“ Distance is the journey . Displacement is the result .” ~ Jaclyn Moriarty
Feature of Month
Mac Briggs ’
Displacement Brought Him to the Missouri Cannabis Market
“ Distance is the journey . Displacement is the result .” ~ Jaclyn Moriarty
Editorial by Clayton Stallings
January 2024 is finally in the books … if you store them in your deep freezer ! Most of the U . S . was hit by an Artic Blast that kept us either confined to our homes or , for the less lucky , trying to find the next train , plane , or automobile to reach those final destinations . The latter was the case for Mac Briggs , one of Missouri ’ s newest commercial cannabis cultivators , as we pivoted our interview plans between canceled flights and car rentals . But being displaced , confined , or adapting to new travel itineraries is nothing new to Briggs .
When he ’ s not stuck in transit , Briggs admittedly spends “ every waking moment of life with cannabis . I slide a little bit of time in there being a dad , but luckily , he is 17 and was raised from the moment he was conceived in an RV on a cannabis grow with a lady I met in a trim circle in the Emerald Triangle .” For those of our readers who don ’ t know , the Emerald Triangle in Northern California has been one of the largest cannabis producers since the 1960s . It has been featured in numerous movies , television shows , and documentaries , including Netflix ’ s 2018 television series Murder Mountain .
Born and raised in Tulsa , OK , Briggs says he first smoked weed at age 15 . The very next day , he bought a postage scale and an ounce of weed and sold his first bag . “ Who would have known how many millions of grams that would lead to ?” Briggs jokingly responded . “ By 18 , I was young and dumb and got into a few pickles in Oklahoma and went straight to grad school for convicts and criminals for two and a half years at a maximum-security prison for relatively minor offenses . During that stay , I celebrated my 21st birthday during a six-month stint in solitary confinement ,
32 February 2024 and I had specific , vivid memories that I was destined to go out west and be free to smoke and grow weed .”
Which is exactly what he did !
“ I went straight to Portland when I got out in ‘ 99 because the cannabis game at the time was all Seattle , B . C ., and Vancouver weed in the late 90s , but 9 / 11 shut down borders along with the best weed distribution channels at the time .”
In 2001 , Briggs went to a music festival in Mendocino County ( photo above ) at the “ Hog Farm ” owned by Wavey Gravy and the Grateful Dead , altering his entire life journey . “ I pulled up in a VW Golf with an ice chest full of mushroom chocolates and started handing them out to all these locals who had lived there for many generations . They were a very tough lot back then — a very skeptical , quiet , clandestine community ,” explained
Briggs . “ When I pulled up with my eccentric , outgoing personality , saying WHAT UP to everybody as I ’ m handing out mushrooms — well , the girlfriends were really cool to me , but the boyfriends were definitely thinking , who the F is this guy ?
“ Low and behold , some of those boyfriends are to this day some of my very best and original friends that I met the day I ‘ fell off the turnip truck ’ in Mendocino .”
After winning over his new community of friends , Briggs got the invite of a lifetime . “ If you wanna grow weed ,” Briggs remembers his new accomplices saying to him , “ you need to move here . There is enough power buried in these mountains to run San Fransisco for a year .” The power , he would later find out , was in the form of diesel generators in hidden indoor grow rooms underground .
Briggs knew getting this type of invite from such a secret , secluded community of cannabis cultivators was a rarity , so he pivoted his life ’ s journey . “ That was the last of regular life that I lived . A few days later , I returned with a fully packed car and a tent to this hush-hush location at a creek with only drawbridge access . I called my new buddy , and he laughed at me , ‘ Oh , I didn ’ t mean quit this year ; we ’ re not harvesting again until next October .’”
With a “ cups half full ” disposition , Briggs didn ’ t let this alter his plans to plant himself in this community of gardeners . “ I found a spot to squat and camp in the woods . I would go into town and became a handyman for whoever would pick me up . Never panhandling , but always being aggressive in finding work around town . I lived in Mendocino