Header: Sheriff Billy Honsal said Humboldt’ County
HUMBOLDT – Humboldt County’s sheriff says Northern California’s illegal cannabis farming is rife with labor exploitation and it’s going to be addressed with new grant-funded staff.
Three new Sheriff’s Office positions were approved at the Aug. 27 Board of Supervisors meeting.
Sheriff Billy Honsal said Humboldt’s control of illegal cannabis is effective but “bad actors” have been pushed into or have migrated from other parts of the state to nearby counties.
Humboldt is part of a five-county coalition in a region where illegal cannabis production has “exponentially blown up,” Honsal said.
The counties banded together to form a non-profit group, the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities, to tackle cannabis dilemmas that any one of its members can’t deal with on its own.
The coalition’s goal is “to seek funding for a collective goal, to eliminate or at least address – I shouldn’t say eliminate, because it will never happen – to address human and labor trafficking associated with illegal cannabis operations, transnational crime, organized crime, as well as environmental damage,” Honsal said.
The three positions paid for through Humboldt’s $334,600 of grant funding over three years are a public information officer, an evidence technician and a program manager.
They’ll support efforts against human trafficking.
Honsal said cannabis prices have dropped steeply and with less money churned, cost-cutting leads to labor exploitation.
Pre-legalization cannabis was selling for $3,000 to $5,000 a pound and now the price has dropped between $300 and $500, said Honsal, with labor cost being “the biggest liability now.”
Honsal added, “So how do you combat that – you combat that through forcing labor.”
He said victim advocacy, not immigration enforcement, is the goal.
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