It’s called zoning enforcement. Plenty of tools to deal with illegal grows. Pretty easy for PG&E to find these illegal taps. The real solution is going to be when large agribusiness gets involved, no way can the illegal grows compete with a large scale business. Enforcement is already pretty darn strict regarding the outdoor ones, as those really screw up the environment and NOBODY in California puts up with that.
Fundamentally, it’s an easy crop to grow, very amenable to genetic manipulation to create new and better (and proprietary) strains. As always, it’s just getting the fedgov the heck out of the way that will solve the vast majority of the problems.
Black market grows and processing are actually thriving in WA, OR, and CA.
Illegals do much of the work for cheap, as it is, along with landscaping and housekeeping, an easy way to get paid in cash. Most illegals are afraid to work legally.
They are finding that the very high quality bud requires almost 24/7 care and legal grow businesses don’t offer the pay incentives to do it.
Big legal grows are finding that crops get easily stunted and fewer crystals because too many plants all together spread bugs and fungus. So the smaller grows are out producing the larger grows.
When a large grow is of the same strain, any biological attack wipes out or diminishes the entire crop.
Farming 101.