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New laws are being made across the world as people look more favorably at marijuana and cannabis. A lot of countries, like Italy, have decriminalized marijuana and the industry is growing at a very rapid rate. People are taking using the new laws to grow their own supply of marijuana after purchasing the seeds from sites like Royal Seed Bank. In fact, there has been a large increase in Italians growing their own weed. Once the legalisation of weed becomes legal in other states, it may come as no surprise to find that some people may opt to buy equipment like a Freeze Dryer, in the hopes of making their own concentrate to sell. This is a great reference I found for Italians who want to grow weed. Come coltivare la marijuana perfectly explains the growing process here: https://bareleaf.it/come-coltivare-la-marijuana/. However, while most people have a positive attitude of the drug, some think that the number of indoor grow houses popping up around the area is worrying. As we first reported last year:

Fearing a proliferation of indoor grow houses following the passage of California’s Adult Use Marijuana Act (a.k.a. Proposition 64) last week, Mayor Ed Lee has…introduced proposed legislation which would require conditional use authorization for new “indoor agriculture uses” in buildings zoned for Production, Distribution and Repair (PDR), a zoning which currently allows for grow houses to effectively pop-up in San Francisco.

“As emerging sectors get introduced to our city, we must be thoughtful and strategic on how one can co-exist with another, while safeguarding the economic diversity and vibrancy of our city and the jobs of our residents,” said Mayor Lee.

And according the director of San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), “the proposed controls will allow the City time to study and balance the needs of our local manufacturing sector while ensuring all local industrial jobs in San Francisco continue to maintain and grow,” so to speak.

If the Mayor’s proposed legislation is adopted by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, it would be in place for up to 18-months or until permanent measures are adopted, giving the OEWD and Planning Department time to work with the San Francisco Cannabis State Legalization Task Force and the local business community, “to understand the needs and concerns of small businesses and local manufacturers located within these zoned districts.”

A resolution to extend the expiration of the aforementioned interim zoning controls – which were formally adopted at the beginning of this year and were slated to expire in 2018 – for an additional 12 months is likely to be adopted tomorrow afternoon along with the framework for a new San Francisco “Office of Cannabis” which will oversee the permitting of recreational marijuana sales in the city.

This is in light of the long-time efforts of those who have been advocating the benefits of cannabis use, such as Cannabis Talk Network as one example. As time goes on more and more resistant states are becoming open to the idea of decriminalizing and allowing access to this drug to the public.

As of writing, there is plenty of interest in this legislative change; At least 18 registered grow houses popped up within the city limits of San Francisco prior to the passage of the interim controls.

20 thoughts on “Controls to Limit Legal Grow Houses in S.F. to Be Extended”
  1. indoor growing should be banned.
    when people smoke indoor-grown, they’re smoking displacement and pollution.

      1. So, bye-bye every greenhouse and backyard garden in the city? Should we also include the Conservatory of Flowers and any future plans for Flowermart?

        I know we’re talking about herb, but it gets super shifty extremely fast when there’s a blanket ban on anything. As proponents of weed (presumably) you’d know this.

      2. The fire hazard was due to the grow ops being underground and therefore flying under the radar of code enforcement. Once they become fully legal then they can be inspected just as any other commercial site to ensure that they are safe.

  2. Why anyone would want to try and compete indoor with Mother Natures free UV & Other Light range waves is a mystery to me – Mendocino – Trinity – Humboldt Counties already produce over 85% of the nations Cannabis and are likely to increase that %. And with Monterey County and Big AG coming online – phew…. it’s all over for indoors anywhere in #California & #USA once the Feds relist Cannabis from a Schedule 1 drug. It will happen…

    1. From what I’ve heard, the quality of outdoor plants is not as good as indoor grow in a controlled environment. Along with California, Washington state supplies most of the pot for the rest of the country. NY gets its pot from the West Coast. The word on the street is that it used to be $2,500 per lb. of plant, now it is more like $1,500 due to competition and will likely be lower still.

      But I agree, indoor grows should be banned. I would hate to see normal homes get AirPnP since it is a health hazard

      I have no direct stake in the industry so someone else could comment on the veracity of the above statements.

      1. Best quality is greenhouse with controlled light
        Next is indoor but it’s hella expensive to grow
        Finally it’s outdoor – but the quality is still amazing (Depending on the grower)

        Prices have dropped, it’s true. But they’re not in the toilet as some imply.

        As for needing an army to keep Cannabis farms safe. HAHAHAHAAHA… Ahem. Sorry. No, that is not the case. Stop watching Fox ‘News’

        1. So is Nevada growing their own now? They seem to have the space in the desert and potentially huge swaths of solar power farms. It isn’t about smoking pot anymore, it is all of the other pot induced food.

          There was an article in Bloomberg Business Week about the casino magnet Sheldon Adelson who spent a huge sum of money unsuccessfully trying to defeat the legalization of pot in Nevada. Sheldon’s wife, Miriam, an Israeli native and physician runs various drug treatment centers is against the use of pot due to the nation’s high opiate addiction.

          There are already several ETFs focused solely in the industry. Some brokerages will allow those ETF trades while others won’t due to the uncertain Federal legalization. When do you think the Feds will give the green light.

          1. Yes, Nevada is growing its own for the legal recreational and medical market. Right now there is a supply/demand issue for legal weed though. There are two issues main issues creating the supply/demand imbalance (distribution and production).

            First, the proposition that legalized recreational weed gave an 18 month exclusive window to the alcohol distributors to transport/distribute the weed from the licensed growers/producers to the licensed dispensaries. The state in its desire to start collecting tax revenue from recreational sales, started allowing sales as of July 1st. At that point in time, not a single distributor had been licensed by the state, so the only pot available for sale was “left over” supply from the medicinal supply. As the state and the alcohol distributors fought in court, the state allowed dispensaries that were approved for both medical and recreational sales to sell their medical pot to anyone, but they can no longer resupply through the medical supply chain and will need to get new deliveries from a distributor licensed by the state for recreational pot. I believe at this point two alcohol distributors have gotten licensed (they basically just signed subcontracting agreements with existing medical distributors).

            Second, there are likely not enough currently operating and licensed growers to adequately supply both the recreational and medical markets. I read that it will likely require a 3:1 ratio of growers to dispensaries to adequately supply the market, but it is currently about 1.2:1. But this will likely get better over time as more growers enter the legal market.

            I’m not in the industry, even as a consumer, but I’ve heard antidotal reports that currently legal weed is roughly twice as expensive as buying it from the black market in Nevada.

          2. Thanks Rillion for the additional information. I can understand Nevada’s hierarchy of close business networks causing more problems than solutions. I’ve had Nevada folks ask CA folks about starting new grow operations but they should probably look to CO for more answers. Overall, once Nevada gets its footing, they probably could regulate and police its pot business better than CA, in my opinion.

      2. Have read that Columbia will eventually take over. Even seasons, plenty of water, quality light, higher altitudes, cheap labor. They already dominate commercial flower production.

  3. I’m not sure how outdoor crops would survive unless there was a heavily armed security crew to protect the crops from looters. I sure would not want to live near a grow operation.

    1. Same as any crop, do you think wine grapes and avocados aren’t valuable?

      The problem historically is that growing weed was illegal, so you can’t exactly go to the cops if you get ripped off. This is rapidly changing.

  4. Some of us might want to just grow one plant at a time for our own private use. If I got an ounce-and-a-half top quality pot out of each harvest I’d have enough weed to last me around two years at least. I’d only grow a crop once in a very long while, especially if I only grew Indicas and bought the Sativas at the pot shops.

  5. The fact that there’s enough revenue to go around to support even the original eighteen registered grow houses alongside all the people growing, distributing and retailing illegal and quasi legal marijuana just scares the dickens out of me, because it implies, unless you think that S.F. is exporting a significant amount of marijuana, that there’s a very large number of potheads around here to supply all that demand. I didn’t think that the members of the lumpenproletariat had all that much disposable income, and if they do, where’s it coming from?

    1. If you’re going to stereotype, best to avoid charges of slovenliness on your own part: all marijuana – except for the miniscule amt used in research – is “quasi legal”.

    2. Honestly think that “The Owners” have promoted (or at least not quite as vigorously opposed) legal pot is because they know, with automation, off-shoring, temp work/piecework, and the like, there will be nowhere near enough “good” jobs. So, why not encourage people to get stoned with cheap SOMA…err, I mean weed?

  6. Is United Meat a grow? Or that truck in front? Oh wait, do they have a registry for mobile grows yet? Just think, you place your order via Amazon a drone lands on a semi truck traveling on I-5 and ferries your nugs right to your door.

    1. I have not yet heard of anyone trying to market “fresh picked” off the plant buds. I believe that generally it is dried first. Not sure their would be any advantage to having a mobile grow. Also, you can already have pot delivered right to your door from many of the local dispensaries.

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