Boom-and-bust cycles are part of this California county’s history, from gold mining in the 1800s to the crash of the logging industry. Legal cannabis was supposed to be a lifeline for residents. But that promise has quickly collapsed.
Xong Vang and Chia Xiong arrived in Douglas City, a town of the Gold Rush era, hoping to make good from the next big California boom.
“People say you live paycheck to paycheck, but there’s no paycheck to live off of,” Xiong said, standing amid budding plants nestled on the slopes of a rugged peak.They are among hundreds of local cannabis growers entangled in a legal impasse that has kept many from planting and led some to consider joining a thriving underground economy that was supposed to decline after cannabis was legalized by Proposition 64.
Some illegal growers have diverted streams, poisoned the land with toxic chemicals, destroyed wildlife habitat and threatened people who stray near their plantings. in what became known as the timber wars. At its peak, the timber industry was a major employer, with 28 sawmills; today, only one remains open.The regulated market was supposed to provide a stable economic foundation for this county with a population of about 16,000 that is among the poorest in California , while ousting the unsavory characters who had abused the land and sowed fear among residents.
Vang, 38, and Xiong, 37, are part of an enclave of 11 Hmong families, among the hundreds of people who moved to Trinity County hoping to grow commercial weed. Many, he said, invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their businesses and in a county system that is unreliable and threatens to push away manufacturers, distributors and others who rely on products from the region.
Xong Vang, 38, eats a pear picked on his Trinity County cannabis farm. He tries to be self-sustainable by growing much of the family’s food as he struggles to stay afloat with the farm.
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