After months of research, I decided to move to California and build a lab testing business in Lompoc and serve the legal cannabis growers in the Santa Barbara County community. It was surprising to me to read in the Santa Maria Sun that the “Coalition for Responsible Cannabis” is now resorting to suing the county using an environmental law to attack organically grown, pesticide-free cannabis (“Battle in the valley,” April 30). The coalition’s claim that the county’s oversight and review of cannabis applications is inadequate is just a thinly veiled scare tactic to drive up costs for local cannabis farmers and the county staff costs.
Over the last year, I’ve had the pleasure of touring several of these local farms, most of them family run, and I met the dedicated people behind them. The kinds of cannabis business leaders that the Santa Barbara community and regulatory environment have invited are the primary reason that I had the confidence to move my family to the county and commit to serving this industry. I’ve watched the Board of Supervisors meetings for the last year and have been consistently impressed by their thoughtful deliberations and reasonable debate on the issues surrounding cannabis farms. I strongly support the county supervisors’ efforts to defend against this blatant attempt by a small minority of wealthy individuals to change the rules just because they didn’t like the result.
Leo Welder
Santa Barbara
This article appears in May 14-21, 2020.