Fund the Cannabis Compliance Team

Open Letter to the Board of Supervisors:

In 2019, when the cannabis tax was approved by voters, the Board of Supervisors promised to “use the majority of cannabis revenue to fund departments and agencies that oversee regulating and enforcing the cannabis industry.” At the cannabis industry’s request, you adopted a revenue standard of “self-declaring” rather than the industry standard of taxing cannabis by acreage or foot.

For the past three years, an underfunded and understaffed Cannabis Team, composed of one Lead Detective, five Deputy Detectives, and one civilian Administrative Staff, have had the prime directive of enforcement for the cannabis industry in S.B. County. In addition to being assigned enforcement on all cannabis growers in the entire county, they have now been assigned the duties of overseeing licensing (without additional funding or staff), previously assigned to the Planning Department. Furthermore, coming down the pipeline, there are multiple, huge and complex cannabis projects that will put even more demands upon the team.