It's been twelve years since California voters decided to make marijuana legal for medical purposes, with the passage of Proposition 215.
Since then, an enormous underground industry has emerged in the state. There are about 200,000 people in California who have letters from their doctors prescribing them medicinal marijuana. One report estimates that in 2006 Californians grew more than 20 million pot plants, worth about 14 billion dollars - actually displacing corn as America’s leading cash crop. But conflicting county, state and federal laws have created a patchwork of rules and regulations.
David Samuels spent half a year exploring this hidden economic sector and wrote about it in The New Yorker. He joins Word of Mouth with more on the people that make up this emerging industry.
(Photo by Alexandra Moss)
