When it comes to tackling illicit cannabis grows in Santa Barbara County, 2019 has been a busy year for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
Since the beginning of the year, the Sheriff’s Office—its cannabis compliance team specifically—has carried out at least nine operations to shut down cannabis production and grow operations, seizing plants, bud, and cash in the process.
The latest raid was one of the department’s most high profile. Working in concert with multiple law enforcement agencies in SLO and Santa Barbara counties, the compliance team served search warrants on March 28 at 805 Beach Breaks—one of only two Grover Beach dispensaries—as well as a large cannabis cultivation site in Los Alamos.
The raids were conducted after a monthslong investigation. According to a statement from the Sheriff’s Office issued shortly after the raids took place, the case involves the cultivation of illegal plants, fraudulent licensing, and the diversion of cannabis to the black market. The Los Alamos grow was one of the largest the compliance team has investigated since it was formed in June 2018, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
“The team determined there were hundreds of thousands of illegal plants and thousands of pounds of processed marijuana ready for sale,” the statement said.
As it publicizes one of its biggest pot busts yet, the Sheriff’s Office is set to get an infusion of funds from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for marijuana-related operations. Documents from the county show that the Sheriff’s Office will accept a $58,000 grant from the DEA.
According to a letter of agreement between the two agencies, the money will be used specifically to eradicate or suppress illicit cannabis in the county. This is not the first time the Sheriff’s Office has sought money through the federal Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program grant, according to sheriff’s spokesperson Kelly Hoover.
“We have applied for the DCE/SP grant in the past, and the Cannabis Compliance Team can utilize the grant funds only for cannabis eradications in the unincorporated areas of the county,” Hoover said in a written response to questions from the Sun.
A county staff report stated that the money would be primarily used to pay deputies for overtime worked during cannabis-related operations.
“There is evidence that trafficking marijuana (illicit cannabis) has a substantial and detrimental effect on the health and general welfare of the people of the state of California,” the DEA’s letter of agreement with the Sheriff’s Office states. A 2014 report released by the agency raised several concerns about cannabis use, including that increasing potency could lead to increased dependency, delinquent behavior, and a rise in drugged driving.
“This is not the marijuana of the 1970s,” the report stated.
California voters opting to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016 created a clash between the state and federal law. While cannabis can now be sold for adult recreational use in the state, its use, possession, and sale is still illegal under federal law. The grant agreement between the Sheriff’s Office and the DEA appears to reflect that tension. The agreement specifically prohibits using the funding to help issue cannabis licenses or permits, conduct background checks for licensing or permits, collect state or local taxes on cannabis, or to monitor compliance with any state or local laws that permit the growing, manufacturing, sale, or distribution of cannabis.
The DEA started providing funding to suppress or eradicate cannabis in 1979, beginning with Hawaii and California. The program rapidly expanded to all other states by 1985. According the DEA, the agency provided resources for cannabis eradication and suppression to 126 state and local law enforcement agencies in 2017, resulting in the seizure of more than 3.3 million plants, with California alone accounting for 2.4 million of those plants.
The DEA program’s efficiency has been called into question, however.
A 2018 report on the program by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) raised concerns about the program’s oversight. The report stated that a review of the program found that some law enforcement agencies inconsistently reported data to the DEA.
“As a result, this information is neither fully accurate nor reliable for assessing program performance,” the GAO report stated.
According to its agreement with the DEA, the Sheriff’s Office will have to submit data to the DEA on all the seizures made using the funds and turn in monthly expenditure reports to the agency. The Sheriff’s Office will have $32,000 of the grant funding available through June, and the remainder of the money will become available for July through September.
Staff Writer Chris McGuinness can be reached at cmcguinness@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 4-11, 2019.