Cannabis farm was a model for California's legal industry. Then came a sheriff's raid

[PufPuf23]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Last edited Fri Feb 14, 2020, 06:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: LA Times via MSN.com

To marijuana industry boosters and Santa Barbara County officials, Barry Brand was one of the "good players," a longtime Gerbera daisy grower who pitched cannabis as just a new type of flower in the greenhouse.

When county officials gave reporters a tour of a licensed grow last year, they picked Brand's operation on Foothill Road to showcase how their regulations were working and would make it all but impossible to divert marijuana to the black market.

Last month the Santa Barbara County sheriff revealed a crease in this tidy snapshot. On Jan. 22, detectives served a search warrant at the farm and reported finding a stash of more than 100 gallons of concentrated cannabis oil, an extraction lab and evidence of "off-book" sales" — all illegal.

"They were considered to be sort of the models," said Bernard Melekian, the former undersheriff who became the county's cannabis czar last month. He chuckled about his predecessor taking The Times on a tour of the farm in May. "I realize there is a certain irony there."



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cannabis-farm-was-a-model-for-californias-legal-industry-then-came-a-sheriffs-raid/ar-BB100dOs?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=spartanntp

---

I support legal marijuana but agree with ""I realize there is a certain irony there."

I am a Humboldt county native and current resident in old age and IMO there are many problems to be worked out in a commercial cannabis industry and like most anything else there are those that take personal advantage of the current situation. For one, it is blatantly obvious that the black market (edit to insert) "is necessary" to sell current production.

[rickyhall]

1. Prohibition must end!

[Codeine]

4. It's totally legal here.

As with any industry there are rules and regulations, however.

[marble falls]

2. Do you suppose I could get a quart or so of that oil? For testing purposes only of course ...

a friend of my cousin wants to know.

[hibbing]

3. Dreaming of a gallon of that oil n/t

[Jokerman]

5. Many legal products are sold "off the books" to avoid taxes.

I remember when my dad's bottles of home brewed beer were technically illegal in our state.

[PufPuf23]

6. The diversion of deliberate over production into the black market

is only one issue and your Dad selling home brewed beer is not a very good comparison.

Here in Humboldt there appears to be just as many raids (of non-permitted farms) and more violence.

The farmers (and cannabis industry) cannot use banks (state cannabis conflicts with federal law), have armed security, and the locations are public record and not that hard to find as they are much larger and no attempt is made at concealment with legalization. I would wager that some of the invasion rip offs are false in that it is the means to divert product into black market and avoid income and other taxes.

So called "Mom and Pop" grows have suffered and most were better off before the current legalization laws and regulations.

And so on.

[Blues Heron]

7. Something about weed just causes cops to lose their minds

Do they do this with barley - the precursor to ethanol?

Grow a little weed and they just flip out. It's like copnip or something.

[Warpy]

8. It wasn't six months ago but it is now

Once the blootleg THC cartridge/ARDS death story broke, the legitimate guys who were making THC vaping products for the legitimate market got hammered by plummeting sales among cannabis patients who didn't realize tocopherol acetate was being added by shady people to thicken the juice, not by the operations trying to comply with the law (and common sense).

There is likely more diversion now than their used to be just for this reason, alone.

It's just one more reason the drug needs to be reclassified at the Federal level, allowing single states to do what they will.

[ripcord]

9. Remember "If they would just make it legal I would never break the law again"

This hurts the businesses that are obeying the laws, plus the illnesses and deaths linked to THC vapes were all from illegal operations, throw the book at the irresponsible assholes.

[Omaha Steve]

10. After a review by forum hosts....LOCKING

This is a feature piece, not LBN.