Oakland Legalizes Marijuana Farms

"It’s a place where medical marijuana is already legal, and pot dispensaries are wedged between clothing boutiques and coffee shops. It’s got a marijuana university, Oaksterdam, where attendees can learn the ins and outs of pot politics, horticulture, cooking, even “budtending.” And a year ago, Oakland became the first city in the nation to tax its pot dispensaries, in a kind of hippie-meets-"the man" effort to get the city out of the red.

So while opponents may see the city's latest move as one more notch on the slippery slope, it’s no big surprise that local politicians took Oakland's pot policy one step further this week, approving large-scale, industrial farming that advocates believe could net the cash-strapped city a whopping $38 million each year.

Approved 5–2 by the City Council on Tuesday, the measure will grant industrial cultivation licenses to four lucky growers, in plots that can be as large as 100,000 square feet. Applicants will have to pay a $5,000 administrative fee, $211,000 for an annual permit, and then, of course, they’ll be taxed on their sales come January: Oakland levies 1.8 percent on cannabis sales now, and the tax is likely to rise to as much as 12 percent."

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