When Californians legalized marijuana in 2017, Humboldt County officials saw green. They passed new ordinances to maximize the county’s taxes and fees from commercial cultivation. Fearful of losing revenue, they also weaponized the building code to punish anyone who might possibly be growing without a permit, issuing massive fines based on flimsy evidence—like greenhouses seen in satellite images—without any further investigation. Now, IJ and four innocent Humboldt County residents are fighting back with a class action lawsuit.
