CannaCraft Reaches Settlement with Sonoma County

CannaCraft, Inc., recently announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office regarding issues that arose in 2016. The company will pay $510,000 in a cash settlement to Sonoma County, California for building code violations.

The 22-month ordeal began in June 2016. A “false tip” led law enforcement to investigate claims of CannaCraft Inc. extracting cannabis oil with the use of butane, which resulted in the temporary closure of the facility and the seizure of the company’s equipment, product and cash. CannaCraft, Inc. Co-founder, Dennis Hunter, was also put in jail briefly.

After the incident, CannaCraft, Inc. worked with the Santa Rosa Fire Department to correct the code violations (notably a new sprinkler system and a better solution for cannabis product storage and trash). Fortunately, charges were never made toward CannaCraft, Inc. as they worked to remedy the issue. Former Santa Rosa Mayor John Sawyer noted that this sort of incident was just “growing pains” for the cannabis industry as its in its infancy.

With a sigh of relief, CannaCraft Inc.’s CEO Bill Silver is looking forward to resuming business as usual. “We are happy to put this behind us and we are focusing on the current and future state of the industry,” he said in a press release. “Our goal is to show Sonoma County the positive and impactful effects that companies like CannaCraft can have on our economy and our community.”

Despite the amount of time and dedication it took to thoroughly complete the steps required for a settlement, it isn’t without benefits. $250,000 of the money that CannaCraft, Inc. has agreed to pay will be put toward “local environment projects as well as city programs that support efforts to successfully regulate and sustain Sonoma County’s cannabis industry. Furthermore, the incident actually helped CannaCraft, Inc. work with local legislators to help solidify better regulations for the entire region. “Disruptive as the raid was, it allowed CannaCraft to have open and productive dialogue with local and State lawmakers about how to best permit and regulate cannabis companies in California, “ Silver added. “It’s not easy to create the infrastructure for a new industry, especially an industry as robust and controversial as cannabis. But both sides worked together and we are in a better place today because of it.”

CannaCraft provides jobs to over 150 employees, and is noted as one of the 20 largest companies in Santa Rosa, California.