With fires already consuming 200,000 acres in the Northern California area. The devastating effects on vineyards and crops in Napa and Sonoma Counties are going to be felt right before the recreational debut of marijuana in the region. Farmers in the region are reporting entire harvest being scorched in Sonoma County and Mendocino County. Mendocino is one of three counties in the Emerald Triangle where most of the United States marijuana is produced.
The executive director of the California Growers Association Hezekiah Allen said farmers reported at least seven farms had been destroyed with that number to increase significantly as people returned to there homes. Ten of thousands of cannabis growers reside in the Northern California area. The effects of this type of loss to marijuana farmers is especially huge due to the fact that they run these operations without the ability of acquiring insurance. Still illegal under federal law the marijuana industry is run off mostly cash, making it difficult to get insurance. People will lose everything with no way of replacing anything hitting many families really hard.

Not only are the crops directly in the line of fire affected but also those that are close will lose value due to cosmetic and smoke damage. With October being a harvest month most of these farms will lose everything with no way of recouping any profit from this crop. Marijuana depends mostly on flavor and scent for its value smoke damaged crops are not what consumers are willing to pay top dollar for. Leaving the industry with a big void to fill for the January 2018 recreational use in California.