The Emerald Cup is not like any country fair you have ever visited.

Forget prize piglets, pie-eating contests and sheep-shearing demonstrations. This fair is dedicated to showcasing the very best marijuana grown in California, and by extension, the world.

Cannabis-wise, we are in a remarkable moment. The prohibition that has put California growers and users on the wrong side of the law is breathing its last gasp, having sustained a major blow in 1997, the year voters legalized medical marijuana. The smart political money (and there's a lot of it) is on total legalization, sooner rather than later.

HUMBOLDT – Those involved in the marijuana industry now have the chance to put their names on a county registry that will allow priority processing once the state launches a medical marijuana licensing system.

A resolution authorizing registration with the county gained unanimous approval at the Dec. 8 Board of Supervisors meeting. Brought forward by Board Chair Estelle Fennell and Supervisor Ryan Sundberg, the resolution establishes a registry that is immediately in effect and addresses a provision in new state law that allows the opportunity for priority license processing to those who sign onto it.

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Solicitor General, Donald Verrilli Jr., issued a statement Wednesday advising the Supreme Court not to hear a lawsuit Nebraska and Oklahoma filed against Colorado’s marijuana legalization law last December.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Board of Supervisors will take its first look at the commercial cannabis cultivation ordinance passed by the Planning Commission last week. When they do, the principal thing they’ll be looking at is questions of land use — what sizes of commercial grows will be allowed where, with which sorts of permits. 

Why will the Board of Supervisors be looking at these questions? Why has the county been crafting this ordinance?

The strawberry fields of Ventura County won't become marijuana fields anytime soon.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to reaffirm and formalize bans on commercial cultivation and sale of medical marijuana in the unincorporated areas of the county. All 10 cities in the county have similar bans, some of them formal and some of them de facto.

The ones without formal bans are working on them now, in the wake of state legislation passed in October that for the first time provides a full regulatory system for medical marijuana.

Santa Barbara’s proposed medical marijuana ordinance will allow people to grow marijuana at their homes for their own personal medical use, but if they buy the drug at a dispensary, it must come from outside of Santa Barbara.

That’s one of the ironies of the city’s new effort to regulate growth and distribution of marijuana in the city — Santa Barbara won’t allow people who grow marijuana for personal use to then sell it to a dispensary in the city. 

As California moves towards legalization of marijuana, even for recreational use, longtime growers have a dilemma. A group that is used to operating covertly has some resistance to coming out into the open. On the one hand, they don’t want to miss the potential that legalization will bring, but they worry about revealing information that could be used against them. Case in point is a new offering from Humboldt County.

Humboldt’s Good Standing

In October of this year, California Governor Jerry Brown signed the Medical Marijuana and Safety Act (Assembly Bills 266 and 243 and Senate Bill 643, hereafter the MMRSA). The MMRSA finally regulates California’s medical marijuana industry at the state level almost 20 years after the Compassionate Use Act made medical marijuana legal under state law.

Local control is important, Jacob said, so officials “can shape the economic future our community wants, not just whatever the state wants.” Issuing cultivation permits locally “can dramatically affect the cannabis economy,” he said

Owing to conflict of interest rules, Jacob can’t talk about marijuana regulations at City Hall but he is free to advocate the resolution, which would be sent to the supervisors and other city councils but is not binding on any of them, he said.

Palm Desert has tightened its reins on medical marijuana, adopting an ordinance that strengthens its current ban on dispensaries while adding a moratorium on cultivation and delivery.

Palm Desert has tightened its reins on medical marijuana, adopting an ordinance that strengthens its current ban on dispensaries while adding a moratorium on cultivation and delivery.

The city already has a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in place, but tightened its regulations ahead of California’s Senate Bill 643, the “Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act” of 2015 – or MMRSA – which goes into effect Jan. 1.