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The green rush: Two NorCal marijuana companies hope to strike gold in the cannabis industry
From inside a souped-up golf cart, Michael Steinmetz, the founder and CEO of cannabis cooperative Flow Kana (888-850-2999, flowkana.com), shows me around his soon-to-open 80-acre site that’s practically a Disneyland for weed. Next spring, Steinmetz, 30, will launch Flow Cannabis Institute, a marijuana processing and distribution plant in the industrial warehouses in Mendocino County that used to house Fetzer Wines. With recreational activities that go far beyond lighting a blunt (think ganja yoga, weed-and-wine-pairing dinners and cannabis massages), the institute plans to take pot to the next level. And this is just the beginning of the buzz building in Northern California: Steinmetz and other young entrepreneurs are cashing in on the state’s recent legalization of recreational marijuana (set to go into effect January 1) not only to harvest copious amounts of pot but also to bring cannabis into mainstream culture. Aided by fertile soil and a temperate climate—the same land and weather combo that helps grapevines thrive—new cannabis companies are springing up all over Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. The influx of highly educated business-savvy stoners looking to hit gold is akin to the forty-niners who made their way to California in the 19th century. This contemporary edition has been dubbed “the green rush.” Michael Steinmetz, founder of Flow Kana Photograph: Courtesy Flow Kana While people in Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity Counties (collectively known as the Em