Essex Junction cannabis and duck farmer poised to get his growing license back

The Essex Junction man long mired in controversy for growing cannabis and raising ducks in his suburban backyard wants permission to keep cultivating. 

Vermont Superior Court Judge Thomas Walsh ruled late last month that Jason Struthers, who has farmed in his half-acre backyard since 2022, did not violate local zoning laws by cultivating cannabis. The Cannabis Control Board subsequently renewed his license to grow. Now he’s waiting on approval from the city. 

Struthers said in an interview that he had mixed emotions about the decision because he thinks it’s “highly likely (the town) will appeal to the Supreme Court again.” 

City officials denied requests for an interview with VTDigger. City Manager Regina Mahony said in an email that city councilors plan to review Struthers’s recent application for a growing license during an upcoming Nov. 12 meeting. 

Community Development Director Christopher Yuen recommends the city council renew Struthers’ license, according to a memo attached to the agenda for the upcoming city council meeting.

The controversy over Struthers’s growing operation — and his earlier duck farming — has played out across the past three years, sparking shouting matches between neighbors, letters to legislators, the passage of new state laws and now multiple lawsuits. 

The man used to raise ducks, farm veggies and grow cannabis in his residential backyard until his next door neighbors complained to the city about the smell of his crop and the noise from the ducks. The dispute between neighbors went through a series of appeals until it reached the state Supreme Court. 

Struthers argued that the city was acting outside of its authority by trying to regulate his farming practices, which he said are protected under state law from municipal regulation. In turn, his neighbors argued that it was illegal to farm ducks in their neighborhood, which is zoned as part of the city’s residential district — not the agricultural district. 

The state’s highest court eventually ruled against Struthers in June 2025, saying that municipalities can enforce local zoning laws regarding both farming and cannabis cultivation. 

After that ruling, Struthers gave up his ducks last year. Meanwhile, in July 2025, the city issued him a new zoning violation, saying he was out of compliance with the city’s new zoning laws from earlier that year. Those rules restricted where cannabis could be cultivated and required all plants be at least 50 feet from adjacent properties. 

Mahoney said in an email that the city issued Struthers the violation because it “has followed the directive from the Courts.” 

Struthers’s house on Taft Street, a small cul-de-sac close to Essex High School, was outside of the city’s new zoning boundaries, but he had received licenses to grow on his property from the local Cannabis Control Commission since 2022. 

Struthers first appealed the zoning violation on the local level, then brought the dispute to court, arguing that his growing operation was legal because it predated the city’s 2025 rules.

The case had a one-day trial in September, according to Struthers, who represented himself in court. Judge Walsh issued an Oct. 22 ruling that sided with Struthers, stating that his cannabis growing is a “preexisting nonconformity that may continue” on his property, court documents show. The ruling said that the ordinance violation he received was moot. 

Struthers said he thinks the city “acted in bad faith” by issuing him a zoning violation while knowing that his operation predated the new ordinance. He also said he thought the ordinances targeted his operation because his property was mentioned during local meetings when drafting the new rules. 

Struthers has been without a license to grow cannabis for the past year, he said, because the city’s local cannabis commission declined to renew his growing license until the dispute was sorted out in court. 

“It was a really stressful time for me,” Struthers said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Essex Junction cannabis and duck farmer poised to get his growing license back.