Massive Tax War Erupts Over California's Largest Weed Farm

A giant cannabis farm near Camarillo is locked in a huge legal battle with Ventura County over a million dollars a year in taxes. Glass House Brands owns the massive 160 acre property and they are claiming the county is overcharging them by millions. This fight has been dragging on for years and it involves a total disagreement on what a massive greenhouse is actually worth.

🍅 From Tomatoes to Cannabis

The story started back in 2021 when a subsidiary of Glass House Brands bought the land on the Oxnard Plain. At the time it was a well known farm that grew tomatoes and cucumbers. Glass House paid 93 million dollars in cash for the site which has five and a half million square feet of greenhouse space.

Since the sale the company has been busy turning those vegetable greenhouses into the biggest legal cannabis farm in the state. They already grow weed in three entire greenhouses and they are currently expanding into a fourth. But while the plants are growing the tax bills are piling up.

📉 A Massive Gap in Value

The big problem is that the Ventura County Assessor’s Office thinks the property is worth way more than what the company paid. The county assessed the land and buildings at 183 million dollars right after the sale. By 2025 that value climbed to 188 million dollars. When you add in all the expensive equipment the total value for tax purposes hit a whopping 251 million dollars.

Glass House Brands says this is totally wrong. They argue the value should have been set at 99 million dollars. Their lawyers say that you have to value what the property was at the time of the sale which was a vegetable farm not a finished cannabis operation. If the company wins this appeal they could save about 1 million dollars every single year in property taxes.

👮 Raids and Lost Revenue

This tax fight is not the only drama at the farm. Back in July the site was hit by a massive immigration raid. Federal agents arrested 361 people and one worker tragically died after falling from a roof. The company says the raid caused a huge labor shortage and cost them tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

The county assessor’s office stands by its high valuation. They say the property became more valuable because of a ballot measure called Measure O. This law made it so only existing greenhouses could be used for legal weed which basically gave Glass House a monopoly on large scale cannabis farming in the county. The county also pointed out that the previous owner was involved in every step of the sale so they do not think the 93 million dollar price was a fair reflection of what the land is really worth. A final decision from the appeals board is not expected until September of 2026.