Los Angeles County has long been home to illegal cannabis endeavors, and now the Board of Supervisors has approved the introduction of an ordinance that could charge illegal cannabis operations tens of thousands of dollars per day.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to introduce an ordinance to start fining illegal cannabis businesses. Any cultivation or dispensaries operating without a permit in unincorporated areas of the county could soon be charged $30,000 every day. Although the introduction was approved, the ordinance still needs to be voted on by the Board for formal adoption.

The official motion text describes the “nuisance abatement ordinance” that could be approved in a future meeting. “The unpermitted commercial cannabis activities including illegal cannabis cultivation are incredibly profitable and in particular, cannabis cultivation has continued to proliferate due to the ease of establishment in more remote and rural locations,” the motion reads. “Therefore, the penalties contained within the draft ordinance should, consistent with State law, be adjusted and increased to ensure that they act as a deterrent to the continued operation of illegal commercial cannabis operations.”

The motion was written by Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Sheila Kuehl. “The County Code currently prohibits all commercial cannabis activity within the County’s unincorporated areas, including the establishment, maintenance, and operation of any commercial cannabis business activity, and the renting or leasing of, or allowing property to be used for that purpose in all zones,” the motion states. “However, the County continues to be inundated with unpermitted cannabis dispensaries in the unincorporated areas. Despite the efforts of numerous County departments, the growth of unpermitted cannabis dispensaries continues to outpace enforcement.”

Barger presented the motion with the hope that it could help cull illegal cannabis operations, noting that water supplies that contain chemicals pose both a threat to public safety, among other concerns. She states that even though the county’s work against illegal cannabis is steadfast, a lack of “legally enforceable options” puts the efforts at a disadvantage.

In a press release, Barger summarized how these illegal cannabis businesses are harming the county. “Unpermitted commercial cannabis cultivation is profitable and has thrived in the rural Antelope Valley because of how easy it is to stand up operations. Communities in the desert continue to report illegal large scale cannabis grows that have been accompanied by water theft, trespassing, trash and the use of dangerous pesticides and fertilizers, putting residents’ health and safety at risk.”

Supervisor Sheila Kuehl also agreed that something needs to be done. “California voters legalized recreational cannabis in order to create a system that assured consumers of product safety while prohibiting cannabis access to minors,” said Kuehl, “but illegal cannabis operations continue to  undermine the will of the people. This motion puts teeth in enforcement and ensures that unpermitted dispensaries face stiff penalties in the future.”

Supervisor Janice Hahn confirmed that strengthening and protecting the region’s legal cannabis businesses is also a way to tackle the illegal businesses head-on.

“I do know that providing a legal pathway for people to grow, produce, sell cannabis can help in some way to tackle the illegal market,” Hahn shared. “Hopefully, we’re going to be voting soon on the idea of legally providing options for cannabis businesses in unincorporated county [areas].” A news release on Barger’s website confirms that a study is being conducted to determine recommendations for legal cannabis businesses, such as retail, manufacturing, distribution and more.

In October 2021, Los Angeles County set aside $5 million to fund the effort to combat illegal cannabis in Antelope Valley. A press release states that $2.4 million will go to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and $1.2 million toward the department’s Marijuana Eradication Team, while $503,000 will go toward Lancaster Sheriff Station overtime patrols and $707,000 will be used to buy trucks that can traverse tough terrain in these investigations.

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The top cannabis official in Maine sounded the alarm this week on illicit conduct tied to the state’s medical marijuana industry and illegal cannabis.

Erik Gundersen, director of the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy, made the comments to the Maine Legislature’s Marijuana Advisory Commission, which held a meeting on Tuesday.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Gundersen told the commission that “he believes there’s more illegal activity connected to the state’s medical marijuana industry and that his office has few tools to prevent medical cannabis from finding its way to the black market,” saying his office has 12 field investigators who are far from “sufficient for performing the necessary level of oversight when the investigators are only getting to registrants every four to five years.”

Gundersen noted that “the vast majority of caregivers in the medical marijuana industry are following the rules,” but that illegal activity nevertheless persists.

“It’s an economics thing. You can do quick, back-of-the-napkin math,” Gundersen said, as quoted by the Bangor Daily News. “I would imagine it’s easy to veer into the more gray area.”

Recreational and medical marijuana are both legal in Maine. It was reported that Gundersen told the legislative commission that his “office has fewer ways to regulate the medical use market than the recreational market for which retail sales started just last year.”

Voters in Maine legalized medical cannabis all the way back in 1999, and they did the same for recreational marijuana in 2016—although that law’s rollout was stymied by opposition from former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who was staunchly opposed to legalization.

LePage vetoed legislation in 2017 that would have implemented the voter-approved law, but lawmakers in the state overturned his veto the following year.

In 2018, Maine voters elected a different governor, the Democrat Janet Mills, who moved quickly to implement the new marijuana law. Mills signed legislation in June of 2019, months after being sworn in, that helped finally implement what voters had sought years earlier.

Recreational pot sales finally began in the state in October of last year. By May, the state had racked up $5.3 million in recreational pot sales, which at the time was the highest grossing month since the market opened.

Gundersen said at the time that one of “the main goals of cannabis legalization is to diminish the illicit market.”

“The strong month-over-month growth here in Maine, just seven months after the official launch of the industry, suggests more and more consumers are choosing the tested, tracked, and well-regulated market over the illicit market,” Gundersen said then. “That is a positive sign for Mainers’ health and for the viability of the industry. With Maine’s busy summer season upon us, our effective regulation of the industry will continue.”

In August, the state doubled that total, pulling in more than $10 million in recreational pot products.

Despite those successes, Gundersen’s comments this week served as a reminder of the resilience of the illicit marijuana market, even in states and cities that have embraced legalization.

In California, for example, where voters legalized recreational pot use five years ago, “fully legal weed makes up just a fraction of the state’s marijuana market, with some experts estimating that 80 to 90 percent of cannabis sales in California still fall into a legal gray zone,” according to a report last week by National Public Radio.

Gundersen said Tuesday that it is “certainly one of the underlying objectives of a legalized market to eradicate the traditional market.”

“And that’s one of the things that I think, here in Maine, we’re struggling with,” he said, as quoted by the Bangor Daily News.

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Local leaders of a county in southern Oregon declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, saying that the illegal production of marijuana in the community is a threat to public safety. In a letter to state leaders, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners said that the proliferation of illicit cannabis farms in the area has overwhelmed local law enforcement.

“Jackson County strongly requests your assistance to address this emergency,” the commissioners said in the letter to Gov. Kate Brown, state Senate President Peter Courtney, and Oregon House of Representatives Speaker Tina Kotek.

The commissioners are calling for funding, manpower, and state National Guard troops to help deal with the problem of illegal marijuana cultivation in the county. Members of the board said that law enforcement, local code compliance officers, and state cannabis regulators have been overburdened by the illicit activity and warned of an “imminent threat to the public health and safety of our citizens from the illegal production of cannabis in our county.”

“Since recreational marijuana was legalized by the voters of Oregon in the November 2014 general election, the illegal and unlawful production of marijuana in our county has overwhelmed the ability of our county and state regulators to enforce relevant laws in our community,” Jackson County Commissioner Rick Dyer said in a video press conference on Wednesday.

Law Enforcement Calls for Service Spike with Legalization

Advocates for legalizing recreational marijuana in Oregon campaigned on assertions that cannabis reform would reduce the burden on law enforcement agencies. In Jackson County, however, local police have seen a spike in crime they say is related to illicit cannabis cultivation.

“Law enforcement in Jackson County reports a 59 percent increase in calls for service associated with the marijuana industry, including burglary, theft, assault, robbery, and nuisance crimes,” Dyer said. “And there’s also significant evidence of narco-slavery, forced labor, human trafficking, immigration issues, squalid and unsafe living conditions and exploitation and abuse of workers, child welfare issues and animal abuse.”

This year, the sheriff’s office received a state grant to add two detectives and a property and evidence clerk to the payroll to help combat illegal cannabis farms. But to properly address the issue, Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler said that the community needs an additional 18 detectives, four patrol deputies, three supervisors, and nine support personal, as well as $750,000 per year to cover expenses for services and materials. 

Aaron Lewis, a public information officer for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, told reporters that “the illegal marijuana problem in Jackson County is rather large.” 

“We have an area that is very conducive to growing outdoor marijuana. So it’s been very difficult to stay on top of some of the scope of some of the operations here in the Valley,” Lewis said. “There’s a lot of investigative work to identify major players in the game, and from there take down these processing facilities and get some of the illegal marijuana off of the street.”

Eradicating an illegal cannabis grow operation involves disassembling greenhouses, uprooting thousands of marijuana plants, confiscating and processing evidence including firearms, as well as detaining or arresting workers on the site. At a raid on an unlicensed cultivation facility on Wednesday morning, officers with the Jackson County Illegal Marijuana Enforcement Team destroyed 17,522 cannabis plants and about 3,900 pounds of harvested marijuana while taken three people into custody, according to a report in local media.

Public Agencies Strained by Enforcement Workload

The extent of illegal cannabis cultivation also strains the resources of other public agencies. In 2015, Jackson County code enforcement personnel handled 604 cases, none of which were related to marijuana. Through September of this year, the office has had 1,006 cases, with 663 of those related to cannabis cultivation. The local office of the Oregon Water Resources Department has also seen a spike in activity, with complaints of water theft jumping from 39 in 2015 to 195 this year.

Much of the illicit cannabis cultivation is occurring on what are ostensibly hemp farms. The Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission recently reported that nearly half of the registered hemp farms inspected by the state are actually growing marijuana. About 25 percent of the hemp operations refused entry to inspectors, according to state agencies.

Charles Boyle, a spokesman for Brown, said that the governor takes the situation in Jackson County very seriously, noting that she created a multi-agency team to fight illegal marijuana cultivation after lawmakers passed legislation amending how the state regulates its hemp and cannabis industries. Brown also directed the Oregon State Police to dedicate additional resources to the area and doubled funding for cannabis law enforcement grants in the region.

“The message is clear – Oregon is not open for business to illegal cannabis grows,” Boyle said. “These are criminal enterprises that deplete water resources while our state is in drought, hold their workforce in inhumane conditions and severely harm our legal cannabis marketplace.”

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