For three weekends in a row, I received a crash course in California cannabis while working the Cannatrol booth at the California State Fair. I have been to California plenty of times on personal trips, but I had never experienced the state quite like this in the past.
Standing in the cannabis section of the fair, it was easy to understand why it sometimes feels like cannabis revolves around California. California has been at the center of cannabis culture for decades. The state has a reputation for producing some of the world’s most sought-after cannabis, and Californians seem to know it. There is a certain pride in the idea that, when people think about cannabis, they think about California.
And perhaps that reputation is well deserved.
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The 2026 Cal Expo & State Fair marked the fifth anniversary of the state-sanctioned cannabis exhibit, which has become part of the California Cannabis Awards. The competition recognizes cultivators, manufacturers, and brands, and this year introduced something new: awards for home growers. That was significant.
The Golden Bear has been associated with the fair for decades, traditionally representing the best of the best. Beginning in 2022, cannabis cultivators became eligible for that same recognition, with competitions evaluating legal commercial cannabis and its cannabinoid and terpene profiles. This year, I had the privilege of presenting the Golden Bear to the winner of the new Home Grow Competition.
That moment drove home something I heard repeatedly during my time at the fair: cannabis is becoming part of the broader agricultural and cultural conversation.
It was not a typical trade show experience. There were longtime growers, industry veterans, and people who had been part of California’s cannabis story since long before legalization. I heard plenty of reminiscing about Proposition 215 and the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which helped establish California as a pioneer in medical cannabis.
Why drying and curing matter more than ever
I also heard conversations that would sound very familiar to anyone working in cannabis today. One of the biggest was the growing importance of terpenes.
What struck me was how much the public now knows about them. Cannabis consumers are not simply asking how much THC a product contains. They are increasingly interested in aroma, flavor, effects, and the characteristics that make one cultivar different from another. California has been at the forefront of that evolution.
Growers and judges I spoke with discussed how developing and maintaining targeted terpene profiles can help cultivators differentiate their products at a time when the California market is dealing with severe price compression, oversupply, and a significant tax burden. When the price of cannabis falls, quality and differentiation become even more important.
That makes protecting the work that happens after harvest extremely critical.
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As I do at nearly every cannabis event, I spent a considerable amount of time talking with people about drying, curing, and storage. The conversations were particularly interesting in California because many growers have developed very specific – and sometimes deeply personal – approaches to those processes over years or even decades.
Introducing technology into an established process can be a delicate conversation. But I found people were remarkably interested and engaged when we talked about precision environmental control, terpene retention, and consistency.
Those conversations also reinforced something that extends well beyond California: in today’s cannabis market, losing saleable product during post-harvest processing is not simply a quality issue. It is a financial issue.
Every pound lost to excessive moisture removal, inconsistent drying, or degradation represents revenue that never reaches the balance sheet. Labor spent correcting inconsistent batches also has a cost. So does producing a product that does not deliver the consistency consumers expect.
That is where I think the conversation around drying and curing is changing. Improving quality is an important part of the conversation. But increasing operational efficiency and protecting the value of cultivators’ hard work are gaining ground.
California may have been the birthplace of many of the ideas that shaped modern cannabis, but the conversations I had at the fair are also happening across the industry: How do we preserve quality? How do we protect terpenes? How do we reduce waste? And, in an increasingly difficult market, how do we operate more efficiently?
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After three weekends, I left California with an even greater appreciation for the state’s role in cannabis – and for the people who helped build that legacy. But I also left thinking that the next chapter of cannabis may not be about producing more – but rather about preserving what has already been produced.
In a market where every terpene, every gram, and every hour of labor matters, that is a conversation worth having.
*This article was submitted by an unpaid guest contributor. The opinions or statements within do not necessarily reflect those of GreenState or HNP. The author is solely responsible for the content.
