The New Marijuana Service Industry

From “cannabis college” to pot crop insurance, ganja spinoff companies are growing fast.

Celine Nadeau

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Read Josh Harkinson on Weedmart, test your medical marijuana knowledge with our quiz, or see the full Mother Jones special report on the coming pot boom.

California’s “green rush” has inspired a slew of above-ground businesses that cater to marijuana growers. Here’s where budding hempreneurs can…

LEARN HOW TO GROW. With campuses in Oakland and L.A., Oaksterdam University (“America’s first cannabis college”) teaches everything from Horticulture 101 to Patient Relations (formerly called “Budtending”).

SET UP A GROW HOUSE. Good Green Builders, “the first licensed, commercial grow room contractor in the Bay Area,” assures clients that “the whole process will be completed with the utmost discretion.” If your indoor harvest fails to thrive, get advice from pros like Green Thumb Consulting and See Your Green.

GET INSURED. What if your crop burns down or gets ripped off by the competition? Statewide Insurance Services sells policies for “medical marijuana crop coverage” and “mobile grow operations.”

STAY VIGILANT. Monitor your grow with temperature sensors and motion detectors sold by Ecoview Systems; in the event of a fire or a break-in, you’ll get an email alert.

MAINTAIN QUALITY CONTROL. Labs like Oakland’s CW Analytical Laboratories will sample your product for harmful biological or chemical agents. And while the USDA won’t go there, Clean Green will certify your crop as organic.

FOLLOW THE SHOP TALK. Check out Rosebud, “your one source for everything hydroponics from wickedly effective growing info to the lifestyle and freedom that surrounds it,” a glossy dedicated to indoor “crop” cultivation. If you want a magazine that’s not afraid to mention pot, there’s West Coast Cannabis.

LESS DREADING, MORE DOING

This is the rubber-meets-road moment: the early days in our first fundraising drive since we took a big swing and merged with CIR to bring fearless investigative reporting to the internet, radio, video, and everywhere else that people need an antidote to lies and propaganda.

Donations have started slow, and we hope that explaining, level-headedly, why your support really is everything for our reporting will make a difference. Learn more in “Less Dreading, More Doing,” or in this 2:28 video about our merger (that literally just won an award), and please pitch in if you can right now.

payment methods

LESS DREADING, MORE DOING

This is the rubber-meets-road moment: the early days in our first fundraising drive since we took a big swing and merged with CIR to bring fearless investigative reporting to the internet, radio, video, and everywhere else that people need an antidote to lies and propaganda.

Donations have started slow, and we hope that explaining, level-headedly, why your support really is everything for our reporting will make a difference. Learn more in “Less Dreading, More Doing,” or in this 2:28 video about our merger (that literally just won an award), and please pitch in if you can right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate