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Cannabis odor enforcement?

Joe.B

SAWHORSE
Staff member
Joined
Dec 4, 2020
Messages
1,756
Location
Myrtletown Ca
Has anybody else been asked to respond to a complaint of weed stinking up the neighborhood? We've many building permits for cannabis facilities, and most of them involve some kind of odor control, usually in the form of carbon filters. The carbon acts like a sponge and absorbs the odor from the air, until it's "full" or saturated. We are a relatively small town and we don't have a dedicated code enforcement department, so often things fall to me, but I'm careful not to enforce anything that I can't point to in code. Cannabis laws talk about odor neutralization, but there aren't specific codes or metrics to point to. Do I just stick my nose in the air and say "yup, smells like weed"? Seems pretty subjective.
 
Thats like people who complain about a bread bakery that is smelling up the neighborhood … how do you determine the threshold and compliance?
 
Does your city have any health ordinances on odors??


Or,,, anything in the marijuana ordinance ??
 
Has anybody else been asked to respond to a complaint of weed stinking up the neighborhood? We've many building permits for cannabis facilities, and most of them involve some kind of odor control, usually in the form of carbon filters. The carbon acts like a sponge and absorbs the odor from the air, until it's "full" or saturated. We are a relatively small town and we don't have a dedicated code enforcement department, so often things fall to me, but I'm careful not to enforce anything that I can't point to in code. Cannabis laws talk about odor neutralization, but there aren't specific codes or metrics to point to. Do I just stick my nose in the air and say "yup, smells like weed"? Seems pretty subjective.


Normally I would tell you call or email Steve Thomas.

But appears he had combined with another company

So try the phone number here and see if you can reach him


 
State regulations say you can't have "offending odors" as a result of cannabis activities. When we get a TI and review for compliance they typically show carbon filters which work for limited durations. I don't mind calling them up and saying "hay, change your filters" but how do I know which business to call? we have a "cannabis zone" and there are dozens of businesses in the area. When I drive through, it smells like weed. This is all newish so when other departments gets complaints they end up getting dumped on me. Normally I can find a code and point to something to say what's what, or to point the complaint to another department. The idea of enforcing odor seems so subjective that I was just wondering if anybody else has had to do this. If we had a building official I would ask them to decide what to do. By the way, anybody looking for a BO job on the coast in northern CA?
 
Joe,
You may have to do it like your grease trap inspections or tie it to their annual business license renewal by adding it to your weed :cool:ordinance.
 
State regulations say you can't have "offending odors" as a result of cannabis activities. When we get a TI and review for compliance they typically show carbon filters which work for limited durations. I don't mind calling them up and saying "hay, change your filters" but how do I know which business to call? we have a "cannabis zone" and there are dozens of businesses in the area. When I drive through, it smells like weed. This is all newish so when other departments gets complaints they end up getting dumped on me. Normally I can find a code and point to something to say what's what, or to point the complaint to another department. The idea of enforcing odor seems so subjective that I was just wondering if anybody else has had to do this. If we had a building official I would ask them to decide what to do. By the way, anybody looking for a BO job on the coast in northern CA?

Yep a little hard

Like being on a full elevator, someone farts
Don’t know who did it.

I do know a couple of people that will check exhausts for you and report back
 
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