Cannabis Cultivator Receives Over $1M Settlement for Wildfire Damage
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]A[/dropcap]n unidentified Carpinteria-based cannabis cultivator has won an insurance payout of over $1 million after their crop was destroyed from the Thomas Fire that raged through Santa Barbara County and Ventura County last December.
While most of the cannabis farms that were devastated from the fires were not covered by insurance, a few lucky ones had rare insurance policies in place. The cultivator, who wishes to remain anonymous, was insured through Brown & Brown Insurance, a leading insurance firm.
“A lot of this wasn’t insurable,” Matt Porter, a vice president at Brown & Brown Insurance, told the Santa Barbara Independent. Porter now has about 20 clients in Carpinteria and Lompoc. Porter explained that he’d written out the cannabis cultivator’s crop insurance policy, just before Thomas Fire took place.
Per the policy’s language, any “change in atmospheric conditions” amounted to the $1 million settlement. The insurance carrier is reported based in London, England. Porter indicated that because the cannabis farm payouts were so massive, the insurance carrier decided to abandon cannabis cultivators in the future. Porter is looking into other European insurance carriers to replace the old one.
For the crop insurance, the Carpinteria cultivators that were involved paid $30,000 in premiums with a $25,000 deductible.
The Thomas Fire did a lot more than just burn crops. White ash particles left non-burnt cannabis with unacceptable levels of asbestos, lead, arsenic, and magnesium. Cannabis with smoke or ash damage has no chance of passing inspection. With the market value of cannabis being pegged at between $1,000 and $1,600 per pound, a lot of money is on the line.
Sadly most insurance companies won’t even consider covering cannabis cultivators because of cannabis’ federal status as a Schedule I drug, but companies like Brown & Brown have dabbled with cannabis cultivation companies.
