- California has an agricultural history
that produces some of the nation's best wine and food.
And, next, maybe, cannabis.
Cannabis is a booming business in California,
where those who prefer marijuana
and avoid alcohol identify as "California sober".
But is California cannabis special enough
to claim its own designation,
legally protected to be called California cannabis?
Even though marijuana is still illegal under US federal law,
marijuana is an estimated $28 billion business in America.
Many states allow recreational cannabis use by anyone
over 21, similar to alcohol.
And, now, the state of California
is betting on cannabis catching on,
just as the state's $42 billion wine industry did.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture
is working on a program to brand cannabis
from certain parts of the state,
so consumers will know exactly where their cannabis was grown,
and how.
Sonoma Hills Farm is to receive
the California Department of Food
and Agriculture's OCal certification.
OCal is comparable to the United States Organic Program.
It's a way to distinguish a product
and, usually, make a lot more money.
For example, a bottle of wine
that says Napa Valley red wine is generally worth more
than a bottle that just says red wine,
because consumers know where the wine grapes were grown.
- The major feature is the wind.
We're about nine miles from the ocean, from the Pacific Ocean,
and the wind comes blowing in about 30 miles an hour,
for at least a couple hours out of every day
and it creates this sustained wind
that really beats up the plants, in a good way.
So it beats up the plants and they grow a little shorter,
a little stouter, and they also express a little more oils.
There's a little more yield and, truthfully,
the terpenes are a little higher
and the high is a little different.
- The buds from female cannabis plants are what is known
colloquially as marijuana.
The buds are complex.
Female cannabis buds contain naturally
occurring active compounds, known as cannabinoids.
One of these cannabinoids, THC, is known to give cannabis
a psychoactive effect, also known as being high.
Different strains of marijuana have different levels of THC,
from point four percent to 31%.
It's kind of like the alcohol level on a bottle of wine.
- Everybody knows about THC as the product
in cannabis that gets you high,
but there's a lot of other cannabinoids and terpenes
that create an entourage effect
and really make you feel differently and steer the high.
So, if those are expressed at a higher level,
it creates a more rounded high that has a different experience
than just the straight THC high.
- Master gardener Aaron Keefer grows cannabis,
alongside vegetables and flowers,
at Sonoma Hills Farm.
He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America
and used to be the gardener at the famous French Laundry,
the next valley over in Napa.
He promotes the comparison of wine and cannabis
at private dinners on the farm. - Cheers, yeah.
- These dinners pair food and cannabis,
cooked by big-name chefs.
Because it's one thing to focus on growing.
It's another to get people to appreciate
the art of consumption.
Many are so focused on the illicit nature of marijuana
that consumption has just been
wherever you can without getting caught.
Now that cannabis is legal in California,
Keefer is trying to create cannabis lifestyle tourism,
similar to wine tasting.
- My dream would be that cannabis is treated
as a third leg of hospitality.
We've had food and drinks and pairings for a long time.
Now, we have cannabis to bring in there.
And the chefs come here and they understand
where their food is coming from, you know.
We are drinking wine, still, and we have cannabis as well.
That world, where all three of those pair well together,
I think, will be absolutely wonderful.
- Even though cannabis is well-known for its smell,
the idea of pairing cannabis flavors
and food isn't well-known.
- Like when I'm cooking with cannabis,
it's normally just for flavor.
It's not about getting high.
- You might take one little puff of cannabis
in a course situation and so it doesn't
really overpower or smoke out the room, if you were.
But it does enhance the meal.
Anybody who's ever smoked cannabis
knows that it enhances even Cheetos,
so, why wouldn't it do the same for a talented chef's products?
- Some in California wine country don't like the stigma,
smell, and water usage cannabis farms have.
- It is true it uses more water per acre than grapes,
but the amount of effective doses
that come off of one acre of cannabis,
it would take 100 acres of grapes to do the same thing.
- As California grows its marijuana industry
through appellation laws,
there are still tens of thousands of people
incarcerated in America for violating marijuana laws.
Marijuana is still a class
I drug federally, alongside heroin.
And millions more Americans have criminal records
from marijuana possession.
It's estimated that Black Americans
are four times more likely to be arrested
for violating marijuana possession laws
than White Americans.
- Sonoma Hills Farms supports the Last Prisoner Project,
which helps free prisoners who are still in jail
from the leftover laws of prohibition of marijuana.
So, there's people in jail today.
As corporations today are paying millions of dollars of taxes
and billions of dollars of taxes to our government,
there are people in jail for nonviolent cannabis
offenses today because it used to be illegal.
So, we're definitely supporting the Last Prisoner Project
and supporting the release of all those nonviolent prisoners.
- The FBI, in 2019, estimated that more people
were arrested for cannabis-related crimes
than all violent crimes put together.
So, you're paying taxes? - Yes.
- To the state? - Yes.
- To the federal government? - Yes.
- The business that you're doing,
that is illegal on a federal level,
the federal government gladly accepts taxes from you,
knowing what you are doing.
It's not like you're lying to them
about what you're doing here.
You're really open about it. - We're 100% open.
We have our annual state license.
Everybody knows what we're doing.
We're paying our taxes all the way through.
So, it is kind of mind-boggling.
It is kind of a rift in reality when you think
that you're paying taxes
and there are people in jail for cannabis offenses, you know?
It's, hopefully, something we're going to fix soon.
- Sonoma Hills Farm hopes marijuana consumers will pay
a premium to know their grower,
just like at some farmers' markets.
Will consumers be able to tell the taste and effect difference
between freeway or farm-grown marijuana,
like a bottle of two-buck chuck versus a Dom Pérignon?
Sonoma Hills is betting the farm the answer is yes.
I'm Mary Beth Albright with The Washington Post.