The Independent‘s glowing profile of Glass House Farms’ New York Stock Exchange listing reads more like a corporate success story than balanced journalism. There is nothing wrong with reporting on business success. But where is the discussion of the growing evidence linking today’s high-potency cannabis to increased risks of psychosis, depression, anxiety, cannabis use disorder, and earlier onset of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in vulnerable individuals? Where is the reporting on the families coping with addiction and serious mental illness, or the increasing burden on our healthcare and behavioral health systems?
Big Cannabis has not been the economic success Santa Barbara County was promised. Residents have endured years of odors, environmental concerns, code enforcement costs, and public controversy. Meanwhile, taxpayers continue to shoulder millions of dollars in regulatory, enforcement, and public health costs, while cannabis tax revenues have consistently fallen far short of expectations.
The profits are privatized. The costs are socialized.
The people paying the price are often the most vulnerable among us: adolescents whose developing brains are still developing, individuals predisposed to mental illness, families caring for loved ones in psychiatric crisis, and communities already struggling with addiction, homelessness, and untreated mental illness.
A newspaper’s responsibility is not simply to celebrate corporate success. It is to examine whether that success has benefited the community. On that measure, Big Cannabis has been a poor investment for Santa Barbara County. Readers deserve journalism that tells the whole story.
