Corruption in California’s cannabis industry has become widespread and brutal.

There have been pay-to-play schemes, including a demand for cash in a brown paper bag for a weed license, threats of violence against local officials and city councilors who accept money from cannabis companies even if they regulate them.

Those problems and more were uncovered last year by a sweeping Times investigation. Now state officials are launching an audit to curb bribery, conflicts of interest and other misdeeds.

The investigation, requested by Councilman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) and authorized Wednesday by the state’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee, comes more than six years after California voters approved Proposition 64, the ballot measure that legalized recreational cannabis and created a unleashed a wave of corruption that has plagued local governments in rural enclaves in Northern California and towns such as Calexico near the Mexican border.

Other state legislators have proposed hearings and reforms in response to The Times investigative series “Legal Weed, Broken Promises,” which also exposed the failure of government officials to stamp out the illicit cannabis market and protect the workers who toil and die on farms.

State auditors plan to identify six jurisdictions with licensed cannabis businesses and review criteria used to approve the licenses, assessing local governments that have been rocked by corruption allegations and others that appear less likely to have such problems.

They will look for patterns in the licensing rules that indicate whether certain practices are “more susceptible to fraud and abuse,” state auditor Grant Parks told lawmakers Wednesday.

They will also look at a “pretty good sample” of cannabis licenses to make sure local authorities followed the rules they set, he said.

The findings could form the basis for legislation and new regulations related to licensing, Parks said.

In an interview, Jones-Sawyer praised the move as a step towards reform.

If we don’t clean the house, no one else will. I think this will prove to the public that we take corruption very seriously,” said Jones-Sawyer, who proclaimed herself the state’s “cannabis agent” after the Times investigations were published.

Proposal 64 left

ultimate business licenses held by cities and counties. Part-time, often low-paid local elected officials became gatekeepers to decisions worth potentially millions of dollars for entrepreneurs in the hyper-competitive cannabis market.

The state’s dual state and local licensing system has been widely accused of creating fertile ground for corruption. The Times investigation uncovered a possible six-figure bribe demand from the former mayor in Baldwin Park, later confirmed by a federal plea deal and other potential conflicts of interest in the state.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Amy Jenkins, representative of the California Cannabis Industry Assn., blamed local regulation for the corruption problem, arguing that measures such as license limits allowed city leaders to pick winners and losers in the marketplace and options for payouts to create.

Less than half of California’s cities and counties allow some type of cannabis business to operate retail, grow, manufacture, or other types of licensing within their borders. The audit, Jenkins said, could lead to more “liberal” local regulations that reduce the chances of payouts and allow more cannabis businesses to open.

“Legal cannabis has failed and will continue to fail until we can fully integrate cannabis into our economy,” she said.

Councilman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) agreed that there was an “undercurrent of misconduct” in cannabis licensing. He suggested that his own community be investigated to determine which practices are least likely to lead to corruption.

“Fresno is now the fifth-largest city in the state of California, it’s the capital of an important region of the state. Whatever it’s worth, I think the Fresno region should be part of that,” Patterson said.

Previous efforts by Jones-Sawyer to investigate corruption in the pot industry have been stymied, with local community lobbyists opposing such proposals, calling them politically motivated, he said.

But with the Times series on the failures of Proposition 64, a new committee chair and the leeway to choose which cities to target, Jones-Sawyer said he could finally muster enough support to get the audit approved.

No one at Wednesday’s hearing opposed the plan.

From when I had to fight to get it heard, it’s now a unanimous decision, I think people now understand the importance of rooting out corruption, even if it’s just one elected official,” he said.