The business of medical marijuana : a photo essay, Santa Cruz, CA

This report is a photo essay exploring the businesses, nonprofits, collectives, and consumer flow of medical marijuana in Santa Cruz County. Santa Cruz is home to the first nonprofit medical marijuana collective in the United States, the Wo/Manís Alliance for Medical Marijuana. Though medical marijuana is illegal under federal law, President Barack Obama gave leeway to individual states and counties in 2009 to legislate the issue. Medical marijuana is decriminalized in Santa Cruz, which has given rise to a variety of businesses involved in the production and distribution of cannabis: collectives, dispensaries, cannabis testing facilities, and nonprofits. This photo essay visits a spectrum of these businesses to provide insight and visual exploration of the face of decriminalized medical cannabis in Santa Cruz County today.