Council continues to dissect the already convoluted issue of Cannabis Retail
Santa Monica Pioneers Social Equity Measures in Recreational Cannabis Licensing.
While the City of Santa Monica is well behind the times when it comes to allowing and regulating cannabis sales in town, officials are attempting to turn that bug into a feature by embedding social equity rules into as-yet unwritten laws that will allow recreational cannabis dispensaries into the city.
Santa Monica has issued permits for two medical dispensaries but is expanding rules to allow recreational businesses to open. Those rules will incorporate some restrictions on proximity to sensitive sites but the focus of discussion last month was on ways to incentivize certain populations to enter the business.
According to the staff presentation, “cannabis social equity” recognizes “the long-term impact of the criminalization of cannabis upon minority communities” and “promotes equitable ownership and employment opportunities in the cannabis industry” and finally decreases “disparities and improves outcome among identified groups that have been most affected by the war on drugs.”
The city has already secured a $40,000 Cannabis Equity Grant from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development to fund a cannabis equity assessment. That assessment looks at what the local impacts of cannabis enforcement policies have been, and the groups that have been most strongly impacted. Staff said that once the assessment has identified affected communities, the city can explore a variety of policy options for promoting equity, which could include priority application and expedited licensing for equity applicants, technical assistance, and investment of future cannabis tax revenues in community programs.
“In addition to the cost of developing and funding the equity program, the anticipated staffing needs would escalate depending on the policy option chosen,” Ana Fernandez, Associate Planner, City of Santa Monica said.
Council were asked to provide feedback on the scale of the equity incentives and whether they should be incorporated into the rules allowing recreational sales or passed after the fact.
“I think that we know that for decades, there’s been an over criminalization of Black and Brown communities, specifically for minor drug offenses,” said Councilmember Caroline Torosis. “And the whole point of these social equity programs is that we’re centering the people who have been harmed by the war on drugs, you know, investments in who can have an advantage of coming into the industry, and earning revenue off of that industry. So I would say to me, having a social equity program is non negotiable.”
Councilmembers were also asked to consider a cap on potential cannabis businesses as means of protecting against market saturation. However, Santa Monica’s extremely delayed approval process for medicinal permits combined with the overall state of the industry prompted the Council to approve a limitation of only one business per block rather than an overall cap on businesses in the city.
The first cannabis dispensary opened in the city of Santa Monica back in June, more than a year and a half after the permit was granted in October 2021, six years after the application was in December 2017 and over 26 years since medical marijuana was made legal in the state of California.
A second dispensary was approved in January 2022, at 1416 Wilshire Blvd, but there’s still no news on when that might actually open. It wasn’t even mentioned in this meeting. Moreover, the license to move from medical to recreational retail was only granted to the sole outlet in the city in December of last year.
Council gave direction for distancing requirements to maintain the state-required 600-foot buffer from sensitive uses and to add an additional 300-foot buffer between cannabis businesses.
Councilmember Jesse Zwick asked, “Do we allow bars to sell alcohol or gas stations to sell cigarettes within 600 feet of sensitive use sites in Santa Monica? Yes, so let’s talk about why we need to do this at all.”
“The state requires a 600 feet buffer from the sensitive uses, that’s their default,” Shira Moch, City Planner, City of Santa Monica responded. “At the last council study session, it had been brought up that we look into buffers between cannabis uses. So that’s why we brought these different options. But I wanted to point out that some other cities actually do treat some of the cannabis uses similarly to alcohol, where it’s not actually treated any differently than that type of entitlement.”
