No Refined is probably producing RTF (ready-to-flower) teens for STHZ facilities.
So much of the article you posted a link to is fluff though; nobody cares about all of the "breeding" going on - consumers are looking for good weed and not finding it in CA dispensaries.
More than 90% of cultivators in CA are infected with xxxxxxxx and other pathogenic fungi; nurseries have been unknowingly propagating and selling infected material to licensed CA growers for about two years ++ now. That fungus is effectively impossible to eliminate from any environment; it's all about mitigation.
No, it isn't the black market, 280E, big bad MSO - it is simply a lack of educated people in the market and their "bro science" that is to blame.