Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Files Lawsuit Against Stinkiest Central Coast Growers
Group Alleges Some Cultivators Are Public Nuisance in Push to Replace Masking Agents with Carbon Scrubbers
The Coalition for Responsible Cannabis — a Santa Barbara County–based nonprofit that sprouted in 2017 as a way to encourage accountable and neighbor-friendly cannabis businesses on the Central Coast — filed a lawsuit Thursday against several cultivators, including Ceres Farms, Valley Crest Farms, and the Van Wingerden Family Trust, alleging that the growers are sustaining a stinky public nuisance with their subpar odor abatement.
The lawsuit was filed by attorney Robert Curtis of Foley, Bezek, Behle & Curtis, who previously led a nuisance lawsuit that led to a settlement resulting in Carpinteria’s first permanent “carbon scrubber” filtration system. Curtis is representing the Coalition for Responsible Cannabis and three individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit: Chonnie Bliss Jacobson and the owners of the Rose Story Farm, Dr. William Hahn and Dani Dall’Armi.
The main goal of the lawsuit, according to a statement released by the Coalition for Responsible Cannabis, is not to get monetary compensation but instead to push these specific cultivators to use carbon scrubbers, a “proven and effective odor abatement technology,” which the group says is preferable to the chemical masking agents that have “plagued residents of the area” for years.
