County supervisors voted on Tuesday to add another $1 million to the budget to enforce legal-weed laws and also to process permits and applications by would-be cannabis operators, just a week after two raids on allegedly illegal operations. One took place in Cebada Canyon outside Lompoc — reputedly the site of much illegal growing — and one in Winchester Canyon in the outer reaches of Goleta. The Sheriff’s Office stated both were unlicensed.
In the past quarter, the county conducted 12 enforcement actions, destroying 471,000 plants said to be worth $118 million and eliminating 50,000 pounds of processed product, reportedly worth $50 million. Although numbers fluctuate day to day, Santa Barbara County growers now have 828 provisional state licenses and 12 annual licenses, just barely the most of any county in California, narrowly edging out Humboldt. Nearly two years after California’s legalization went into effect, only three cannabis operations to date have cleared all the necessary hurdles — land-use permits and business licenses — needed to become totally “legal.”
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