Front Page  »  

Abel Maldonado’s cannabis plant tests inconclusive

November 23, 2019

By KAREN VELIE

The lab tests former Lt.Gov. Abel Maldonado offered to prove he is growing hemp and not marijuana in his farm in San Luis Obispo County were based on samples that could not be used to tell the difference, the lab says. [Cal Coast Times]

“We tested a small amount of trim,” said Adriel Fernandez, a Cannalysis lab employee. “The testing did not determine whether the trim was from hemp or marijuana plants.”

A San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s deputy discovered what appeared to be a large, unpermitted cannabis grow on Maldonado’s south county farm in 2018. Maldonado said he was growing hemp for a research organization, and that the deputy was mistaken.

Following up on the tip from the deputy, SLO County code enforcement staffers found what they determined to be more than 30 acres of cannabis growing on his farm.

Maldonado provided county code enforcement staffers with lab analyses he said proved the plants were hemp. He also offered documentation to show he was working with several agricultural research institutions, including UC Davis.

Code enforcement permitted Maldonado to collect and take samples of his plants to Cannalysis, a Santa Ana based laboratory, for testing. Typically in enforcement cases, the county takes the cuttings and sends them to a lab in an attempt to protect the chain of custody.

In addition, the type of samples Maldonado provided could not be used to determine the type of plant. Madonado took trim (stems and leaves), not the tops of the plant which contain the higher levels of THC, to Cannalysis. In fact, the seven certificates of analysis noted that only trim was tested.

Still, county staff declared that the reports showed the plants were hemp.

Maldonado’s claims that his farm is exempt from oversight because his plants are used for research. But UC Davis hasn’t received anything from his farm, a university spokesman said.

To date, Maldonado has never provided hemp to UC Davis for research, said Andy Fell, a UC Davis media relations director.

All of the hemp used for research at the university was grown by the soils department, according to research staff. In May 2019, a UC Davis professor penned a letter saying he looked forward to working with Runway Farms and Flawless Creations in the future, though they have not yet worked together.

Maldonado’s consultant, Brandon Gesicki, said in a string of emails he sent to SLO County in June 2019, that Maldonado is working with another research organization, Flawless Creations, while continuing to work with UC Davis.

“As part of this process, we have been working with Flawless Creations, which is a medical research and manufacturing company partnered with Runway Farms and UC Davis, among others,” Gesicki wrote in the email. “To answer your question, we are growing on 150 acres, on the same plots and property as last year.”

Maldonado is a part owner of Flawless Creations. Adam Schloss, Maldonado’s partner in Flawless Creations, said their company packages the entire hemp crop and ships it to UC Davis for research.

However, when asked how they were shipping 150 acres of dried cannabis to UC Davis, Maldonado said for the past two years, he has shipped only his highest quality hemp plants to the university, and that he sells the rest.

“We grind the plants, put them in air tight bags, and send them to UC Davis,” Maldonado said.

In response to later requests for information from reporters, Maldonado admitted he has not yet sent research samples to UC Davis.

In Aug. 2018, following the deputy’s discovery, Maldonado met with three SLO County code enforcement staffers, and explained that he was growing hemp for agricultural research for Terra Focus, and UC Davis, according to county records. To support his claim, Maldonado provided county staff a memorandum of agreement with Terra Focus.

Three months earlier, on April 26, 2018, Terra Focus owner, Aubrey Karcey, filed articles of organization. On July 26, 2018, the same day the deputy discovered Maldonado’s cannabis grow, Karcey filed documents with the state reporting the business as an agricultural research center, with a listed business address of a mailbox store in Ukiah.

Courted heavily by marijuana business owners and their consultants, San Luis Obispo County officials more than tripled the number of acres a grower could cultivate on each site, leading to outrage from neighbors negatively impacted by the large pot grows and who feared unregulated hemp farms would do the same.

County officials responded by placing a moratorium on industrial hemp, discussing plans to ban outdoor marijuana cultivation, and requiring code enforcement take action against growers who violate county regulations.

While both state and local governments enacted rules to regulate the cannabis industry, they failed to provide any oversight for the cultivation of hemp used for research. As a result, multiple local cannabis cultivators have operated unchecked as long as they can claim they are raising hemp for scientific research.


Loading...
Related:


25 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

A little guy with some money has become a big embarrassment as portrayed by the media. It’s a free country so we have to take the good with the bad, just do vote for the bad. If the media is spreading fake news to this level of embarrassment, then that is a much more serious crime on humanity. Who’s going to jail?


-5

CORRECTION: DON’T vote for the bad.


-2

“We take the good with the bad”.

No, we don’t.

We weed out the bad.

Define bad? Apathy, gluttony, coveting, lying, cheating, deception, arrogance, fraud.

And not just “hints” of those, like the occasional hiccups the normal person makes. We all have bad moments.

This is not a “bad moment”.

It’s a pattern of behavior. It’s part of his persona. The “cult of personality” that some believe is “moving up” the ladder.


1

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Former elected official knows how to play the game, provides the correct bogus documentation to “prove” he’s working with research firms, and delivers his own “samples” of the part of the plant that won’t prove anything when tested. He’s no dummy, he really had this thought out.


10

Same old deceitful and misleading Abe. I never cared for him as a politician or businessman. A lack of character in both areas. He never was a true Republican. He was a complete RINO. A very poor one at that.


14

He’s a Republican that for God knows what reason continues to live in California. What do you think he’s going to do to stay solvent in a state that has such punitive laws and regulations that choke the life out of any business large or small? Start converting his farmland into tract housing? Sorry, Hill and Gibson have a tight lock on kick-backs from major contractors AND legalized dope farmers. I would assume that Heidi Harmon does too, but they probably pay her in Prozac and Xanax instead of cash.


OF COURSE Maldonado is going to try his hand at growing “experimental” hemp. He’s the child of immigrant farmers, you can’t tell me he doesn’t know people in the cartel. If he wanted to dabble in REAL dope, I’m sure he’d already have 100’s of immigrant children bringing it over the border in their butts. Then all they have to do is boo-hoo when ICE separates them from their “parents,” and into America they come without further suspicion. The problem with that, is the Socialists have already legalized real dope. For the same reason prostitutes can’t make money in college towns, the cartel’s profits are much lower in Socialist states (because somebody is already providing the same service legally).


There are only a few precious and fragile ways that people can afford to live in California: 1.) Quit your job, fake a mental illness, and live off SSI/SSDI in Transition’s or HASLO housing and entertain yourself by driving an hover-round scooter back-and-forth to the liquor store all day (maybe sell some meth on the side). 2). Work two jobs, sell vital organs, and live in a studio apartment in San Miguel for the rest of your life. Or #3). be a successful businessman that finds new industries that are still one step ahead of California’s suffocating regulatory punishment. OH and I forgot, #4). Trust funds.


-6

Um, the line “in a state that has such punitive laws and regulations that choke the life out of any business large or small” rings incredibly false. In fact, in recent years, under Democratic leadership, the state’s economy has become the fifth largest economy in the WORLD with a GDP of $2.9 TRILLION. When compared with entire nations, just the Bay Area has the 19th largest economy all on its own.


More than two-thirds of the nation’s vegetables and nuts are grown in California. 81% of the nation’s wine comes from Cali. The state also has three of the top five seaports in the nation bringing in over 70% of the nation’s imports.


So, let’s just dispense with the idea that, somehow, California is bad for business. Just ain’t so. I’m truly sorry that maybe SLO_Children_at_play hasn’t benefited from living in California. Maybe he should consider Mississippi, West Virginia or Alabama—the poorest states in the Union.


As for Abel, I actually worked for Agro-Jal many years ago. The son was kind of an idiot and it didn’t surprise me at all that he became successful in Republican politics.


1

You give every excuse available for one of your own, blamin’ it everywhere except right where it belongs, right on the shoulders of Republican Maldonado!

Yea, The Pervert could walk down the Middle of Marsh St and mow down every person within range with one of your beloved AK’s and you’d find some way of blamin’ some poor schmuck sittin’ at home watchin’ MSNBC.

Frickin’ Party of Trump The Pervert, the biggest single threat to our democracy in history!


-5

Wow, why so vitriolic, ATF? SLO_Children_at_play was just stating an opinion. I believe I rebutted his opinion without resorting to an ad hominem attack. The facts are on my side so no reason to hurl insults.


And, as for Trump being a “threat to our democracy,” you must realize that the old man is simply way too small, and too stupid, to be a threat to anything other than himself. He’ll die soon and the history books will judge him accordingly. No reason to get in a huff. Democracy will not die because of such a dolt.


In the meantime, liberals, or progressives, or whatever, need to reel in their claws and realize that this too shall pass. We’ll all be fine. After all, the nation has weathered much worse than Trump—he’s simply a black pimple on the butt of the American political landscape. He will be excised soon, his followers will die or retreat back to the fringes and the country will elect a more competent leader. Be patient.


-1

If there were only your “precious few” options for living in California, financially, then we wouldn’t have an overpopulation problem, while becoming the world’s 5th largest GDP.


1

“Quit your job, fake a mental illness, and live off SSI/SSDI in Transition’s or HASLO housing and entertain yourself by driving an hover-round scooter back-and-forth to the liquor store all day (maybe sell some meth on the side).”

Now that’s some of the best shotgun birdshot style bullshit judgment I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading.

Here’ some facts for ya SLO_mind_at_play: In this day and age of improved methodology of diagnosing mental illness the chances of an individual getting through the SSA process of determining an actual mental illness to receive either SSDI or SSI benefits is almost fool proof. The most often used claim, and the most difficult to either prove or disprove, is a back injury, by far!

What you do in your shotgun style judgement is relegate all those who actually have mental health challenges with those who don’t, and you do it without one wit of concern of harming those who don’t fit your narrow minded bullshit.

Thank you.


2

Don’t think for a moment the county planning staff would allow john/jane doe to take their own samples to be tested.


22

Folks,


Irregardless of political affiliation, I think we can all decry the hypocritical behavior of this washed-up politician, and aren’t leaders supposed to play by the same rules they enforce upon others?


Abel Maldonado deserves to be held accountable, and shame on San Luis County staffers for letting him play under a different rule book. No wonder average citizens no longer believe that government will act ethically, and if the people at the top get to cheat, shouldn’t the rest of us get the same benefit?


Just wondering.


Shame on Abel Maldonado.


3

Abel Maldonado’s has been in trouble for years, something some Republicans ignore because of party. The fatal flaw of both Democrats and Republicans is not just overlooking wrongdoing, but supporting bad actors because of party affiliations.


In 2007, Abel raised thousands of dollars for a state re-election bid during a party that his family’s business later falsely claimed as a business expense on its tax returns.


In 2011, Abel paid a $28,000 fine for not reporting another set of campaign donations.


In 2012, the IRS said Abel owed $470,000 in back taxes, part of it related to an alleged building deduction.


In 2015, a group of his farm workers sued Abel for failing to pay overtime wages, reimburse them for expenses, and for not providing meal and rest periods.


And the county planning department staff determines he is trustworthy enough to do his own testing? Something stinks.


38

…and letting him submit his own samples is just ONE of the many violations by the County and Maldonado cataloged in this article.


16

Is county staff incompetent or corrupt? So if they are concerned paint might have lead in it, do they have the owner of the property run the tests? Or in this case, is it because Maldonado is well known?


If county staff does not no how to test plants to know if they are hemp or marijuana, what have they been doing?


25

Corrupted by Adam Hill and Bruce Gibson who will take their jobs and blacklist them for future employment if they do not do their bidding.


9

You are completely correct. The chain goes as follows: Adam Hill – Wade Horton – Rita Neal – Trevor Keith. Staffers below Neal and Keith just do as they are told.


0

Maldonado provided county code enforcement staffers with lab analyses he said proved the plants were hemp. He also offered documentation to show he was working with several agricultural research institutions, including UC Davis.


In response to later requests for information from reporters, Maldonado admitted he has not yet sent research samples to UC Davis


15
1 2