FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COURT DECISION LIMITS CRIMINAL EXPOSURE OF LICENSED CANNABIS OPERATORS
Lake Forest, Ca. May 15, 2020 – News outlets throughout Southern California recently reported the confiscation of millions of dollars in cannabis oil and the possible arrest of multiple licensed cannabis operators in Santa Barbara County (Los Angeles Times February 14 “Cannabis Farm was model for California’s licensed legal industry”).
The operators claimed they were operating within local and state regulations, while the District Attorney pointed to technical noncompliance issues giving rise to allegations of criminal conduct and local authorities confiscated product valued at over $2.6 million. After over three months of extensive litigation Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge T. Anderele ruled that criminal laws such as the state Controlled Substances Act do not apply to licensed commercial cannabis activities in legal markets.
Lead counsel for Eagle Bay Enterprises dba Procan Labs, John Armstrong of the Horwitz+ Armstrong law firm remarked, “With millions of dollars at stake, licensed cannabis operators should not be at risk of losing their business because police mistake lawful cannabis operations for illegal black market activities. California established the Bureau of Cannabis Control and empowered it to support and regulate legal cannabis activities, to the exclusion of heavy handed law enforcement activities. The Procann decision demonstrates that our courts will side with the Cannabis Industry when it provides evidence of good faith efforts to comply with state regulations. We would like to thank CREC Compliance for its assistance in verifying legal compliance by our client. CREC’s assistance was invaluable in securing the eventual positive result.”
Interested parties may contact Attorney Armstrong at jarmstrong@horwitzarmstrong.com for further questions or to obtain a copy of the court’s decision or jared@crec.us for additional information on the critical cannabis compliance issues which resulted in the decision.
Media Contact:
Erich Rubio
Cannabis Real Estate Consultants
(866) 810-2022
erich@crec.us
