In a historic vote this week, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted what may be the toughest odor-control regulations for commercial cannabis in the nation, requiring the installation of state-of-the-art odor control systems inside every cannabis greenhouse in the Carpinteria Valley, on or before March 31, 2026.

Seven years after a previous board approved a cannabis ordinance that was intended to make Santa Barbara County a mecca for the industry, the package of amendments that was approved on a first reading on Tuesday puts the brakes on that outlook, reflecting the political changes wrought by the wide-open ordinance of 2018.

Tackling the problem head-on for the first time on Tuesday, the board gave cannabis greenhouse growers 12 months to install “multi-technology carbon filtration” systems, also known as “scrubbers” — or an equivalent technology — throughout their operations. Scrubbers have been shown to clean up most of the smell of pot before it can escape through the greenhouse roof vents.