recreational marijuana businesses beginning Jan. 1, 2018.

Authority rests with local governments to decide whether to allow recreational marijuana sales to go into effect in their area, giving them power to either issue bans or develop policies for businesses to operate.

The Long Beach City Council is the latest to join the movement. The council recently voted to move ahead with developing policies for recreational marijuana businesses to operate in Long Beach. According to an article from the Long Beach Press Telegram, Long Beach has more than 100 pending applications for a wide range of marijuana businesses. Two of an allotted 32 dispensaries have opened so far in the area, in Rose Park and Belmont Shore.

In November 2016, the same time Prop. 64 passed, Long Beach repealed its medical marijuana ban in the city, as citizens voted in favor of Measure MM. Since then, the city has been ironing out the details of medical marijuana regulations and policies. Some of the council members objected to moving forward with recreational marijuana policies until the all of the issues with medical marijuana implementation had been settled.

The measure, however, passed. Supporters cited a desire for the city to have more control over implementation than they did with medical marijuana. After securing a medical cannabis dispensaries ban in the city, citizens and the industry took control with a ballot measure, and the city no longer had as much say.

The process for Long Beach creating regulations for commercial recreational businesses will not make the Jan. 1 rollout across the state. In the meantime, a 180-day temporary ban will be put in place until city council can vote on final regulations. Of course, nothing is final, and it is still possible the city will ultimately not continue forward with plans to allow businesses to establish there.

Among considerations during this time will be how many dispensaries will be permitted, where they will allow businesses to be located, conditions for approval, and labor provisions. Council is considering keeping the cap on dispensaries at 32 total and encouraging medical and adult-use dispensaries to operate jointly.

Other cities nearby have held firmly to their respective bans on commercial marijuana businesses. Some of those cities include Downey, Lakewood, and Cerritos. Carson has OK’d marijuana testing, growing, and manufacturing, as well as door-to-door delivery and personal use cultivation with restrictions, and limited indoor commercial operations, but still rejected commercial dispensaries in city limits.

Bellflower has approved up to a dozen licenses for cultivators, processors, and dispensaries, and has started taking applications.

Long Beach council members will be looking closely at regulations around the state as they make decisions on how to best craft policy for the city. And our Los Angeles recreational marijuana business lawyers are keeping an eye on all the latest developments in cities across the region. If you’re considering opening a cannabis business, whether it be commercial or medical, our attorneys can help you properly file business license applications and navigate local laws from city to city, while also keeping in mind state and federal regulations.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734. Additional Resources: Long Beach wants to allow recreational cannabis businesses in 2018, Nov. 15, 2017, by Courtney Tompkins, Long Beach Press Telegram

Other Blog Entries:

Long Beach Wins Battle to Ban Medical Marijuana Dispensaries, July, 29, 2016, Cannabis Law Group

The California appellate court decision did not surprise anyone. This litigation, filed four years ago, was a challenge to the city’s ban on dispensaries based on the argument that the action was a violation of the rights of the disabled.

The reason the outcome, handed down by the Court of Appeal, was no surprise was that it had been filed prior to the California Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center, Inc. In that case, the state high court ruled that the state’s medical marijuana laws do not prohibit cities from enacting a ban on the operation of local marijuana dispensaries within that city’s borders.

That decision was telling not only for medical marijuana dispensaries, but it also set the precedent for the legal landscape that will exist if and when recreational marijuana is approved. It will mean even as state laws become more permissive, cities will still have the authority to restrict or even ban the sale of it where they have control to do so.

Medical marijuana attorneys in Long Beach know this is an important reason why the focus of real change efforts have shifted from court action to legislative action. Given the decision in Riverside, cities’ rights to enact bans is solidified. That means we have to fight to make sure those bans don’t go into effect in the first place.

This November, there are ballot initiatives throughout the state that would not only allow for medical marijuana dispensaries in California cities to operate, but also establishes clear regulation guidelines for those local operations.

In the Long Beach case, marijuana lawyers had argued in a 43-page class action lawsuit that the city’s ban on marijuana dispensaries undercut the rights of the disabled under the Americans With Disabilities Act. This was, plaintiffs argued, an infringement of their 5th Amendment rights. It was also alleged the city violated the rights of existing dispensaries by use of threats, coercion and intimidation.

After the trial court granted summary judgment to defendant city, the court of appeals affirmed, basing the decision primarily on the Riverside ruling.

The legal reasoning of that case holds that while the state laws invest one with the right of personal use of medical marijuana, the law does not establish a substantive right to found and operate a dispensary. There is no explicit right under state or federal law to lease property on which to operate a marijuana collective or dispensary.

Meanwhile, there are a number of ballot initiatives pending that challenge the Long Beach marijuana ban.

As The Long Beach Post reported, city leaders voted to uphold the ban in February. Just a few weeks later, a group of pro-marijuana advocates introduced the Long Beach Medical Cannabis Facilities Act of 2016, which has since qualified to be on the ballot with a sufficient number of signatures.

The most recent version of the city ordinance allows delivery-only services in the city’s boundaries.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

Long Beach wins lawsuit filed over ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, July 18, 2016, Staff Report, Press Telegram

More Blog Entries:

Supreme Court May Have Just Expanded Unlawful Police Searches, June 27, 2016, Long Beach Marijuana Lawyer Blog