I’m a little confused about a recent Santa Barbara County Planning Commission decision about cannabis—mostly I’m confounded about Commissioner John Parke and his support of a processing project, something I assume he’s against.
You know, he’s always talking about that odor. Cannabis smells impacting quality of life seem to niggle Parke like no other, insinuating itself into every project discussion that comes before the commission. Odor.
Assumptions aren’t always accurate, and in this case, I assumed wrong.
Parke spoke out against an appeal of a Buellton cannabis processing project during the commission’s July 31 meeting, saying the rules were the rules. Cannabis is legal, baby. And if you want to talk about whether it should be, you’re going to have to go to a different governing body.
He was responding to the appellant, Edward Seaman, who appealed the Sierra Botanicals project with Patricia Paulsen over odor concerns.
“If you have the smell of the drug industry wafting over, then you’ve completely changed the experience, and that’s going to hurt us,” he said as the general manager of Restoration Oaks Ranch. “The reminder of the drug industry” wafting over the ranch’s farm is going to hurt families trying to enjoy the farm with their children, he added.
“It’s bad for society,” Seaman said. “It doesn’t belong here.”
Well, we all know where he stands. He must have voted against legalizing weed in California all those years ago. Unfortunately for him, he was in the minority, and majority rules. Pot, weed, grass, cannabis, the devil’s lettuce, ganja, reefer, Mary Jane—whatever you want to call it—can be grown, processed, packaged, and sold in the state. And as an agricultural operation, it can set up shop next to the ranch.
What if it was a Xanax manufacturer? Would he be bitching about the “drug industry”?
Seaman’s arguments, commissioners said, were beyond the scope of the project.
“If you’re a vegan and you don’t like cows being eaten or turned into shoe leather, that doesn’t mean it’s relevant for the Planning Commission to consider when we look at zoning on a cattle ranch,” Parke said.
Wait, cattle get turned into shoe leather? I thought happy cows come from California, not shoe-leather cows!
Odor concerns, the commission said, were controlled to the extent that they possibly could be with carbon scrubbers, the best available technology.
Much to Seaman’s chagrin, not only did the commission throw the appeal out, there’s another cannabis project getting prepped to tuck in next to the ranch. Seaman, though, said he wouldn’t take his eyes off that project from TAT Ventures LLC, a project that Parke requested get delayed over … you guessed it, odor! Ugh! There’s that word again.
“I’m going to appeal this every step of the way,” Seaman said. “My argument is: It’s not compatible with us.”
Oh. Maybe you aren’t compatible with it. I hear Texas is nice this time of year! And, hey, that odoriferous weed is still illegal there—although federal plans might derail that. Sounds like some of us just need to get used to the new normal, whether we like it or not.
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