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Deputies raid illegal cannabis grows in Santa Barbara County

September 28, 2019

Winchester Canyon Road grow

By CCT STAFF

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a 62-year-old man on Monday for illegally cultivating and selling marijuana.

On Sept. 23, deputies raided a property on Winchester Canyon Road in rural Goleta. The deputies seized 900 plants in different stages of growth and 700 pounds of harvested marijuana.

The grow was unlicensed and evidence was discovered indicating the operator was actively engaging in illegal cannabis sales of untested and unlicensed cannabis products.

Black market pot growers often use pesticides that can harm users of their products. A 2013 study in the Journal of Toxicology concluded that high levels of pesticide residue present significant health complications for cannabis smokers.

Deputies arrested the grower, Don Hartley of Goleta, on a charge of illegal cannabis cultivation.

Cebada Canyon Road grow

A week earlier, on Sept. 14, detectives serving a search warrant at a property on the 3500 block of Cebada Canyon Road, near Lompoc, discovered 6,000 cannabis plants ready for harvest, and another 6,000 that had been recently harvested, with the product already moved offsite.

The grower had no license and no oversight to ensure the product was safely grown. Investigators are working with prosecutors to determine if charges will be filed.


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“The buying and selling of dope in this country may be the last vestige of free enterprise left”, SGT Stedenko, Up In Smoke. Probably no big deal when pot was illegal and free enterprise. But it is no longer free enterprise, politicians such as those in Grover Beach, SLO, and Morro Bay got paid good money for exclusive rights and they demand that LEO enforce their deals.


4

Government never cared about illegal marijuana until they started losing tax dollars….well not quite so much.


16

Is there any hope fat chance?


Answer: There is always hope! Just “no chance.”


State budget documents released Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom slash the administration’s cannabis tax prediction by $223 million through 2020. Industry analysts said tax revenue from the newly-legal weed business is lower than expected because of limited access to legal pot in parts of the state, the impact of taxes on price-sensitive consumers and the state’s entrenched black market.


Revenue from the taxes first goes toward covering the costs of regulating legal cannabis, followed by cannabis-related research.


https://www.desertsun.com/story/money/2019/05/10/california-state-cannabis-pot-weed-marijuana-tax-revenue-below-projection-gavin-newsom-budget-shows/1164970001/


The only thing that government cannot get enough of is, more.


9

What the boys and girls in government are most concerned about is the looming “Pension Bubble.”


It is on the minds of every government employee. Everyday. For those who are actually “woke.”


Standby for the tears to begin falling soon.

I have no sympathy for government, at all.

Unfortunately, unless and until citizens begin to engage government, government will continue on the “damn the torpedoes” methodology. Been working on the “gold fish” so far.


“A man’s rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.”


Frederick Douglass, famed civil rights leader in 1867, in response to post-Civil War segregation laws


9