Hand & Glove Must Fit

Appears I somewhat influenced the county into somewhat enforcing its cannabis ordinance.

At the Sept 11 BOS meeting, Planning and Building Dept. staff delivered a report on enforcement. Highlights from the report noted that:

• 50 percent of all complaints P&B received are for cannabis-related activities.

• 223 cannabis complaints to-date from 177 locations.

• 64 complaints “in the permit process” from 44 locations.

• 159 complaints for 133 locations not in the permit process. primarily in the north county area that are referred to law enforcement.

P&B code enforcement eradicated 14,000 plants not in the permit process, some violations have occurred even after abating plants.

• Law enforcement eradicated 17.000 plants from 11 locations on referral from P&B code enforcement

• 17 administrative citations have been issued pursuant to 29 complaints

According to an emailer, Supervisor John McCowen “made a point after the presentation to request that the report be made public perhaps after the first of the year, because people are accusing the county of not doing any enforcement.”

This week, evidently spurred by McCowen’s request to be more transparent on enforcement activities, the CEO’s office issued the following announcement:

Beginning Oct. 1, 2018, the Mendocino County Code Enforcement Division will now be publishing news releases on code enforcement activities to the Code Enforcement News webpage on a regular basis.

News releases will be published regularly under the following three categories:

1. Individual significant enforcement actions as they occur

2. Statistical information for periods of time throughout the calendar year

3. Data related to Cannabis Abatement

The Code Enforcement Division of Planning and Building Services receives all Cannabis and General Code Violation complaints in the unincorporated areas of the County. Complaints can be made in person at the Planning and Building Services Department or by visiting www.mendocinocounty.org/codeenforcement. Cannabis specific complaints can also be filed by calling the Cannabis Complaint Hotline at: (844) 421-WEED (9333).

To sign up for Code Enforcement News e-notifications, please visit www.mendocinocounty.org/community/enotification.

At this week’s BOS meeting, the Supes were informed by P&B staff that currently 1,031 individuals had applied for cannabis permits, which represents approximately 10 percent of the conservatively estimated 10,000 cultivators in the county. That, of course, means that 90 percent of cultivators are not in compliance with the ordinance.

I also found it amazing that after nearly 18 months of the cannabis ordinance being in effect, only 189 permits have been “issued” — whatever that means, and only 44 permits have actually been “approved” — whatever that means.

P&B staff also reported that 710 applications were “under review,” while 10 were “in queue” and 51 applications had been withdrawn.

While it’s encouraging that county officials are ostensibly taking some steps to enforce the cannabis ordinance, they clearly have a long ways to go before reaching the goal of full compliance.

Clearly, unless the county accelerates action on enforcing its own ordinance, and the sooner the better — the small family pot farmer’s existence is at peril because they won’t be able to survive in a marketplace dominated by non-compliant growers. Pot prices are at all-time lows because the market is over-loaded with product.

As I’ve said many times before, there are only two basic components to any regulatory framework. There is a cohesive system of regulations and the means to enforce them. They fit like hand and glove. You can’t have one without the other. Yet, that has been the very situation this county has been in since the cannabis ordinance was enacted almost a year ago and a half ago. The hand and the glove have never fit. That has to change if the people who built this industry — the moms and pops —are going to be around to benefit from legalization.

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Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, and is also the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org