California nuns sell weed, struggle with profit post pandemic

In the middle of California’s Central Valley, in a modest milky-blue home on one acre of farmland, lives a small group of nuns who sell weed. The Nuns of the Valley are a community of self-described sisters who spread spirituality and market medicinal cannabidiol products rather than being a religious institution.

The Sisters make all their products by the cycles of the moon and in a spiritual environment. They are known more popularly as ‘The weed nuns’.

“We are the activist Sisters of The Valley, and we are on a mission to heal the world through plant-based medicine. Like our Beguine ancestors, we are scholars who work together, pray together, and are dressed to identify our enclave,” reads their website.

“Nestled in the impoverished but agriculturally rich Central Valley, our order makes honorable jobs to support our community through organic health products. All products are hand-made by women; saged to the moon cycles, set on the new moon, and bottled under the full moon. Our medicine-making is guided by ancient tradition, with care and respect for the Earth’s plants.”

Before the pandemic they were grossing $1.2m a year (£1m), but now they are making half of it.

Selling through dispensaries might help them rebuild, but that would mean even more regulations, and higher taxes.

The so-called “green rush” of cannabis production is concentrated in California. In 1996, it became the first state to legalise marijuana for medical purposes, and it has been since 2016.

The legality of marijuana cultivation, however, varies from county to county and city to city due to the state’s law’s numerous regulatory gaps.
Consequently, even though it is legal to use cannabis in the state, approximately two thirds of California’s towns have outlawed the establishment of marijuana companies, and the remaining ones make it very difficult to get permits.