About five months ago law enforcement officers hauled away around $3 million worth of extraction equipment from the Circadian Way facility in southwest Santa Rosa. This halted production and forced the CannaCraft to address their code violations while one of their founders was jailed.
Since the arrest California and the city of Santa Rosa have started to embrace the cannabis manufacturing industry by providing new regulations allowing producers of medical marijuana-infused products to step out of the shadows. This week CannaCraft received a final level of approval from the city to run its enterprise, among only a handful of companies operating statewide to receive local authorization to continue their operations.
This is the largest manufacturing and cannabis extraction facility in the entire state of California. It is a great sign that local governments are supporting this arm of the industry and shows that Santa Rosa could be leading the way for California cannabis industry. This huge company employs over 150 people among their suite of companies including Sonoma Lab Works and CBD Guild.
They even have a company called Critical Solutions that builds extraction equipment. CannaCraft is the finance and regulatory compliance company among the organization. Each day their supercritical CO2 Fluid Extraction machines produce anywhere from 30 to 35 pounds of raw concentrated cannabis. The substance is yellow and wax-like that is further refined to make oils and sprays marketed in a myriad of medicinal products.
A group that included city council members and even Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo gathered on Wednesday to tour the facility that has brought industry to the small town. “We want to be the company that helps tear down stigmas for cannabis,” Hunter said to the group during a catered lunch. At this lunch they announced their plans to hire developmentally disabled adults in an off-site facility that makes packaging for the organization.
These developments feel like promises of a friendly future with law enforcement, but Hunter still sits in wait of prosecution from his arrest July 15 during the raid of their facility. In that raid law enforcement seized around $5 million worth of property, $500,00 in cash for payroll and another $1.5 in products according to a company spokesperson. Currently no charges have been filed against Hunter.
