Kern County is spending $320 thousand to hire a consultant ahead of making recreational marijuana legal.The fee is to come up with an environmental impact report on the various possible ordinances that may be passed by the county to regulate production, processing, storage or sales of pot. Even if the county chooses to ban such activities, which is an option under Proposition 64, an impact on people traveling to get their legal weed must be studied. The Board of Supervisors approved the expenditure Tuesday but don’t expect to see possible ordinances until well into 2017 with the deadline to have something in place by January 2018.

Sean Michael Lisle