At Tuesday’s (May 6, 2025) Board of Supervisors meeting, the Board unanimously approved the following agenda item:
4i) Discussion and Possible Action Including Approval of Transmission of Letter of Request to State Agencies and Lawmakers for Greater Collaboration from State Agencies to Enforce Cannabis Laws on Unpermitted Grow Sites in Mendocino County (Sponsors: Supervisor Haschak and Sheriff-Coroner).
By a 4-0 vote (District 4 Supervisor Bernie Norvell absent), Supes John Haschak, Madeline Cline, Ted Williams and Mo Mulheren all backed the “Hail Mary” letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, Nicole Elliott, Department of Cannabis Control, the State Water Resources Control Board, Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Senate Pro Tem President Mike McGuire, and Assemblymember Chris Rogers.
In all of the years I’ve spent as an advocate for good government, and also as Chairman of the Laytonville Municipal Advisory Council, I never thought I’d live long enough to hear the adjective “stellar” used to describe this county’s performance in conjunction with its failed and broken Cannabis Ordinance. Yet in the very first sentence of their letter imploring the state to bail them out of the prodigious regulatory mess and economic wrack and ruin that county officials brought on citizens, they have the impudence to declare they have done a “stellar job.” If they’ve done such a stellar job why are they sending a Hail Mary letter to the state?
Here’s the letter:
“Mendocino County, working with the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) has done a stellar job in processing cannabis cultivation licenses so that they can get their state annual permit. This process is working. Yet, in Mendocino County, the number of unpermitted cannabis sites continues with associated environmental damage and crime.
“Major tension stems from the accountability placed on legal cannabis growers by County and State regulations, while unregulated bad actors continue to thrive. Many legal operators have thrown in the towel and abandoned the occupation that once paid their bills and allowed them to support the local economy. The scale at which unregulated cannabis is currently operating in Mendocino County significantly contributes to the collapse of the industry and a central reason for the continued proliferation of unregulated grows.
“The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors in conjunction with the Mendocino County Sheriff respectfully requests the DCC along with other State regulatory agencies support our County in cleaning up Mendocino County’s unregulated cannabis industry, which we feel has impacted the local environment and quality of life. Negative impacts including environmental, social, and economic destruction all stem from a lack of enforcement.
“Environmental degradation continues to occur due to illegal cannabis. Illegal dumping connected to these unregulated activities leaves tons of trash across our beautiful rural countryside. Often, dumping occurs in our waterways and sensitive aquifer recharge areas. The Sheriff has documented many cases of illegal pesticide and herbicide use in these grows which probably represents a fraction of overall usage. This is a direct threat against the environment and the water quality of Mendocino County, which we respectfully ask the State Water Resources Control Board as well as the Regional Water Resources Control Board and the California Department of Fish and Game to allocate resources and increase enforcement to protect.
“The unregulated cannabis industry has brought along with it increased lawlessness in our communities. The criminal activity adjacent to illegal cannabis far exceeds the danger of the cannabis itself – it is the additional illicit drug sales, violence, human trafficking, and murder that creates strain on local law enforcement and real concerns of safety in our communities.
“Amongst the over 600 permitted cannabis growers in Mendocino County, many struggle to maintain their businesses when competing with farms that have no regulatory expectations, who can get away with environmental infractions, and continue to sell in the unregulated, untaxed illegal market.
“The Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Kendall believe that the State has the ability and obligation to address the issue of unregulated cultivations in our County. With appropriate enforcement, our communities can be free of water diversions, unregulated pesticides and herbicides, hundreds of tons of plastic waste, the many social crimes, and unfair competition to the regulated cannabis industry.
“It is time to support local, legal cannabis farmers and residents alike by standing up to the illegal activities that harm our communities.
“Sincerely,
“John Haschak, Chair, Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
“Matthew Kendall, Sheriff, Mendocino County”
During public comment on the issue approximately 10 people, including yours truly, addressed the Board. In conflict with my better judgment, I reluctantly supported the Hail Mary letter.
Here’s my remarks:
“This County has purposely — and foolishly — refused to enforce their own ordinance allowing scuffalaws and criminal cartels to thumb their noses at the Cannabis Ordinance.
“All regulatory frameworks have two required and legally mandated components. There is 1) a cohesive and internally consistent set or system of regulations and 2) the means to enforce them. They fit like hand and glove. You can’t have one without the other. Yet, that has been the very situation this county has been in since the cannabis ordinance was enacted eight years ago. The hand and the glove have never fit. County officials stated from the very beginning of the pot legalization process, they were not going to enforce the Ordinance.
“Most importantly this County has done nothing to protect the backbone of the marijuana industry, the so-called “mom and pops.”
“And I’m speaking of the legitimate small family farmers, the ones who’ve been here for years, and who are part of our rural communities’ social fabric and integral to our local economies.
“These folks are getting red-taped to death at the bottom end by complex, convoluted permitting and licensing regulations, and getting crushed from the top by mega-growers and cartels who are flooding the marketplace with monstrous pot harvests that depress prices.
“With this County’s pre-meditated plans and policies to not enforce its Marijuana Ordinance coupled with its well-publicized proposals to allow 10% cultivation on total acreage owned, and the actual illegal implementation through so-called “re-interpretation” to double marijuana cultivation areas, you have created absolute civil and criminal chaos in a county once renowned in the pre-Legalization era for its small farmer, “Mom and Pop” sustainable and successful economic model.
“What needs to be done immediately at the county level is to create a simplified, streamlined process that specifically addresses the predicament of the small family cultivator. It would involve a simple cap on the number of plants (25 to 99), a minimal application fee of $100, and an annual renewal fee of the same amount. Small farmers would pay applicable taxes just like everyone else in the industry.
“California’s legal cannabis market recently hit another grim milestone: There are now 10,828 inactive and surrendered pot licenses in the state and only 8,514 active ones, meaning dead pot licenses now outnumber active ones, according to the Department of Cannabis Control’s data dashboard.
“Now in the post-legalization era with the collapse and failure of both the state and Mendocino County Cannabis programs, what do we have?
“We have the situation where two-thirds of the citizens who live in the unincorporated areas have seen their once stable local economies devastated and undermined by this county’s failed Cannabis Ordinance.
“In the Laytonville area alone we have experienced the closure of the historic Boomers Bar and restaurant, the Wheels Cafe and Bar, the Weathertop Nursery, the Long Valley Building Supply and Lumber Yard, and the one-year closure of the town’s Long Valley Market. School enrollment is down.
“The Laytonville Food Bank has more than doubled in providing services to the families and individuals who are now reliant on it for basic food needs.
“The Laytonville County Water District is all but insolvent due to the loss of one-third of our revenues directly linked to the failed Cannabis Ordinance.
“Sheriff Matt Kendall said recently some areas of this County have become a hotbed of illicit cannabis activity with cartel activity and murders. He also stated that ‘roughly 50 percent of all homicides come out of illegal grows.’
“So, while it’s probably too little too late, I agree that this last ditch effort to enlist the aid and support of the State of California in cleaning up Mendocino County’s unregulated cannabis industry, which has impacted the local environment and quality of life, along with all the negative impacts including environmental, social, and economic destruction stemming from a lack of enforcement.”
Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, [email protected], the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: www.kpfn.org
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