Grateful Dead legend Jerry Garcia’s relatives are truckin’ out of California, apparently because the Golden State’s high taxes and anti-business climate are just too harsh on the family’s marijuana business.

Garcia Hand Picked, which the late guitar wizard’s family started in 2020, told SFGate.com the company just can’t make a go of it in the Golden State. An industry expert blamed high taxes, competition from the black market, and soaring crime for the decision to pull out of California.

“We’re taking a pause in California,” a spokesperson for Garcia Hand Picked parent company Holistic Industries said. “We want to ensure California consumers have the highest quality flower for the long term, so we are choosing a new local partner for cultivation, production, sales and distribution of Garcia Hand Picked in CA.”

Jerry Garcia’s Grateful Dead weed brand is leaving California. Federal law blocks pot companies from deducting most business taxes from their federal taxes, making pot businesses pay an effective federal tax rate as high as 80%. https://t.co/lFj1gFaOH9

— Chronicutopia (@badboychronic) January 29, 2023

Garcia, who died in 1995 at age 53, was born in San Francisco and founded the band there in the 1960s. More than two decades after his death, California legalized recreational marijuana, a policy decision the hard-partying musician would have certainly endorsed.

“This was a hard decision for them, they love California,” cannabis industry expert Andrew DeAngelo told the outlet. “They were born and bred here. This is very painful for them, I guarantee that.”

DeAngelo said the Garcia family is facing the same high-tax, high-crime realities as other Golden State entrepreneurs. Since 2020, California has seen an exodus of high-profile companies, with many going to red states with lower taxes and safer streets.

“Not only is Garcia leaving, a lot of people are leaving,” he said. “It’s a real shame California is losing out.”

The Garcia Hand Picked brand of marijuana will still be sold in Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Oregon.

California, which has a 15% sales tax on marijuana, has reaped over $4 billion in tax revenue since legalizing pot. It also collects money from retail licenses, which can cost $100,000 annually, taxes on growers, and local taxes which are in addition to the state levies. But legal cannabis companies complain that the state doesn’t do enough to crack down on the black market, allowing unfair competition to flourish.

Last November, GreenMarketReport.com warned of a “mass extinction event” for California’s legal pot industry, reporting that licensed companies were carrying unsustainable debt and were unable to pay their bills.

“In the next 12 months, I think half the retailers are going to be in business,” Matt Yamashita, founder of Grizzly Peak, a Bay Area indoor grower and distributor, told the site. “I think 80% of the people in business will be gone. It’s inevitable. The bubble is going to burst.”

RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tyre Nichols, responded to the tragic death of her son during an interview over the weekend where she expressed disappointment over the fact that the police officers involved were black.

Five former Memphis Police Department officers were arrested and charged for their alleged involvement in the death of the 29-year-old male, who died earlier this month in a hospital days after a confrontation with police.

Nichols died on January 10, three days after Memphis police pulled him over in a traffic stop, local media reported. Nichols, and the five former police officers charged over his killing, are black.

Authorities stopped Nichols on January 7 for “reckless driving” near Raines Road and Ross Road in Memphis.

Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmit Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith have all been charged with two counts of official misconduct, local media reported, with one count of official oppression, second-degree murder, aggravated assault-act in concert, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping.

“I believe in my heart, that my son was here on assignment from God,” Wells told Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s “Politics Nation”. “He finished his assignment and God took him back home. Even though this tragedy happened to my son, I truly believe that there’s going to be a greater good that comes out of this. And that is what keeps me going and continuing to fight this justice for my son because I’m not going to stop until every person that had anything to do with my son’s death is prosecuted to the fullest of the law.”

“I hate the fact that it was five black men that actually did this to another black man,” she added. “My son probably was their age. They just brought disgrace to themselves. You know, I’m not an evil person. My son is not an evil person. We’re gonna forgive these people. I actually want to pray for their families, because their families didn’t deserve any of this either. They just brought disgrace to everyone.”

WATCH:

Mother of Tyre Nichols: ‘I hate it was five black men that did this.’

pic.twitter.com/tPArnhk6XS

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 31, 2023

Wells previously told CNN that those who protest her son’s death should not riot because that is not what her son would have wanted.

“I don’t want us burning up our cities, tearing up the streets, because that’s not what my son stood for,” Wells said. “And if you guys are here for me and Tyre, then you will protest peacefully.”