CA Property Owner- Cultivating without a License- $30,000 fine and 10-year suspension.
Jeremy and Stephanie Hardcastle owned the property they were leasing out to a cannabis cultivation operator, charging $30,000 a year for the lease. The CA Department of Cannabis Control (CDCC) and Law Enforcement issued a search warrant on their property at 27471 Lack Creek Drive, Shingletown, CA 96088. Nine greenhouses contained 3,781 cannabis plants. While onsite, they contacted the property owners, Jeremy and Stephanie.
Jeremy Ross Hardcastle and Stephanie Lynn Hardcastle commercially cultivated cannabis in California without first obtaining a state license issued by the Department authorizing the cultivation of cannabis in violation of section 26037.5(a) Business and Professions Code. Jeremy Ross Hardcastle exhibited knowledge of the illegality of commercial cannabis cultivation. While gesturing to his hands in handcuffs, he stated that he had a written lease
agreement to avoid such situations. In spite of the knowledge of the unlawfulness, Jeremy and Stephanie Hardcastle admitted to having this lease agreement for multiple years, receiving $30,000 a year since September 2019, for approximately two years total.
They were also disqualified for a period of ten (10) years from applying for licensure from the Department of Cannabis Control and prohibited from engaging in commercial cannabis activity. If there would have verified that the persons they wanted to lease to had an actual license, then they could have continued to collect $30,000 a year on the lease. This is essentially lost revenue of over $300,0000 over that same ten-year period.
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