As soon as it went from hippies growing in the mountains and selling by the lid for $100, to mafia, cartels, and thugs, the dream of decriminalization was no longer possible. Most of us who run personal grows are doing it to specifically avoid all of that, and get the quality/variety we want. As much as I like the thought of treating weed like any other plant you would grow in your garden, that just won't ever happen. It is either going to be legalized and regulated or left as it is. Decriminalization would just make the criminal element kick it up a notch in terms of maintaining territories and overall violence. When I say criminal element I don't mean the growers... the commercial growers for the most part are the ones who do in fact get screwed on this deal, but that is what it is. If you sold your own product by the sack there wouldn't be the organized criminal market in the loop and the world would be looking at this differently. I'm sure some do sell there own, but the major suppliers sell in bulk.
From the standpoint of Cali, I'm not sure how all of this will shake out. Being from the Midwest, I see things here and have a good opinion on how legalization would shake out on a national scale. If the prop in Cali passes, it will be a test run for the whole country and a MAJOR step toward national (and then soon global) legalization.
Right now Cali has the ability to maintain it's own usage which is different than most parts of the country. To take all the current growers and legitimize them won't happen because of the security lengths that have been forced upon the growers throughout prohibition. You won't be able to run 4K watts in your basement, you wont be able to bypass your electric meter, you won't be able to grow on state forest land, and (presumably) eventually you will be forced to label your product with approximate thc levels, type of effect, and duration of onset of the effect so that people know what they are buying. Outdoor growers will constantly be worrying about being downwind from hemp or competitions pollen and it will turn into an indoor or greenhouse growing market.
I agree with the article posted that there will be huge tourist appeal... it will be Amsterdam all over again. To compare it to the Napa Valley wine country is not even close. The Mendocino area will be crawling with people looking to sample the worlds finest. There will be money to be made, it will just be through legal avenues like shops, hotels, restaurants and all the general businesses that are around to support tourism and permanent population. Land prices will go up so current land owners will have something of great value that they can either sell or borrow against to start a business of their own.
From the standpoint of commercial entities getting in on the game, I am sure there will be many. You can count on the Marlboro brand of weed, but don't think it will be easy on them! As stated earlier it will take them a while to get up and rolling but they will employ local people with experience growing to get them started. Just think of all the jobs that will be available in and around as well as a result of the new cannabusiness!! There will be a need for agricultural machines that can do the work of harvesting, and deseeding and then rolling if they do a prerolled thing. Current commercial rolling machines used for rolling cigs are not capable of dealing with the resins of weed, so prerolleds will either be low resin varieties or mixed with tobacco. I guess what I'm saying is that the current growers who are able to modify their ops to whatever regulations are imposed and can streamline things to maximize profits are going to do fine, and I personally wish them the best of luck. those who won't be able to fit into the regulated system will be able to find work in or around the industry. If I were they I would start looking at warehouses capable of indoor production and ideal land tracts if anything is actually available. Shit, even just an acre of land could produce quite a bit of product if you didn't have to hide it from Johny Law!
Regardless of how it shakes out it will be interesting to see it unfold. The times they are a changin...
Jed
Officially.