By
The Editorial Board,
As California moves toward implementation of the legalization of
recreational marijuana use, there are a lot of rules and regulations to
draw up, on both the state and local levels.
One of those needed regulations is moving through the Legislature now in the form of Assembly Bill 238, by local Assemblyman Marc Steinorth, R-Rancho Cucamonga.
Steinorth’s
bill would ban highly combustible cannabis extractors used in
concentrated THC production from being used in residential
neighborhoods.
“A recent explosion in San Bernardino County
highlights the danger of these marijuana processing labs often located
in residential areas,” Steinorth said in a statement. “Butane is
dangerous and highly combustible. As California comes to terms with
recreational cannabis, we should continue to protect public safety and
keep explosive equipment out of our neighborhoods.”
He was referring to a May 3 garage fire in Hesperia
that investigators attributed to the explosion of a THC extraction lab
in the garage. A man, suspected of using the lab to make “honey oil,”
was seriously injured in the explosion and fire. The house sits next to a
middle school.
Volatile-solvent cannabis extractors, using combustible gases like butane, have caused many accidental explosions.
Proposition
64, passed by state voters in November to legalize and regulate
recreational marijuana, creates a “Manufacturing Level 2” license for
“sites that manufacture marijuana products using volatile solvents.”
AB238 would prohibit a Manufacturing Level 2 licensee from
manufacturing cannabis products while using SWvolatile solvents in a
residential structure or on residential property — in other words, in a
neighborhood.
“As the cannabis industry transitions into an
above-ground economy, it is important that cannabis businesses do not
operate potentially dangerous equipment in populated neighborhoods and
instead properly use commercial property,” Steinorth wrote in an
Assembly analysis of his legislation.
Steinorth’s bill passed the Assembly on a 68-0 vote last week. It
should speed through the state Senate and be signed into law by Gov.
Jerry Brown.
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