Roy Lee Gambles on his Promise to “Fix” Cannabis

The Cannabis Ordinance is legally complex and so, as a long recovering attorney, I felt the need to clarify the overly rosy “things are about to change” reporting that I have read. 

Second District Supervisor Laura Capps and Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson are thoughtfully leading the way on Cannabis reform with a proposal that would retire legacy odor abatement technologies and mandate “Carbon Scrubbers” as a prerequisite to one’s annual Cannabis business license. This is a solid first step but – TAKE MY WORD – it is not a magic bullet, because just as important as mandating the best technology is changing the legal framework to determine if the technology is actually “working.” 

Unfortunately, it’s this part of the legislative puzzle that is controlled by Cannabis’ best friend, Planning and Development. With more than 10% of P&D’s staff devoted to Cannabis their proposals to the Planning Commission are so pro-industry that they could easily have been written by Cannabis. First, they suggest a property line Odor Threshold of “7 D/T” which approximates the current level of Cannabis odor. Second, they propose retaining the same irrevocably broken and employee-intensive Complaint System where, after four years and 3,800 complaints, not a single complaint has ever been “verified.” There is gas chromatography technology that measures odor 24/7 but this innovation would require the Commission to intellectually brawl with P&D, to demand an entirely new land use scheme – something that our First District Commissioner has, absolutely, not done.

Cannabis is a generational D1 issue that needs a leaderto tear it down to its legislative foundation! It’s about bringing a gun to the Cannabis knife fight and requires someone to fight P&D’s ever-expanding role in a Cannabis program that generates $5.3M in taxes, yet costs $9M to administer. This is who Supervisor Roy Lee promised to be and what he promised to do. Indeed, it’s THE promise that is responsible for his slim victory! 

First appointed in 2004, our First District Commissioner C. Michael Cooney is the longest serving Commissioner in history. His past two-year term ended on December 31, meaning that the most important appointment that a Supe gets to make (certainly as it relates Cannabis) would be made by Cannabis’ bestie, Supervisor Das Williams,who reappointed Mr. Cooney just 19-days before leaving office. Fact: Commissioners serve at the pleasure of their Supervisor – so if Mr. Lee wanted to make a change he could have done so. To the chagrin of many of his Good Neighbor Cannabis supporters he did not, even going as far as needlessly announcing he was keeping Mr. Cooney in November of 2024.

There are few people more respected or philanthropic than Mr. Cooney. He is measured, thoughtful, and “gentlemanly” by all definitions of the word. But given the pro-Cannabis drivel that P&D proposed as far back as September 2024 couldn’t Lee have given one of his supporters (Mr. Cooney contributed $2K to Mr. Williams) the ability to freshly serve, to brawl and, when it comes Cannabis, to be a legislative change agent? 

Prediction: Cannabis’ final Planning hearing is today and while I could have waited to publish, I thought it would be more fun to predict that the Commission will simply nibble around the edges of the status quo. Advice: If I’m correct, Supervisor Lee will now need to be more than a third vote; he will need to lead from the dais and shred P&D’s proposals and the Commission’s non-binding imprimatur. In short, he will need to dig into the complexities of our legislative scheme and FIX Cannabis, just like he promised to do!  

Jeff Giordano,
Santa Barbara County resident