By David Downs, San Francisco Chronicle
 
California’s $21 billion cannabis economy is reeling from likely more than a billion dollars in crop losses related to a series of deadly wildfires that swept through the cultivation heartlands of Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties this week.

Up to one-third of the annual outdoor cannabis crop in those regions could be destroyed or significantly damaged as 22 wildfires continue to burn in California. The fires have torched more than 170,000 acres and thousands of homes, farms and businesses, and taken the lives of at least 31 people. Hundreds remain missing.

 The entire supply chain has been damaged as well, because the fires swept through not only cannabis gardens but the properties of seed breeders and those who make and sell cuttings, as well as cannabis oil extraction facilities, manufacturers and distributors.

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