Pubdate: Wed, 16 Mar 2016
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321

FORMER JAIL IN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY MIGHT BECOME CANNABIS OIL FACTORY

COALINGA - A Southern California company has proposed using a vacant 
San Joaquin Valley prison for growing marijuana and producing cannabis oil.

Ocean Grown Extracts made the proposal last month to the mayor and 
city manager of Coalinga, which owns the shuttered Claremont Custody 
Center, The Fresno Bee reported Monday.

The 77,000-square-foot facility was closed several years ago when the 
California Department of Corrections did not renew its contract.

City Manager Marissa Trejo detailed the economic benefits of the 
proposal at a City Council meeting this month. Lease and tax payments 
would bring nearly $2 million annually. The cannabis oil would be 
sold wholesale to dispensaries.

The company also would bring 100 full-time jobs to the city of 13,000 
that is running a $3.3 million budget deficit.

"One company could take us out of the red in three years," said Mayor 
Pro Tem Patrick Keough.

Trejo said the company agreed to work with the police chief, link 
security cameras to the police dispatch center, perform background 
checks on all employees and license its activities with the city.

The former prison has gates, barbed-wire-topped fences and 
surveillance equipment.

Councilman Ron Lander recommended that the city sell the complex to 
Ocean Grown so that "the city's name is not attached."

The Legislature last year created the state's first comprehensive 
licensing scheme for medical marijuana businesses.

California voters are expected to vote in November whether to 
legalize recreational marijuana use and sales for adults 21 and over.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom