The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to ban all outdoor cultivation of non-medical marijuana at the board’s April 4 meeting.
The 45-day urgency ordinance temporarily prohibits the cultivation, distribution, transportation, storage, manufacturing, and processing of cannabis and cannabis products, including industrial hemp, in Santa Barbara County. It also bans personal outdoor marijuana cultivation, though people are still permitted to consume marijuana and grow up to six plants inside their residences, per state law.
County Planner Jessica Metzger said at the meeting that county staff would return to the board in May to extend the urgency ordinance by 22 months and 15 days, while the supervisors work on creating a permanent set of regulations.
“This urgency ordinance will give us time to analyze all the issues associated with [the Adult Use of Marijuana Act] and create sound regulations for the multiple facets associated with the legislation,” Metzger said.
Supervisor Das Williams, who represents the 1st District, said during the meeting that though he supported the urgency ordinance, it failed to quell his concerns enforcing county regulations.
“This isn’t going to forestall some of the enforcement issues that we have,” Williams said. “There’s not enough differentiation between people who are trying to be in compliance with the law and people who are loosey-goosey with the law.”
After the supervisors voted to implement the ordinance, they moved into a discussion about a registration system for growers interested in obtaining state licenses to commercially cultivate marijuana starting in 2018. The supervisors voted 4-1—with 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf dissenting—to set an April 11 hearing to potentially adopt a registry ordinance.
This article appears in Apr 6-13, 2017.