A proposed urgency ordinance to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries within the county was voted down by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors June 22, but the issue is far from dead in the water. Representatives of dispensary owners are speaking out in support of regulation that recognizes medical cannabis as a legitimate industry that is here to stay. Max Del Real, a lobbyist for the Sacramento Alliance of County Collectives (SACC), a medical cannabis trade association, spoke at the board meeting in June in opposition to the failed ordinance. “The county had proposed an ordinance that would essentially close down all of the dispensaries in the county,” Del Real said. “They had

A medical marijuana dispensary is swapping a controversial East Sacramento location for a new spot in an industrial zone following opposition from neighbors. The Healing Center or "THC" stopped operating at 3257 Folsom Blvd. on Friday, Feb. 11. A consultant for the dispensary, which has also done business as CC 101, notified the city it will be moving to 6435 Florin Perkins Road. City staff got the news an hour before a meeting between the East Sacramento Improvement Association and Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, city Zoning Administrator Joy Patterson and city Revenue Division Manager Brad Wasson. At the meeting, the association's board members let city representatives know they

Nearly all of Sacramento's medical marijuana dispensaries have applied to keep operating legally under new city regulations. City revenue staff have begun processing documents from 35 dispensaries that submitted applications under the city's first ordinance regulating the not-for-profit shops. Dispensaries with pending applications can continue operating until Jan. 9, 2012, under the regulations. Four of the city's 39 registered medical marijuana dispensaries didn't turn in applications by a Monday deadline, said city Revenue Division Manager Brad Wasson. "We're going to regulate this pretty extensively and be proactive," he said. In November, the Sacramento City Council created the ci

Editorial Note: The following Sacramento Press story contains incorrect figures. It was reported that the city's medical marijuana dispensaries would pay $54,000 in fees. The $54,000 was the sum of two fees that should not have been added together. Joy Patterson, the city's principal planner, provided the correct information Wednesday. Patterson said that depending on the medical marijuana dispensary, a fee of either $39,600 or $33,000 will be paid in the application process for the first year of operation. We apologize for the error and a followup story on the fee breakdowns will be posted later this week.  The city’s existing medical marijuana dispensaries can become legal businesses.

The Sacramento City Council will decide whether to approve proposed medical marijuana regulations at its Tuesday night meeting. Under the proposed rules, the city’s 39 medical pot dispensaries could apply for city business permits. Medical pot shops would have to follow a long list of city rules applying to their employees and the location of their businesses. Dispensaries must be located 600 feet away from parks, schools, day care centers, churches, substance abuse centers, theaters and tobacco retailers, according to the proposed rules. Exemptions from the location rules could apply to existing dispensaries that are registered and have not moved to a different site since Oct. 26, 2010,

Sacramento voters will decide Tuesday whether to set a business tax on local medical marijuana dispensaries. Under Measure C, medical marijuana dispensaries in Sacramento could pay as high as 4 percent of their gross receipts per year in business operations taxes. Meanwhile, most Sacramento businesses already pay $.40 for every $1,000 of gross receipts per year, according to Mark Prestwich, a special projects manager for the city. These businesses don’t pay any more than $5,000 total in business operations taxes. Measure C would not change the rates for non-marijuana businesses. But if Measure C passed, medical marijuana businesses would be assessed a higher rate of $40 for every $1,000

Medical pot advocates hashed out their concerns about the city’s draft medical marijuana rules Monday night. Sacramento City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy, two city staffers and about 40 medical marijuana providers and advocates met at City Hall to discuss the details of the city’s newly released draft medical marijuana regulations. City staff released draft medical pot rules – which technically consist of two ordinances – on Friday afternoon. The City Council will discuss the ordinances at its Nov. 9 meeting. At the Monday night meeting, medical pot advocates passed around a microphone and expressed their views of the draft regulations, while a city staffer took notes. Some medical pot ad

Jeanne Larsson is worried that the city government may not give her East Sacramento medical marijuana dispensary a permit to operate. The Sacramento City Council agreed last week that it would not place a cap on the number of medical marijuana shops in the city. But it also supported proposed rules that could possibly lower the number of dispensaries. Currently, there are 39 medical marijuana shops in Sacramento, including Larsson’s. So, does this mean the city will allow the 39 facilities? Judging by comments from city staffers and operators of medical marijuana shops, the answer to that question is yes and no. Since the City Council has said it doesn’t want to cap the number of fac

The 39 medical marijuana shops in Sacramento are on their way to becoming legal. The Sacramento City Council voted 8-0 to draft regulations for current pot dispensaries to legally operate with city permits. Councilman Ray Tretheway was absent from the meeting. Notably, Councilman Robbie Waters, who formerly served as a Sacramento County sheriff and city police officer, voted in favor of a path toward legal and regulated medical marijuana shops. Waters noted that he had originally approached the issue from a “cop view.” Michelle Heppner, a special projects manager for the city, explained after the meeting that the City Council intends to allow 39 medical marijuana dispensaries in Sacrame

The Sacramento City Council wants to start taxing pot dispensaries and possibly increase a business tax. Expecting California voters to legalize recreational marijuana in November and facing continued financial problems, the council discussed putting a measure on the general election ballot to ask Sacramentans to enact a tax on pot dispensaries and to increase the city's business operations tax (BOT) so bigger companies could pay a more proportionate share. At a public hearing Tuesday afternoon, several council members indicated they're leaning toward alternatives to a 5 percent, across-the-board pot tax after hearing from at least a dozen patients, operators and advocates for the indust

During Tuesday night's hearing, the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously to extend the citywide moratorium on medical cannabis dispensary openings and expansion for ten months and fifteen days, totaling a year of halted development. The city is now 42 days into the moratorium's original 45. In that time, city government has been collecting information on cannabis clubs and invited existing dispensaries to register themselves within 30 days, a time window that closed on August 16. The registration has ceased; the research has not. "We felt that 45 days was just too short," said City Special Projects Manager Michelle Heppner, who helped conduct the fact-finding mission. "Things moved