Land and Law in Marijuana Country: Clean Capital, Dirty Money, and the Drug War's Rentier Nexus

Abstract

Despite its ongoing federal illegality, marijuana production has become a licit, or socially accepted, feature of northern California’s real estate market. As such, marijuana is a key component of land values and the laundering of “illegal” wealth into legitimate circulation. By following land transaction practices, relations, and instruments, this article shows how formally equal property transactions become substantively unequal in light of the “il/legal” dynamics of marijuana land use. As marijuana becomes licit, prohibitionist policies have enabled the capture of ground rent by landed interests from the marijuana industry at a time when the price of marijuana is declining (in part due to its increasing licitness). The resulting “drug war rentier nexus,” a state–land–finance complex, is becoming a key, if obscured, component within marijuana’s contemporary political economy.

Stakeholder Perceptions of the Impact of Cannabis Production on the Southern Oregon Food System

“…As such, rural production counties like those in southern Oregon do not realize much of the total tax revenue Second, as was mentioned already, cannabis producers perceive that most of the production at this point is still illegal and untaxed. The complex dynamic between legal and illegal production described here is consistent with research immediately to the south in northern California (Polson, 2013).…”

Cannabis ( Cannabis sativa or C. indica ) agriculture and the environment: a systematic, spatially-explicit survey and potential impacts

“…One might hypothesize a combination of biophysical factors, such as access to water for irrigation (Bauer et al 2015), and social factors, such as law enforcement activities (Corva 2014). Other factors that might explain cannabis agriculture patterns include land tenure (Polson 2013), local landuse regulation (Polson 2015), and agglomeration economies (Pflüger 2004). Land-use science on cannabis agriculture lags behind research on other crops, but advances in the field will be crucial for predicting future cannabis expansion and moderating its impacts.…”

From Outlaw to Citizen: Police Power, Property, and the Territorial Politics of Medical Marijuana in California's Exurbs

“…Notably, the call for landlord protections emerged during the un-publicized Supervisor meeting attended only by the Fiddletown complainant, who worried about federal threats to seize a landlord’s property for a tenant’s medical marijuana-related activity. Although this threat was being applied almost exclusively to retail outlets and landlords were generally able to retain control of properties regardless of their tenants’ activities (POLSON 2013), the ominous and evolving federal offensive justified a concern for landlords at the expense of patient-cultivators in general, and the poorest in particular.…”