Humboldt Farmers Face License Crisis: Goldenhour CEO Responds
In a devastating blow to Northern California's cannabis community, hundreds of Humboldt County cannabis farmers are at risk of losing their cultivation licenses due to outstanding tax debts.
As the March 31st deadline looms for payment of Measure S cultivation taxes, more than 75% of the county's approximately 1,000 permit holders carry tax debt averaging $12,000 per farmer—with some owing over $150,000. The crisis highlights the disconnect between optimistic market projections from 2016, when voters approved the cultivation tax, and today's challenging reality for small farmers.
Harsh Reality for Legacy Cannabis Farmers
Measure S established tiered tax rates based on cultivation method: $1 per square foot for outdoor grows, $2 for mixed-light, and $3 for indoor operations. Despite county supervisors reducing these rates to 10-30 cents per square foot in recent years and deferring payments, the accumulated debt has become insurmountable for many growers.
Craig Nejedly of Talking Trees Farms, one of the state's first permitted operations, described receiving a nearly $30,000 tax bill as "a total shock." Like many farmers, his business faces a cash flow crisis exacerbated by distributors and retailers who have failed to pay for product—a common problem that has wreaked havoc throughout California's cannabis supply chain.
David Spradlin: "This Is Extinction-Level Damage"
Goldenhour Collective CEO David Spradlin didn't mince words when responding to the situation:
"What's happening in Humboldt County amounts to cultural extinction. These aren't faceless corporations; they're multi-generational family farms that have perfected their craft over decades and are now facing annihilation over tax debts accumulated during an unprecedented market collapse.
"When voters approved Measure S in 2016, we were all operating under different assumptions about what the legal cannabis market would become. Nobody predicted the perfect storm of over-taxation, regulatory burdens, limited retail access, and plummeting wholesale prices that has devastated small farmers.
"The irony is brutal—we finally got what we wanted with legalization, only to find the system built to regulate it is systematically eliminating the very people who created this industry and maintained its integrity through decades of prohibition.
"The county needs to recognize that wiping out hundreds of permitted farmers won't solve their budget problems—it will only drive more cultivation back underground and further erode the tax base.
"The legacy farmers of Northern California are the soul of this industry. Their knowledge, genetics, and connection to the land cannot be replaced. When we lose them, we lose an irreplaceable part of cannabis heritage and the economic foundation of these rural communities."
Looking Forward
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss the issue at its March 25th meeting. The board could approve enforcement measures at that meeting or extend the deadline.
Meanwhile, the Humboldt County Growers Alliance urged compassion, noting that the county had already collected over $55 million in Measure S taxes from 2017 to 2021 when most farmers were current on payments.
As Executive Director Natalynne DeLapp stated, "We don't want to lose our friends and neighbors."
At Goldenhour, we remain committed to supporting and advocating for the legacy farmers who form the backbone of Northern California's cannabis community. We'll continue to update our newsroom as developments unfold.
