In the great scheme of things, it didn’t rate so much as an asterisk. As with many historic moments, it passed unnoted, though — like the individual involved — it was in plain sight. The county supervisors unanimously approved John Sherman De Friel’s nomination to the county’s Agricultural Advisory Commission, known to people who attend its meetings as AAC, or “Ack!” — the sound you’d make if someone punched you in the throat.
De Friel may not be a household name, but he is the first cannabis cultivator ever to be appointed to a county board or commission because of his cannabis cultivation prowess. The process of mainstreaming legalized recreational pot clearly still has a long way to go, but De Friel’s appointment Tuesday signifies the extent to which the industry has fully arrived.
In person — bearded, brown-haired, and bespectacled — De Friel looks like someone who could be pouring expensive bean juice at The French Press. But that’s only until he opens his mouth. He’s a certified Big Brain with a graduate degree in bioengineering — almost but not quite a PhD — who genetically designs his own strains. He runs a greener-than-green operation near Buellton, where the pinot grapes like to grow. As a business operator, De Friel is half-cyborg, half-man, having figured out the life span of every plant down to the last drop of evapotranspirated water. He transforms his crop into oil-based resins, which are sold to 130 shops from Eureka to San Diego. As a political animal, De Friel was the one who recognized early on that cannabis growers couldn’t afford to just let legalization happen. As such, he’s led the charge to organize and lobby the county supes on behalf of the new breed of cannabis cats. At public hearings, he’s the one dressed in a yellow Carhartt and farmer-man ball cap, quoting county code in a hyper-caffeinated rat-tat-tat, the way Bible thumpers quote scripture. In other words, he gives off big heat.