Pelham Town Council received its latest cannabis odour report during Wednesday's meeting, one that could see local producers fined $2,500 daily for a first odour bylaw offence.
The report, which is scheduled to come back for passage in a few weeks, then pegs a secondary offence at $5,000, and a tertiary fine of $7,500. The first challenge, however, lies in effective enforcement.
The report stated that the Town has received 309 odour complaints regarding cannabis producers since the beginning of 2020. However, bylaw enforcement staff backed up those complaints with just one single detection using the "Nasal Ranger" odour device.
The Nasal Ranger did, however, detect high odour readings on 34 random tests during that time. The explanation would seem to be that because most odours are temporary and transient, bylaw enforcement was unable to arrive on-site in a timely manner to back up hundreds of citizen complaints.
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