The world’s largest pot farms, and how Santa Barbara opened the door
LA TimesIn a sandy draw of the Santa Rita Hills, a cannabis company is planning to erect hoop greenhouses over 147 acres — the size of 130 football fields — to create the largest legal marijuana grow on Earth. Santa Barbara County’s famed wine region — with its giant live oaks and destination tasting rooms — and the quiet beach town of Carpinteria have become the unlikely capital of California’s legal pot market. Lobbied heavily by the marijuana industry, Santa Barbara County officials opened the door to big cannabis interests in the last two years like no other county in the nation, setting off a largely unregulated rush of planting in a region not previously known for the crop. Lobbied by the marijuana industry, Santa Barbara County officials opened the door to big cannabis interests in the last two years. Bottom left and right: Dennis Bozanich, deputy county executive officer in Santa Barbara County, smells marijuana growing in Carpinteria, where residents complain of the pot's odor.
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‘The War on Drugs Part II’: California taxes, rules are killing small legal weed farms
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Inside California’s pot legalization failures: Corporate influence, ignored warnings
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Santa Barbara grand jury blasts county supervisors over marijuana industry
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