Landlord settles homegrow dispute with Sacramento

The Sacramento Bee reports that the city of Sacramento paid $700,000 to settle claims of disparate enforcement of homegrow laws against Asian American landlords. ($650,000 was attorney’s fees, which is nuts and ought to be an issue for some other organization)

It seems that the police were using data from the electrical utility to identify unlicensed grows. They then visited the homes, and issued fines when the person was growing more than 6 plants. 80% of the fines were issued to people of Asian descent.

We’ve long suspected that homegrow laws would be disproportionately enforced against Asian communities. I get that it’s a tough place for the cops: they are expected to act as regulatory enforcement, using the criminal law. It’s really the wrong tool. Still, that’s no excuse for focusing on Asian communities.

It’s also a mistake to enforce violations under the homegrow law. If a person is cultivating more than a few plants, treat it as unlicensed cultivation, not homegrow gone haywire.