RUCH -- Back in the day, cops knew James Bowman as "Hippie Jim." With his beard and long ponytail, the moniker fit the small-town counterculture outlaw who grew his own weed deep within southern Oregon's national forests.
Nearly 20 years later, Bowman still has the beard. Crow's-feet bunch around his eyes from long days in the sun. But at 52, he's less a hippie and more a savvy entrepreneur, the CEO behind The High Hopes Farm, a sophisticated marijuana enterprise. This year the farm will produce hundreds of pounds of premium pot for an estimated 200 Oregon medical marijuana patients.
Bowman, who once did a three-year stint in federal prison for his role in a marijuana growing ring, is among thousands of pot growers operating openly under the state's medical marijuana law. An analysis of Oregon Medical Marijuana Program data by The Oregonian shows Bowman produces pot for more medical marijuana patients than any other grower in Oregon.
This year he plans to cultivate about 400 plants, each producing an estimated 3 pounds of marijuana. That translates into 1,200 pounds of pot, more than a half-ton, with a black market value of more than $1 million.
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