Lompoc Overturns Prohibition Again
Temperance Ends for Marijuana in 2018
A group of ladies in Lompoc are famous for pulling a saloon right off its foundation and dragging it, with whiskey pouring out, down the street in 1885. Lompoc had been founded as a temperance colony that completely prohibited alcohol. But Prohibition against alcohol passed away in Lompoc in 1933, as it had everywhere in the U.S., and the city now boasts itself as wine- and beer-crafting tourism destination.
In November 1996, a majority of Santa Barbara County voters passed Prop. 215 to legalize medicinal cannabis, but the leaders of Lompoc for over 21 years banned the people from having that safe and legal access. Finally, in November 2016, the people of Lompoc voted with a 57 percent majority to pass Prop. 64, legalizing and regulating adult-use of cannabis and ending the prohibition once and for all.
The city manager at the time, Patrick Wiemiller had responded to Prop. 64 — as did Lompoc Police Chief Pat Walsh, former Lompoc Fire chief Kurt Latipow, and City Attorney Joe Pannone — by introducing a shameful ordinance that would have banned every aspect of what the people voted to legalize, with the exception of state mandated activities, which the city had no power to stop.
