Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
On April 24, 2019, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Cannabis Compliance Team, with the assistance of the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s office, the Sheriff’s Narcotics Team and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, executed a search warrant in the 5800 block of Via Real. The warrant was served for an indoor commercial cannabis site. The search warrant was the result of a lengthy investigation involving an invalid cannabis license and numerous neighborhood complaints.
During this search warrant, detectives located approximately 35,000 cannabis plants in various stages of growth, clones and nearly 200 pounds of dried product. The facility also appeared to have an inoperable odor mitigation system and large commercial generators, which appeared to be used to offset the power required to operate the facility. Upon conclusion of the investigation, all planted cannabis was eradicated, and the dried product and other evidence was seized.
Following this warrant, a related search warrant was served on April 25, 2019 in the 2100 block of Sweeney Rd, just outside the City of Lompoc. This site, which was related to the Via Real operation, was registered under a different name. Although no planted cannabis was located at that site, the location was being actively prepped for an approximate 29-acre outdoor cannabis grow.
The owner of the operation declined to meet with detectives at the time of the search warrant service, but a court date for his mandatory appearance was provided to his attorney’s office. Due to the active nature of this investigation, no further information will be released.
The Santa Barbara County Cannabis Compliance Team was founded in June of 2018 and consists of personnel from many disciplines within a variety of county departments. The team primarily focuses on unlicensed and illegal cannabis operations within the county and the safety of the public. Fol lowing the approval of Proposition 64, recreational marijuana is legal. However, the law requires any person or business selling or providing marijuana to be licensed through the State of California to ensure the sale of approved and tested cannabis products with regulated and identified THC content. Additionally, the County of Santa Barbara requires that cannabis businesses must possess local land use permits and local business licenses if the operations are in the unincorporated parts of the county. More information on the state licensing and testing process can be found on the CalCannabis or Bureau of Cannabis Control websites. For information on local permitting and licensing, please visit cannabis.countyofsb.org.
I have several friends in Carpinteria that are actively in the process of leaving their beloved town. The insides of their homes, vehicles, and clothing are saturated with MJ smell. I will not say “stink” because I actually like the smell. However, whiffing the weed 24/7/365 is a bit much for some…so they are moving as soon as they can sell
This comment rings false. Firstly, cannabis only “smells” when it is budding and that’s 2-3 times a year if the grower is lucky – unless it’s inside, then the smell is mitigated. ALSO, the molecules do not bind to anything and dissipates once the plants are cut down. I get not liking the smell but as with all other similar smells, you get used to it.
Took long enough to investigate this. Every time I drove by the smell of skunk was potent. Always the same place. So what do they really do with the weed they confiscate?????
To go to such great lengths to grow this and not know you need the proper license.
Follow the money . lol
We left our beloved Carpinteria last year due to the weed odors.
Maybe they should try working other jobs besides pruners, pickers and harvesters.
The truth about pot/DOPE is slowly coming out. It causes anxiety, depression, psychosis, and impairs cognitive ability(Makes you stupid); especially among chronic users. The purported health benefits of DOPE are largely unproven. The greedy growers of Carp have long had a net negative impact on the community, with their pesticides, illegal alien workforce(overcrowding of schools, highways, and social services), and now this gross air pollution. Why should the vast majority of the Carpinteria citizenry put up with this? The citizens of Carp need to get on government officials to just enforce the laws that are already on the books, and this whole mess would be over rather quickly.
Don’t they usually burn it? These growers must have been insane, to not get licenses and permits and have proper odor mitigation. For the neighbors it must have been like living next to a village of skunks; no wonder they frequently called animal control! Poor Carpinteria, once a delightful little city.
I drive west on 101 past Carpinteria many times a month. Every single time I get past Bailard Avenue there is a very strong smell of weed for about a mile. Either there a lot of illegal grows back there or the legal ones are not properly filtering their exhaust gases. If a gas station or a dry cleaning company did this they would be immediately shut down.
James,
You should be happy!
Prohibition of a harmless flower survived for over 80 years due to the greed of DuPont & big pHARMa.
Since you don’t live in Carpinteria, you also probably don’t know that local avocado growers spray pesticides that have been proven by California Courts multiple times to be carcinogens from helicopters.
Funny that you are cool with that,
because pot growers, (unlike avocados) have to be double lab tested to make sure there are no pesticides, so your fear of pesticides is mis-applied here.
Pot has been proven to cure cancer, (Duke study 1974, and countless others) also, you may want to Google, “Cannabinoid system” and “Cannabinoid receptors”, you may be very surprised that your body was built with these systems designed specifically to utilize cannabis, yes your own body.
Time to stop being afraid, and spreading your completely irrational fear of flowers.
Claims that there’s some constant stench and overwhelming odor in Carpinteria are false and the lies are being spread and perpetuated by people who simply hate cannabis.
Amen to that! Here are just a few of the falsehoods and lies being propogated by the weed stink haters: KEYT: “Concern growing over pot smell in Carpinteria”//////////ASSOCIATED PRESS: “Beach town used to smell like flowers, now it stinks like weed”/////////NEW YORK TIMES: “They call it fresh skunk, the odor cloud or sometimes just the stink.”////KCRW: “Smells like skunk… Carpinteria greenhouses turn to pot”//////DENVER POST: “What’s that smell? California flower town’s shift to pot creates stink”//////VENTURA COUNTY STAR: “Carpinteria wrestles with marijuana odor amid shift from one type of bud to another”//////COASTAL NEWS: “Follow your nose. Carpinteria Valley greenhouses have converted significant agricultural space to medical cannabis cultivation.”
I don’t believe that… I believe the odor is unpleasant to some folks and they are voicing their opinion of it as they are entitled to…No one from either side seems willing to work it out so it is what it is..
anyone who wants to should visit carpinteria and drive around looking for a stench. It’s like being in a low cell signal zone. You can try really hard to find that one bar, and then you think you got it and it’s gone. Call dropped again, before even making a connection. It must be infuriating for anyone trying to find the godawful stench. It did smell in Carpinteria, like two years ago. There’s no reason for continuing to be an angry opponent to a legal industry, unless you really want the industry to be illegal.
Please give driving directions for the Carpinteria Malodorous Pot Farms Tour. Then we can all assess this from the same page.
Zerohawk – I agree with your arguments, but calm down. You’re becoming unhinged and that won’t help anything.
More than 1/2 of the days I commute to Ventura at 6:30am, there is a strong odor of weed right in the vicinity of Santa Claus lane. Stronger on more humid days with cooler temps. I bet the people living on the beach smell it and are not happy. I think they are staggering their crops so they get ongoing budding and can produce commercial product, because it is not just a few times a year. There is a real problem as much as people on this page want to deny it.
curious how many of those complaining about the odor voted to legalize it in CA?
how is it a problem? because you don’t like the smell? what if others do? i personally can’t stand the smell of cigars and cigarettes, scent of pollution from vehicles, and patchouli, and broccoli, but i’m not going to stomp around and act like a whiner. No…why? Because this planet isn’t just for me….just like it’s not only for you.
i know…and i’m calm…just annoyed with all of the misinformation and whiners. i’ll go back to hiding for a while lol
I live about 100 ft. from the largest greenhouse legal grower in Carpinteria. I have lived on the South Coast for all of my 65 years of life. At my home I smell absolutely nothing other than the sweeta air of living in Carpinteria, and that has been the case for at leasts a year. There are a few spots, especially on Craven where we have a whole bunch of newcomers with lots of money who planted their crops before installing their odor control and they remain a problem. the County knows who they are and where they are located and as soon as the Ordinances are finalized, those facilities will either have effective odor control or they will be out of business. All the other complaints are not credible and I am happy to drive around town with anyone interested and you show me where, besides Craven, you are complaining about. The claim that people are smelling it while driving by on the Free way is complete BS. One of the worst violators for odor was that illegal grow at the top of Casitas that was busted a couple months ago. Prior to the bust it was the worst place in town. Reeked every-time I drove past. Now, nothing and that is the case throughout Carpinteria today. Lots of haters around here but I want to qualify that. A few haters who are very loud. I am guessing it is 10% of our residents, the same 10% who are registered Republicans in an otherwise overwhelmingly Democratic community. Also the claims about property values and disclosures are typical uninformed garbage. My neighbor is a local real estate agent. He just sold a property right next to all the greenhouses on Foothill. The property sold for more than 40% over what it did 10 years ago and sold in one week. There is no disclosure requirement for cannabis order and I asked several highly qualified realtors that question lately. Relax and find something else to complain about!!!
I completely agree with 6:02am. I’m in Carp multiple times a week and have never had an issue with any type of smell other than obvious permitted burns on the ranches nearby and our beloved ocean. Btw, there are skunks out there who get hit by cars (saw one on Via Real last time I was out there) and their stench reeks for quite a long way. Yes I know – slightly different scent – but some people tend to assume things…IMHO