Author: Nichole Norris

“I have been waiting for four years to get my day in court with seven million in fines hanging over my head, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the line of questioning by the Judges on the Ninth Circuit, United States Court of appeals.”

“No Plaintiff, however, violated the code to grow cannabis. The baseless allegation that they did has upturned Plaintiffs’ lives. Each accrued over a million dollars in fines, with no way out except to pay the County for their freedom.”

The County argues, “[T]his ambitious, but baseless, attack on routine enforcement of local land use laws must fail.”

Sheriff Honsal estimated that there were only about 1,000 unpermitted grows left, with approximately 1,000 permitted cannabis farms, some of which are not in operation.

“The County charges people with cannabis-adjacent offenses based on permitting violations on their property. Under the guise of nuisance-abatement orders, it fines them millions of dollars while it denies them the permits they need to “abate” the violations. People who appeal wait years for hearings that never come. All the while, the County uses ruinous fines and permit denials to pressure people into settlements.”