Cannabis growers anxiously paced the fourth floor of the County Administration Building on Tuesday afternoon. The fate of their lucrative farms was on the line as county supervisors wrangled over the future of cannabis operations in Santa Barbara County. It was the kind of thing that used to happen in back rooms suffocated by cigar smoke. Now it occurs over 27 exhaustive public hearings where emotions tend to run high.
By 7:30 Tuesday night, though, most had breathed a sigh of relief.
The supervisors voted 4-1 to pass a cannabis ordinance. They decided to limit the number of potential retail pot shops to eight, with no more than two in each supervisorial district. And they voted to place a general tax on the June ballot to fund enforcement, among other expenses. Supervisor Peter Adam was the sole opponent.