Grow zone: With retailers spooked by prohibition, cultivation only now taking root in the Mat-Su

TALKEETNA — Krystal Dietrich is a born-and-raised Talkeetna resident who, after more than 10 years running a small business transporting horses, decided to throw in for marijuana cultivation when the new licenses became available.

So far, she’s one of only a handful cultivators in the valley likely to be operating in 2017.

The Mat-Su has lagged behind other areas in the state when it comes to marijuana startups, despite a robust reputation for its marijuana product in the pre-legalization days.

Branding for Matanuska weed is already so well established it’s been the inspiration for similar-sounding names for tangentially related goods, such as Alaska Thunder chips and Matanuska Thunder Struck catnip.

But Dietrich and others said that Proposition B1, a measure to ban marijuana businesses that borough voters turned down Oct. 4, caused many would-be applicants to hesitate.

When an early-to-market retailer, Denali 420 Recreationals, opens next month in Houston, it won’t be selling Mat-Su product, its owner said, because there won’t be any available.

A few cultivators in the Mat-Su have cleared state hurdles, however, and are moving through the process at the local level.

David Straub, another cultivator who put in his application and went through the state process early on despite the risks, said he hopes more people will begin to see the economic value of the marijuana industry.

“If we’re able to be examples for others who want to do this,” he said, “if other people say, ‘Oh, it worked for them, maybe I’ll go into the regulated market,’ then it will create more of the legal market we’re trying to get started.”

Like Dietrich, Straub already has some experience in animal husbandry, having bred sled dogs for the Iditarod for several years, and is looking to transfer that skill set into marijuana cultivation.

Dietrich is closer to the finish line when it comes to actually opening, and hopes to have her business, Talkeetna Herb Company, in production by early spring.

“My response from my own community has been absolutely amazing,” Dietrich said. “They are all for it, and they are all helpful.”

Talkeetna Herb Company lies within a Special Use District, or SPuD. Current borough regs don’t require conditional-use permits for businesses that fall under one of those districts, something the borough is already moving to change by January.

Dietrich said her local community council helped her advocate for grandfathering her in under current SPuD rules.

After the fire marshal clears her building and she finishes a little bit of remodeling, Dietrich said Talkeetna Herb Company will produce five pounds per week of 11Up, a purple Indica-sativa hybrid with a THC content at 20 percent.

It will be sold at Denali 420 Recreationals, she said, and other retailers throughout the state, with business contracts in the works.

Meanwhile, Straub’s cultivation business, Alaska Precision, is facing setbacks and easement requirements that could cost upward of $10,000 in upgrades to meet. His facility in Willow is 200 square feet on a six-acre lot and meets state requirements, he said.

Straub said he’s not sure when Alaska Precision will be on line, but expects to produce five pounds per month from 20 plants. He said his years in dog breeding attracted him to a business that focuses on product that relies on what he calls “good genetics,” and that he’ll be specializing in F1 strains, or original strains, that are heirlooms from the 1970s.

“There’s one called Skunk Number 1,” Straub said. “It’s an Afghani cross with Mexican and Columbian sativa. There’s another called White Widow, basically Brazillian sativa crossed with a South Indian Indica, and it made for a really strong, nice daytime uplifting cannabis used for energy.”

Green Degree, a cultivator on KGB Road, is also facing conditional-use hurdles at the borough level, said consultant Sara Williams, with proximity to a nearby worship service at issue and a difference in how the state versus the borough defines compliance.

Not everyone’s in a rush for production, however. Peggy and Miles France, a couple who homestead outside of Willow and have run their Crop Circle Farm for close to four years, are also early starters in the Mat-Su cultivation market.

Along with cultivators Talkeetna Herb Company, Alaska Precision, Green Degree, and two Houston businesses, Calm N Collective and Dank Research, the Frances’ company, The Naked Herbalist, already passed the sniff test at the state level and was awarded a license, and must now work through local government requirements.

“I’m real excited about it,” Peggy France said, who will be adding marijuana plants to a homestead that currently houses cows, yaks, goats, pigs and chickens.

“I’m glad the vote went the way it did and right now we’re working on the conditional-use permit,” she said. “I’m not sure when we’ll have our crop ready, but we’re not in a rush. When we do get a crop, we’re going to try to grow medicinal quality for people that really need it for medical reasons. We got into farming because of food security, and to us, this is just another plant.”