No. 3: Cannabis legalization leads to mixed local results
The year has mostly been rough for the local cannabis industry, though there were some bright spots.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office began working with the National Guard, along with state agencies, to crack down on unpermitted cannabis grows this year.
But that crackdown didn’t go exactly as intended. Because Code Enforcement was using satellite imagery to flag greenhouses that might have been used for commercial cannabis grows, they began targeting some people who weren’t growing cannabis at all.
Willow Creek farmer Tom O’Gorman and the Neukom Family Farms, both of which grow fruits and other produce, were among those who received abatement notices.
If those abatement notices weren’t cleared up within 10 days, notice recipients were at risk of paying $10,000-a-day fines.
They eventually had their abatements cleared up, and the Humboldt County Planning and Building Department made some changes to the abatement process to give the issuing field officer the authority to examine the property and retract the notice right away.
That wasn’t helpful for people like Christina Dowling and Michael Shamel, who were both very ill and no longer lived on the property where greenhouses began popping up. Shamel tried to remove the greenhouses, but they were set back up again, leaving the pair with almost half a million dollars in fines.
Things weren’t all gloomy. Cannabis businesses were booming in the county in 2019, particularly manufacturing, with
over 60 cannabis businesses in Eureka.
Well over half of those were in manufacturing and distribution, and the industry added 300 to 600 jobs in Eureka over the course of two years.
Not all of those were producing products high in THC, the compound in cannabis that creates intoxicating effects, but also CBD, which has been linked with reducing inflammation and easing other health issues.
Guy Rocourt, chief product officer at Papa and Barkley, told the Times-Standard that the company’s CBD products are “designed to be like a fine scotch.”
“Most CBD products are like eating high fructose corn syrup,” he said, “whereas we’re trying to get you organic cane sugar.”
The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. public safety power shutoffs in October stifled several dispensaries’ sales and affected their employees’ hours. One dispensary reported losing $20,000 as a result of the shutoff.
Growers, on the other hand, weren’t as impacted.
Terra Carver, executive director of the Humboldt County Grower’s Alliance, said many of the growers she knew were some of the least impacted because
their entire operation is off the grid and built to run on solar energy.
Even with decades of the industry’s presence, cities like Fortuna and Ferndale remained opposed to having dispensaries, while cities like Rio Dell became more receptive to commercial cannabis manufacturing.
Allowing commercial cannabis activities, with the exception of dispensaries, at the Humboldt-Rio Dell Business Park allowed the city to collect $70,000 in local taxes and raised the total assessed property value at the business park by $2.6 million.
Fortuna City Manager Merritt Perry said the Fortuna City Council was concerned allowing cannabis businesses would attract crime, but also didn’t “want to see a psychoactive drug being distributed in the city.”
In October, the city council unsuccessfully tried to shun a cannabis oil manufacturing facility from the city’s sphere of influence. City officials acted with a great deal of indignance — Councilman Dean Glaser said at a meeting the county was “supporting evil.”