Careful Consideration in Prison Town

The changing societal norms that surround cannabis are especially evident in the city of Corcoran, which is on track to rebrand itself as a cannabis town instead of a prison town.

The California State Prison is located in Corcoran where Charles Manson and the “Dating Game Killer” Rodney Alcala are notoriously incarcerated to this day. They are joined by nearly 10,000 other inmates, many of which are serving time for non-violent cannabis-related convictions. Nearby, the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison houses drug offenders from across California. In fact, nearly half of Corcoran’s total population is made up of inmates.

“The council requested a study session and further discussion on commercial cannabis cultivators and other cannabis-related businesses interested in operating in Corcoran.”

However, Corcoran could soon allow and promote cannabis on a commercial scale, and there’s no shortage of companies that are willing to wait for the city to enact commercial cannabis laws.

At a June 13 Corcoran City Council meeting, interest was expressed by commercial cannabis cultivators for potential locations in the city. The city council voted 4-0, with one councilmember absent, to continue to explore the potential regulation of medical cannabis in the city. “The council requested a study session and further discussion on commercial cannabis cultivators and other cannabis-related businesses interested in operating in Corcoran,” the Corcoran City Council stated. “The study session will be held on the June 27, 2017 meeting.” On June 27, the city council discussed the topic again and recommended allowing commercial cultivation, but dispensaries would not be permitted. No new ordinances have been introduced at the time of this writing.

Sacramento-based cannabis company, The Genezen Project, sent a spokesperson to convince the council to consider allowing indoor commercial cultivation. “Genezen” means “to heal” in Dutch. The Genezen Project and several more companies are interested in staking out land possibilities in Corcoran and other cities in the area. The Genezen Project also paid the city of Hanford $50,000 to help cover the cost of implementing a medical cannabis ordinance.

A packet was distributed at city council entitled “What Cities Should Know About Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act,” by Tim Cromartie. The illustrated packet outlines what local cities and municipalities can do and what they cannot do regarding Proposition 64. For instance, cities do not have the jurisdiction to ban indoor cultivation for personal use. Commercial regulation is a different story, and each city can decide of whether to enact their own laws, whether to ban recreational cannabis businesses entirely or to let Proposition 64 take effect without any action.

According to Corcoran City Manager Kindon Meik, the city was approached by a multitude of interested cannabis-related firms that are currently in the process of setting up industrial operations nearby in Hanford. One unnamed company is interested in an 80,000 square-foot building, which sits on a 20-acre plot. The site is the former Seward Luggage space at 1200 Orange Avenue in Corcoran. In total, the city has 320 acres of land zoned for industrial use.

The lure of commercial cannabis in Corcoran is no doubt partially inspired by Coalinga’s decision to convert the Claremont Custody Center into a commercial cannabis cultivation operation. The former prison’s conversion to a cannabis cultivation oasis is quite literally the “definition” of irony. That operation is being spearheaded by Ocean Grown Extracts and Bob Marley’s son Damian Marley. Unfortunately, Kings County has shown little interest in allowing commercial cannabis at the county level. However, it would do Corcoran well to carefully consider the economic benefits of allowing and taxing commercial cannabis in the area.