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California fielding hundreds of illegal marijuana business complaints

February 17, 2018

The state of California has received 304 complaints in recent weeks about alleged violations of marijuana regulations, many of which have come from newly licensed pot businesses who say illicit cannabis operations are cutting into their market share. [LA Times]

On Jan. 1, the California Bureau of Cannabis Control began issuing licenses to pot businesses. Thus far, the agency has issued 1,204 licenses to firms transporting and selling marijuana. However, hundreds or more unlicensed pot businesses may currently be operating statewide.

Thus far, the state marijuana regulator has yet to issue any citations for violations of pot rules, instead handing out educational warnings. Many of the complaints the agency has received have been over online advertisements that appear to be promoting illegal pot businesses.

Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) said the Bureau of Cannabis Control does not have enough inspectors and the attorney general’s office does not have enough agents to help local authorities control the illegal marijuana market. Lackey, a retired CHP sergeant, has proposed that the CHP take the lead against the black market, including distribution networks that transport pot to other states where it is illegal.

A state panel, the Cannabis Advisory Committee, is now seeking better regulations on advertisements in attempt to identify illegal operations. San Jose Police Sgt. David Woolsey, a member of the committee, said some illegal operations are difficult to track on the internet.

Additionally, local police departments have asked the state for help with enforcement, saying they have limited resources.

The Los Angeles Police Department has already shut down eight illegal pot shops since Jan. 1. Yet, another 200 to 300 unlicensed marijuana business are operating in in Los Angeles alone, said LAPD Deputy Chief John Sherman.


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Hahahaha. You voted for it, and it’s only just begun.


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Growing pains? I bet there wasn’t this many calls about “illegal grows” when it was illegal!


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They better get to hiring inspectors and attornery’s with all the millions they will be collecting from the taxes they are collecting and the lack of taxes from the criminals. Leave it to California to do it ass backwards! The Tax App that the licensed sellers are suppose to be using crashed on the first day and the State has asked the licensed seller’s to keep “paper records of their sales”…..hahaha!!!


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What a surprise! It’s only just begun,


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So, pardon me if I can’t see the relevancy of “it’s only just begun”. When should we see your transition to “I told ya so!” or “How long will this go on before we do something about it?”?


Just askin’


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Like what? It will just be another bureaucracy that will be formed with a great expense to enforce laws that will not be enforced in a sanctuary state. It will get worse as the crimes increase,


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The “…great expense to enforce laws” incurred will never, ever amount to the cost we’ve already paid in a lost “war” that doubles down on the cost of it by arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating those convicted of simple use and or possession at the tax payers expense. And of course the “sanctuary city” xenophobe connection is always a winner, right? Can’t argue with that conclusion, if you do you’re not pro immigration laws, right?


Here’s something else you should consider, something I heard the past President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, talk about. Mexico is ready to take on legally growing pot for American consumption, they have the knowledge and a long track successful record of doing so already and with legal in-routes it would benefit their country greatly. The typical xenophobe would just throw up at that thought, RIGHT?


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You are hopeless.


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Yep! Thank god for pot though, it helps me not notice it so much…


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You have answered your own questions. Being an admitted pot head you have removed yourself from being a responsible person.


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Right you are! Of course being a “responsible person” is pretty subjective.


If it was someone who drank would they also be accused of the same? Probably not.


Time will diminish your type of irrational prejudice against cannabis; as it becomes more and more socially acceptable and the actual benefits of this “weed” become more and more apparent, the fear and loathing you represent will become less and less relevant.


It’s also interesting to know that the government that decided it was a schedule 1 drug, “no known medical value with a high propensity for addiction”, also own a patent on the stuff for “medical purposes”, U.S. Patent No. 6,630,507 Just something to think about…


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304 complaints statewide from a population of 39 million people =.0000077 complaints per person.

Yep. Time to freak out.

Surprise Suprise as Gomer Pyle would say…


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Perhaps we should give the illegal pot businesses a path to “citizenship” to becoming a legal pot business. I mean, they are already here, it would not be fair to shut them down or kick them out of the state. Time for the state legislature to debate it.


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