In its first year of operation, the city’s Cannabis Administrative Prosecutor Program was able to conduct 100 investigations. All 100 investigations resulted in code violations.
The Fresno City Council saw a presentation from CAPP, as well as approved matters through the consent agenda like allocating $100,000 toward local LGBTQIA+ groups, and allowing residents the option to close down their alleys.
The city’s first-of-its-kind partnership with the California Attorney General’s office has helped bring light to multiple violations in Fresno’s cannabis scene.
Fresno City Council saw a presentation from the City Attorney’s Office on the annual report from the Cannabis Administrative Prosecutor Program.
CAPP started in August 2023 after a first-of-its-kind partnership with the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the City of Fresno.
The program aims to “reduce and eliminate illegal commercial cannabis activity within the city, while mitigating the environmental, social and economic impacts of these illegal activities”
“I want to emphasize that this program is civil in nature,” said Chief Assistant City Attorney Erica Camarena, who was among the presenters. “Our prosecutory purpose is to go after people or operators, owners civilly, not criminally. But as you’re going to see throughout the slideshow, inherently there were a lot of criminal elements with what we do… ”
Smoke shops inspected by the CAPP team were shown to the council — including Royal T Smoke Shop. The CAPP team discovered that the owner of the shop had a warrant for a homicide, leading to their arrest. Another business, Full Moon, is no longer in business after being levied penalties by the CAPP team.
The city attorney’s office levies a $250 fine per violation. However, the biggest loss for businesses, according to Camarena, comes from the CAPP team seizing their illegal products — which effectively shuts off their revenue steam.
One hundred inspections have been conducted by CAPP in the last year, including 67 smoke shops. Among those smoke shops 53 or about 80%, had cannabis. Illegal tobacco was also seen at 63, or about 94%, of the smoke shops.
All 100 inspections resulted in code violations.
H/T: fresnoland.org
