It wasn’t exactly a come-to-Jesus moment, but for former altar boy Dennis Bozanich, it would have to do. Bozanich works for county CEO Mona Miyasato as Santa Barbara’s de facto cannabis czar, meaning it’s his job to get the new industry up and legally operating within the narrow time constraints the state has allowed. Likewise, it’s his responsibility to ensure that black marketeers and noncompliant industry stragglers are enforced out of existence.
This Monday, Bozanich had invited all 96 cannabis operations to the county supervisors’ chambers for some blunt talk. Accompanying them was a flotilla of land-use agents, attorneys, political consultants, and professional planner types. Bozanich played good cop and bad cop simultaneously, holding hands and kicking ass at the same time. It was quite a performance.
“When people ask me what my vision is for the cannabis industry in Santa Barbara County,” Bozanich told the crowd, “I tell them, ‘World domination.’” Bozanich was joking. But only sort of. In the moment, he was exhorting the industry masses to get their act together and create a countywide appellation to better brand their product, as the wine industry has done. The county government, he told them, should not have to be involved. It went without saying — so Bozanich did not say it — that county government is banking on the new industry to contribute mightily to its coffers.