt's small, craft cultivators. Could forming and participating in co-ops offer advantages in this regard? In our October episode, we talk with Nicole Riggs, of the Center for the Study of Cannabis and Social Policy, which, along with Cooperation Humboldt, recently completed a survey of cultivators to measure interest in co-ops. We also spoke with Drew Barber, a member of the Uplift Co-op.

Cannabis cultivators and others at the production step in the supply chain are required by California regulations to use a distributor to bring their products to market. In our September episode, we take a look at the sometimes cumbersome and expensive distribution system within the cannabis industry. Our guests are Shenell Kress of humboldt.farm, and Tara Gurley of Proper Wellness Center.

Our August episode examines the persistence of the unregulated market in Humboldt County after Prop 64 legalization, and considers some theories as to why the market continues to thrive. Our guest is cannabis entrepreneur Chip Baker.

For July, we continue our discussion of the effects of cannabis legalization on the economy and culture of Southern Humboldt. Our guest was Sunshine Cereceda, owner of Sunboldt Grown.

For June, we began a multi-part discussion of the effects of cannabis legalization specifically on Southern Humboldt. Our guest was Hezekiah Allen, a SoHum native, cannabis policy analysist and educator.

Chuck and Larry talk about some stuff.

Federal, nationwide legalization is a development that will potentially have a profound impact on the Humboldt cannabis industry. And while we've been hearing about its inevitability for a long time now, it remains uncertain when, or even if, it will ultimately happen. In our April edition, we took a look at the state of legalization in the US, both at the federal and state levels, and we took a special look at the legalization effort in Idaho, where advocates are facing especially aggressive opposition from the state legislature. Our guests were Jackee Winters of Kind Idaho and Russ Belville of the Idaho Citizens Coalition.

Cannabis businesses don't have access to many services other types of businesses enjoy. Banking is more difficult or impossible, interstate commerce is not allowed, and access to capital, such as small business loans, is limited or non-existent. Humboldt County government, together with the local cannabis industry, created Project Trellis in an attempt to remedy this imbalance. We spoke with Scott Adair and Peggy Murphy of the Humboldt County Office of Economic Development about Project Trellis.