By Rebecca Olmos | TheCannifornian.com Correspondent

In 2020 cannabis thrived and is expected to continue to do so. The projected legal sales of Mary Jane by 2022 are over 22 billion dollars.

Despite the uptick in acceptance for cannabis, the money made from it, those who sell it and those who use it, people of color are still predominantly negatively affected by the ripple effects of the War on Drugs. 37 states have legalized medical cannabis, and 19 have legalized adult usage, resulting in fewer arrests across the country. However, Black people are still 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white people, according to a 2020 ACLU report.

On the business end, the inequality and underrepresentation of people of color are also prevalent. While 70% of CEOs in the top 14 cannabis companies in the country are white men, only 7% identify as Black according to an insider report.

So what is social equity?

The definition of social equity varies.

Put simply, social equity is the idea and practice of “justice and fairness in public policy.” Multiple cities and states have equity programs to support people and companies in their quest to break into the legal market. Especially concerning those who the War on Drugs has impacted.

Each jurisdiction has its requirements for equity applicants. In San Francisco, an applicant must meet three of six conditions that range from household income, previous cannabis arrests to where you’ve lived.

Equity programs help to reduce some of the barriers equity applicants might face as they enter the industry. This assistance includes but isn’t limited to waving application fees, help with rent, and support with tech for their business.

How can you support equity brands?

The first step is to check the dispensary. Sometimes dispensaries will tag equity, black-owned, Latinx-owned, etc, items for you. Other times, you may have to ask your budtender. If you don’t see equity brands on the menu, ask how you can request them.

The second way to support equity in cannabis is with your voice. Word of mouth, personal recommendations, reviews, and even social media shoutouts greatly support these brands.

There are so many great equity brands out there to support. Here you can find a few to start with.

While alcohol-related DUIs remain far more common, last week a case involving a motorist prosecutors say was solely under the influence of marijuana provided a stark example of the danger of driving while stoned.

Prosecutors say John Sebastian Hernandez, 23, smoked pot before getting behind the wheel in June of last year. He veered into the opposite lane on Santa Fe Way and struck a vehicle head-on driven by 40-year-old Gabriela Soto, who was pregnant.

Both Soto and her 28-week-old fetus died. Hernandez, who had no prior record, was convicted of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and sentenced to two years in prison.

The case is just the second marijuana-only fatal wreck prosecuted in the county, Deputy District Attorney Kim Richardson said. But with the legalization of marijuana in California this year, law enforcement may be handling more such cases.

And, with the way society currently views marijuana, the cases are difficult to prosecute, Richardson said.

“Society looks at drugs like methamphetamine and PCP as the ‘bad’ drugs,” she said. “But now you have this more widely accepted view of marijuana as being less dangerous. The perception is different.”

Hernandez admitted to being addicted to smoking marijuana, but claimed he hadn’t smoked that day.

Nevertheless, an analysis of blood drawn from Hernandez after the crash turned up a high amount of THC — the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana — enough that Richardson says it’s impossible that he didn’t smoke that day because marijuana is quickly metabolized by the body.

Hernandez had 14 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood. In Colorado and Washington state, it is illegal to drive under the influence of marijuana if you have more than 5 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood.

But in California, a measurement alone isn’t enough to guarantee a DUI conviction because the state, unlike Washington, Colorado and some others, has no “per se” legal limit in which a driver is presumed to be impaired.

Instead, as with alcohol-related arrests, officers conduct field sobriety tests such as walking in a straight line or standing on one leg for a certain amount of time to determine if someone is impaired. Without an impairment standard, the officer must find other evidence — such as failing those tests or driving behavior — to determine the person is impaired.

Officer Robert Rodriguez, spokesman of the Bakersfield office of the California Highway Patrol, said anything that impairs a person’s ability to safely drive a motor vehicle, whether it’s pot, prescription drugs or illegal drugs, poses dangers to both the motorist and others on the roadway. Despite pot’s legality in California, getting behind the wheel after smoking can result in a DUI conviction or, as in Hernandez’s case, something worse.

And those who combine alcohol and marijuana, or other drugs, are at risk for even more severe impairment, he said. Those combinations can “exaggerate the high or the effects of the alcohol produced.”

In 2015, Bakersfield CHP officers arrested 28 drivers under the influence of both alcohol and drugs, and in 2016 made 26 arrests.

The first pot-only fatal DUI conviction occurred in June 2016 when Rodolfo Contreras was convicted of second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while impaired by marijuana in a crash at Gosford Road and Stockdale Highway.

He ran a red light, lost control of his Honda, crossed the center divider and struck a Ford Explorer, killing its driver.

Contreras had smoked marijuana the morning of the crash and had 16 nanograms of THC in his blood. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

© 2018 The Bakersfield Californian (Bakersfield, Calif.). Visit The Bakersfield Californian at www.bakersfield.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

ADELANTO — Five current city code enforcement officers, including the department’s supervisor, say Mayor Rich Kerr and new City Manager Jessie Flores have illegally shielded commercial cannabis cultivators from inspection and enforcement.

The protection, they add, goes beyond stand-down orders. It extends into the more serious charges of making citations disappear, altering reports and threatening the employment of officers trying to do their jobs.

The accusations were submitted to City Attorney Keith Lemieux and the city’s Human Resources Department on Oct. 2 on behalf of the five employees by attorney James Alderson, who now represents nine current or former city workers.

“I think it’s overall just a shame about what’s going on in the city on how Mayor Kerr and the Council are just destroying good people’s lives,” Alderson said by phone Friday. “And they’re doing it because of the corruption and until someone actually stops that, it’s going to continue.”

In text messages to the Daily Press, Flores said that all claims by employees are taken very seriously and that the city will be conducting an independent investigation into the allegations.

“Investigation will be conducted as expeditiously as possible,” he wrote, “and both the Mayor and I have offered our full cooperation.”

Kerr denied wrongdoing, calling the claims “false” and “absolutely incorrect.”

“I never protected any one person or any one company,” he said by phone. “Would I slow something down if I knew it was wrong? Yeah, I would. That’s my job. But I would never just tear a ticket up.”

Alderson said he would make the five code enforcement employees he now represents, including Community Safety Manager Steve Peltier, who oversees the department, available for an internal investigation into alleged charter violations by Kerr and Flores. He also suggested that a probe be opened into the dealings Kerr, Flores and the Council (except Councilman Ed Camargo) have with cultivators “since there is an appearance of illegal activity and abuse of authority.”

Ultimately, he said the alleged behavior was grounds for Kerr to resign and Flores to be fired.

To be clear, Kerr has acknowledged issuing a stand-down order in the past, when he told officers to back off an inspection of a purported illegal marijuana grow on Koala Road a year ago. But he said in November, when asked about it, that he believed the tenant possessed a certificate of occupancy to cultivate cannabis. It was ultimately determined they did not.

An applicant in that grow operation was directly tied to a company that later bought the city’s public works yard for $1 million. Two city employees in November, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, told the Daily Press that they questioned whether Kerr had a financial interest in the deal.

Kerr was adamant that he did not, but former City Manager Gabriel Elliott later reintroduced the suggestion when he reported to the FBI during a Nov. 15 meeting that Kerr had accepted a $200,000 bribe in the transaction.

Elliott also told federal investigators in that meeting, where he was accompanied by former City Attorney Ruben Duran, that Flores also had received financial kickbacks, which Flores later refuted. Elliott’s account to the FBI was described in a claim he filed against the city, but it did not indicate how he learned of the alleged bribes.

Three of the current code enforcement officers, in letters obtained by the Daily Press detailing their complaints, described the conditions where certain cannabis cultivation and extraction was occurring in the city: Illegal wiring, plumbing, structural integrity and hazards that violated the law.

Yet those three employees — Roman Edward De La Torre, Apolonio Gutierrez and Gregory Stephen Watkins — said they were “told not to cite or enforce or inspect” the facilities by Kerr and Flores, and then threatened with firing if they didn’t adhere to those commands. They also claimed they were told by cultivators to speak with Kerr and Flores regarding any alleged code violations.

All five current code enforcement officers claimed they had witnessed citations disappear “where the cited person has a rapport with Mayor Kerr.” All also say they are being subjected to a hostile work environment, harassment and retaliation.

Peltier, the department head, and Amber Lynn Tisdale, a fifth code enforcement officer, claimed that their verbal complaints to the city have gone unheeded.

Tisdale claimed she had witnessed code enforcement reports altered by Kerr and Flores as well as the two men engage in charter and Brown Act violations, concluding that her 15-year job was being put into jeopardy despite “excellent reviews” during her tenure. Additionally, she suggested that anyone who seeks to speak up regarding alleged wrongdoing, including city attorneys, is discharged.

Peltier also accused Flores of using another code enforcement officer, one who has not filed complaints, for “his own personal assignments” and then requesting Peltier falsify the employee’s time card to vouch for the employee’s time. “My client will not do so,” Alderson wrote to city officials.

“I’ve just never seen such blatant misconduct in my life by officials,” Alderson said by phone, adding that the majority Council — excluding only Camargo — were effectively ratifying the alleged behavior.

Perhaps most notably, the suggestion that city officials would act to protect commercial cannabis companies from inspections is a transgression first raised in an FBI affidavit providing probable cause for the arrest of former Adelanto Mayor Pro Tem Jermaine Wright.

Wright, who has pleaded not guilty to federal bribery and attempted arson charges, was accused of vowing to obstruct code enforcement efforts for a cannabis developer in exchange for cash. The developer was in fact an undercover FBI agent.

In responding to the claims Friday, Flores also sought to articulate how the current administration would be more accountable than those that came before — an assessment that seemed to suggest officials were steadfast to see mismanagement and controversy in the rear-view mirror.

“In the past, we lacked council leadership, administrative management direction and oversight which has led to the problems throughout our city’s history,” he wrote via text. “We are changing that course very quickly!”

© 2018 Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.. Visit Daily Press at www.vvdailypress.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

YORK, Neb. (AP) — A California couple who said the marijuana they were hauling through Nebraska was intended for Christmas gifts have been given probation and conditional jail time.

York County District Court records say 71-year-old Barbara and 80-year-old Patrick Jiron were sentenced Monday to three years’ probation. They’ll be supervised at their Clearlake Oaks, California, home by California authorities.

The judge also sentenced them to three 30-day jail stints that can be waived if they comply with probation terms.

When the Jirons were arrested Dec. 19, they said they didn’t know it was illegal to transport marijuana through Nebraska. They told authorities the 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of pot was intended as presents for family in Vermont and Massachusetts.

Each pleaded no contest to possession of more than a pound of marijuana.

Sonoma County on Friday touted its efforts to rein in unauthorized cannabis operations after facing criticism from some rural residents who say county officials haven’t done enough to shutter pot farms that don’t have permits.

Since the start of last year, code enforcement staff members have forced more than 600 unpermitted cannabis operations to close and billed more than $435,797 in fines, according to a Friday statement from the county’s planning department, Permit Sonoma. The county said it quickly responds to cannabis-related complaints and forces operators to comply with county rules.

Maggie Fleming, spokeswoman for Permit Sonoma, said the statement was issued in response to community feedback and a “lack of understanding that the county was taking action” against cannabis businesses operating without permits.

“We really just wanted to educate people on the work that’s been happening,” she said.

Complaints about the county’s cannabis-related code enforcement were recently lodged by a group of residents outside Petaluma who sued a nearby pot grower in federal court last month. The county had started enforcement actions when the suit was filed, but critics said the process didn’t move fast enough.

In a subsequent deal with county code authorities, the cultivation company tentatively agreed to stop operating after harvest and the owner of the property agreed to amend the deed to prohibit growing marijuana.

Fleming said that property is not included in the list of unpermitted operations the county says it has shut down because the deal is still being finalized.

The county said it has received 682 complaints about cannabis cultivation on private property since January 2017. So far, staff members have inspected 662 of those properties, forcing 638 to stop growing and allowing 24 to continue operating while seeking a permit. Another 20 inspections are scheduled “in the near future,” the county statement said.

Kevin Block, a Napa-based lawyer representing the neighbors outside Petaluma who filed the federal lawsuit, was skeptical of the county’s numbers.

“They paint a picture of swift and effective enforcement, and what I’m seeing and hearing on the ground is anything but,” Block said. “They’re trying their best, I’m sure. I give them credit for that. But what they really need to do is they need to put this cannabis program on hold until they can devote the resources necessary to implement it in an orderly way and to make it work for everybody.”

Assuming the code enforcement deal is finalized and implemented, Block said his clients will still seek damages and attorneys’ fees.

Pot growers, meanwhile, have their own concerns with the county.

Tawnie Logan of Santa Rosa-based Canna Code Compliance said removing illegal operators is “absolutely essential” but the county has been “woefully underperforming” its processing of permits for cannabis growers.

“Operators are going broke. They cannot continue to afford to play the waiting game that the county has put them in,” said Logan, former executive director of the Sonoma County Growers Alliance. “It’s offensive … to say that they’re investing so much money and time into illegal operators while they continue to be understaffed and underperforming for the businesses that want to be compliant and legal.”

© 2018 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.). Visit The Press Democrat at www.pressdemocrat.com.  Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles have charged 515 people for helping to run 105 illegal marijuana operations, the City Attorney’s office said Friday.

The sweep is part of an effort to level the financial playing field for licensed cannabis businesses, which have suffered by competing with black market operators who remain active despite new licensing requirements and regulations that kicked in Jan. 1.

“Our message is clear: If you are operating an illegal cannabis business you will be held accountable,” Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said.

After months of only issuing warning notices, state officials announced in August that they were starting to pursue criminal charges against unlicensed cannabis retailers, distributors and growers.

It’s widely believed that Los Angeles has the world’s biggest marijuana market, and businesses have thrived for years under the state’s loose medical marijuana laws. But since the start of the year, new California laws have required all cannabis businesses to have both a state and city license to operate — licenses that can add costs to operations in the form of fees, testing requirements and hefty taxes.

The new laws also let cities regulate the marijuana industry, and many cities so far have opted against allowing such operations. Los Angeles, however, began licensing retail outlets in late January and most other types of marijuana businesses on Aug. 1. As of Friday, the city said 163 businesses have been given temporary licenses to operate.

But that represents just a fraction of the overall marijuana market, and for the past eight months, the City Attorney’s office coordinated with the Los Angeles Police Department to identify and investigate businesses that were operating without licenses. Most are retail shops, the City Attorney’s office said, but action also was also taken against marijuana growers, extraction labs and delivery services.

Since the investigation started, Feuer said 23 of the 105 unlicensed businesses identified by his office have shut down.

Most of the 515 people charged in the crackdown were business operators, according to Feuer. But he said there are also some landlords and employees facing charges in 120 separate criminal cases.

All of the defendants face misdemeanor charges, punishable by up to six months in jail and $1,000 in fines. That’s based in part on Proposition 64, which reduced the punishments for nearly every marijuana crime in addition to legalizing recreational marijuana use.

The action was well-received by City Councilwoman Nury Martinez. Buoyed by a concern that black market cannabis businesses can congregate in poorer neighborhoods and minority areas, Martinez has advocated for policy that cracks down on illegal dispensaries and regulates legal ones in her district, which includes Van Nuys, Panorama City and Sun Valley.

“Since the city began its work on laws regarding cannabis, I have been consistent in my argument that we must enforce these new regulations,” she said in a statement. “Today, we are letting our residents and those who want to flout our laws know that the city is not going to stand idly by, while the safety of our communities are at risk.”

Both Feuer and LA Police Chief Michael Moore acknowledged that they still have a lot of work to do to eliminate the black market.

“There are still hundreds of these locations out there,” Moore said.

Authorities are reviewing another 40 marijuana businesses now, Feuer said, to see if they are operating properly. He encouraged residents to report businesses that they believe may not be operating illegally through a new online portal at cannabis.lacity.org.

Greg Meguerian, who operates the licensed dispensary Reefinery in Van Nuys, said the crackdown announced by Feuer on Friday “is not enough.”

Meguerian says that he has had to raise money to operate his cannabis shop legally. Meanwhile, unlicensed businesses can still claim some legal protection under the state’s medical marijuana laws, since so-called “collectives” don’t have to dissolve until the end of the year.

Until then, Meguerian said, “We’re just trying to survive.”

The crackdown in Los Angeles isn’t happening in a vacuum. Last month, after giving businesses more than seven months to comply with new licensing requirements, state authorities said they have started to team up with local police to target unlicensed marijuana businesses. The state agency that regulates marijuana, the Bureau of Cannabis Control, last month said it helped to shutter an unlicensed marijuana shop in Costa Mesa and launch an enforcement action against an unlicensed delivery service in Sacramento.

Both businesses were included in the more than 1,000 complaints the state has received since Jan. 1. In that time, the bureau also has sent more than 2,500 cease and desist letters to marijuana businesses that appear to be operating without licenses, according to spokesman Alex Traverso, who added that more than 500 complaints remain under investigation.

Cities and counties throughout the state are also stepping up enforcement efforts.

San Diego authorities announced in August that they’ve shut down 11 unlicensed marijuana delivery services and arrested 34 people as part of a year-long operation.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office also recently formed a new marijuana task force that served its first search warrant Aug. 23 on an unlicensed dispensary operating out of a large trailer in Jurupa Valley.

Staff writer Elizabeth Chou and editor Ryan Carter contributed to this report.

The mother of a Cathedral Catholic High School student was sentenced Friday to 11 years, eight months in state prison after admitting she had guided a teen to sell drugs to a network of other students.

“It’s absolutely sickening to the court,” San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Walsh said of the actions by Kimberly Dawn Quach, 49.

He imposed the harshest penalty on Quach that was available to him under terms of a plea agreement.

The judge also sentenced Quach’s former boyfriend, William Sipperley, 50, to six years and four months in prison for his role in growing and pricing marijuana products.

“It was a business partnership,” the judge said. “He provided the marijuana and Ms. Quach would get the customers.”

Quach’s ex-husband and two friends pleaded with the judge to be lenient, saying Quach loved her family, was highly remorseful and hoped to become a productive member of society again.

The judge reacted to their comments by saying Quach had “set a horrible example” and exposed her two children, ages 17 and 10, to “extreme danger” from drugs in the home.

Authorities say Quach taught a 16-year-old girl to sell pot to other students at Cathedral High in Carmel Valley as well as to students in La Jolla from January to September 2017.

Quach hosted student parties at her home and provided them with a variety of narcotics, including a synthetic heroin, as well as alcohol and nicotine, Deputy District Attorney Christina Eastman said in court.

“There was no limit on what she would provide,” Eastman said. “She was setting up a full-fledged distribution business on the backs of children. Her clients were children.”

In May, Quach pleaded guilty to five charges related to drug possession or sales. She has remained in custody for about a year.

Sipperley pleaded guilty in May to two charges, including using a teen to sell marijuana.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed in October, Quach came under suspicion after parents of a teenager found suboxone, a synthetic heroin, in their daughter’s room. They also uncovered text messages between Quach and their daughter, who was friends with one of Quach’s children.

“It is known at the school that if you need anything, you can have Quach buy it for you,” a San Diego police investigator wrote in the search warrant affidavit.

When police searched the home Quach shared with Sipperley and her children, they found marijuana drying on tables throughout the home, as well as equipment to grow the plants.

Sipperley left the area before Quach was arrested. He was eventually found and jailed.

Quach spoke to the judge through tears before she was sentenced, saying “no one is to blame but me” and that she has taken advantage of rehabilitation classes and church services while in jail.

“I’d like to prove to my family and the court I can come out (of prison) a better person,” Quach said.

© 2018 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit The San Diego Union-Tribune at www.sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A new marijuana task force created by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office served its first search warrant Wednesday, Aug. 22, shutting down what it said was an unlicensed dispensary in Jurupa Valley.

Several pounds of cannabis, THC pods, edibles, paraphernalia, wax and vape cartridges were seized, according to a DA’s news release. Several people were detained but not arrested as the investigation continues.

The dispensary was operating out of a modular trailer on a dirt lot that had been advertising on marijuana-related websites as The Mission and 35 CAP. An online search shows a location for 35 CAP in the 5500 block of Mission Boulevard.

The partners in the Cannabis Regulation Task Force include the Hemet Police Department.

The task force’s goal is to ensure fair business practices and keep crime out of the legal cannabis industry in the county and its communities, the release said.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A bill requiring California prosecutors to erase or reduce tens of thousands of marijuana criminal convictions was approved by the state Legislature on Wednesday and now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature.

When voters passed Proposition 64 in 2016 to allow adult use of marijuana, they also eliminated several pot-related crimes. The proposition also applied retroactively to pot convictions, but provided no mechanism or guidance on how those eligible could erase their convictions or have felonies reduced to misdemeanors.

The Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would make that happen.

The bill orders the state Department of Justice to identify eligible cases between 1975 and 2016 and send the results to the appropriate prosecutor.

The state DOJ estimates that almost 220,000 cases are eligible for erasure or reduction. The DOJ has until July 1, 2019, to compile the list of eligible cases and forward it to the appropriate district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors then have until Jul 1, 2020, to decide which cases on the DOJ list they want to challenge.

Since passage of Proposition 64, most California district attorneys have said they didn’t have the resources to review their records to identify eligible cases.

San Francisco County District Attorney George Gascon is one of a few prosecutors who did that review and found 3,000 misdemeanor convictions eligible for erasure dating to 1975 is still review nearly 5,000 more felony cases for possible resentencing.

The bill was introduced by Democratic Assemblyman Rob Bonta, who represents parts of Oakland, California, and passed the lower house earlier this year.

It passed the Senate 22-8 with bipartisan support on Wednesday.

Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, who supported passage, said many with marijuana convictions don’t even know they are eligible.

Wiener said the bill “creates a simpler pathway for Californians to turn the page.”

Republican State Sen. Joel Anderson, who represents a rural district east of San Diego, said the bill will enable some eligible people regain their gun rights by reducing felonies to misdemeanors. “This bill will take those people off the prohibited list, save us time and money,” Anderson said.

A teenage girl who sold marijuana out of her bedroom was using her gun-toting parents as her suppliers, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office said.

On Friday, deputies served a search warrant on the home of Jose Reyes Martinez, 44, and his wife in Delhi, Calif., where they found 80 pounds of packaged marijuana and a dozen large plants along with two firearms, officials said on Facebook.

The packaged weed was found in the master bedroom closet alongside a loaded AK-47, deputies said. A makeshift greenhouse in the backyard held a dozen large plants, authorities said.

“During the investigation deputies learned the 15-year-old daughter was given marijuana from her mother to use and sell from her bedroom,” the sheriff’s office said. “Deputies located packaged marijuana for sale, marijuana edibles and other items associated with the sales and use of marijuana belonging to the daughter.”

The daughter and a second child were placed in protective custody with the county, officials said.

Martinez was booked Saturday on suspicion of three felonies — keeping a controlled substance; possession of an assault weapon; and assault of a child resulting in great bodily harm — and three misdemeanors: possession of a large capacity magazine; possession of marijuana for sale; and cultivating marijuana. He is being held on $591,000 bond and is due in court Wednesday.

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©2018 the Los Angeles Times

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