The Board of Supervisors approved concession agreements for 20 Sonoma County hashish operators who have been affected for hashish offenses that occurred between 1971 and 2016, together with arrests or convictions on the market, possession, distribution, use, manufacture or cultivation of hashish, or different non-violent cannabis-related crimes, or have been topic to asset forfeiture.
The funds have been awarded via a $687,561 Hashish Fairness Grant for Native Jurisdictions that the County obtained from the California Workplace of Enterprise and Financial Improvement. 1 / 4 of the funding will probably be distributed evenly within the quantity of $7,937 for every of the 20 recipients, whereas the remaining funding will probably be distributed in keeping with the extent to which candidates meet this system's eligibility standards. Eligible program candidates additionally embrace mother and father, siblings, spouses, kids or guardians of these arrested for non-violent cannabis-related offenses.
The minimal quantity awarded will probably be $18,520 and the biggest quantity will probably be $50,270. Authorized makes use of of grant funding embrace, however are usually not restricted to, the fee of allow charges, state license charges, guide charges and tax legal responsibility.
“Via the Governor's Workplace of Enterprise and Financial Improvement, the Sonoma County Hashish Native Fairness Program will award $635,000,” mentioned Supervisor David Rabbitt, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. “This grant program goals to serve socioeconomically deprived people navigating the hashish allow course of.”
The state grant funding program goals to cut back or get rid of boundaries to entry into the newly regulated hashish business and help the state in its aim of eliminating the illicit hashish market by bringing extra operators into the authorized market. As of 2020, the state has awarded about $107 million to 35 native jurisdictions throughout the state, together with cities and counties.
In 2021, Sonoma County carried out a Hashish Equity Evaluation that confirmed that small growers, significantly these within the Penalty Aid Program, have been disproportionately affected by the bottlenecks, the necessities of program and subsequent prices within the County allow course of. The evaluation additionally decided that the state's classification of hashish as an agricultural product relatively than as agriculture creates a dearer allow course of than is required for different agricultural companies.
Different points recognized by the evaluation embrace rural neighborhood opposition, ordinance volatility and excessive capital boundaries to entry, comparable to excessive actual property values within the county, leading to restricted alternatives for small hashish operators. Sonoma County's Latinx and low-income people, households and communities have been additionally discovered to have suffered a disproportionately unfavorable influence because of the enforcement of Proposition 64 and the conflict on medicine.
Supplies from immediately's replace to the Board of Supervisors concerning the Sonoma County Hashish Native Fairness Program and grant program authorization can be found at:
https://sonoma-county.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6645994&GUID=796F2D92-47AF-43F8-90F5-D40C533FB2DA
For extra questions concerning hashish operations in Sonoma County, please e-mail Hashish@Sonoma-County.org or go to: https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Hashish-Program