The California Department of Cannabis Control issued 312 enforcement actions during the first quarter of 2026, a 40 percent jump over the same period last year and the highest quarterly total since the agency was formed in 2021. Humboldt County accounted for 74 of those actions, the most of any county in the state.

The numbers, released in the DCC’s quarterly transparency report on Monday, include license suspensions, citations, administrative penalties, and embargoes on product. They do not include criminal referrals to local law enforcement, which the agency tracks separately and has not yet published for Q1.

DCC director Nichole Elliott said in a statement that the increase reflects expanded field capacity rather than a worsening compliance environment. The agency added 28 enforcement positions in the current fiscal year, funded through a reallocation of licensing fee revenue.

“We are reaching more licensees, conducting more inspections, and holding the market to the standards that consumers and compliant operators expect,” Elliott said.

But the reaction in Humboldt was less measured. Several growers and cannabis attorneys said the enforcement surge feels punitive at a time when permitted farms are already struggling with historically low wholesale prices and crushing regulatory costs.

“You have farms that are hemorrhaging money, that can barely keep the lights on, and DCC is showing up to cite them for a label violation or a camera angle on their surveillance system,” said Megan Souza, a cannabis compliance attorney based in Arcata. “The priorities are completely out of touch.”

The most common enforcement actions in Q1 were track-and-trace violations, which accounted for 31 percent of all citations statewide. Track-and-trace, the state’s seed-to-sale monitoring system powered by Metrc, requires licensees to log every plant, every transfer, and every sale in real time. The system has been a persistent source of frustration for small operators who say the software is difficult to use and the penalties for late or inaccurate entries are disproportionate.

Packaging and labeling violations were the second most common category at 22 percent, followed by unauthorized cultivation activity at 18 percent. That last category includes growers who exceeded their permitted canopy, cultivated on unlicensed portions of their property, or failed to comply with conditions of their permit.

In Humboldt, the enforcement pattern skewed toward track-and-trace and water use. A dozen actions involved allegations of water diversion without proper rights, an area where the DCC has been coordinating with the State Water Resources Control Board. Several of those cases were in the Mattole and South Fork Eel watersheds, areas where water rights have been contentious for years.

The Humboldt County Growers Alliance said in a statement that while it supports reasonable enforcement, the Q1 numbers suggest the DCC is prioritizing volume over impact.

“Citing a compliant farm for a Metrc entry that was three days late does not protect public health and it does not address the illicit market,” the statement read. “It demoralizes the people who chose to play by the rules.”

The DCC has not yet responded to requests for a breakdown of penalty amounts assessed in Q1. In previous quarters, the average administrative fine ranged from $1,500 to $7,500 per violation, though larger penalties exceeding $30,000 have been issued in cases involving unlicensed activity or product diversion.

The agency’s next public board meeting, where enforcement policy will be on the agenda, is scheduled for April 17 in Sacramento. The meeting will be available via webcast on the DCC website.