Unlawful shops in San Jose to get chance at legal status

In California, medical weed is the reason for an estimated $1 billion of state taxes. The city of San Jose has decided to limit medical weed sales within the city. The vote, however, also makes medical cannabis profits in the city legal. Article resource: San Jose city council votes to limit medical marijuana [1]

Narcotics to be constrained in San Jose

Medical marijuana location limits were placed on Tues by the San Jose city council with a package of zoning regulations. The zoning rules, combined, make for probably the most detailed framework around medical cannabis locations in the country. In the area, the number of shops is constrained to 10. All cannabis must be grown by medical weed collectives, while there can only be two per district.

Looking at San Jose shops

In San Jose, there are a ton of medical weed shops. In fact, there are presently 140 of them. According to area officials, the dispensaries are all operating illegally and only 71 of them pay local taxes. All of the shops have to apply for the 10 licenses while none will be grandfathered in. This means that several have to stop operating. There will be 130 shut down due to the brand new rule. By 8 p.m., all of the 10 that do get licenses must close. The marijuana must be injected off site while the locations will all be areas where there is a lot of foot traffic. The locations must also stay outside a certain radius of schools, public buildings and churches.

Concerns about federal intervention

Medical cannabis growers and collectives in San Jose have spoken up, loudly, against the brand new zoning regulations. Growing collectives have expressed concern that the requirement of growing all of the marijuana dispersed on-site could make the collectives a target for federal Drug Enforcement Agency agents. Strict regulation makes dispensary owners targets also. This is another major concern.

Waiting for further action

The zoning regulations weren’t passed by San Jose yet. The regulation will be reread by the city council. This will be done on September 27. If passed, the regulations would go into impact at the end of September and the licensing process would start in a few months.

Citations

Business Week: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9POABB80.htm [2]

Bay Citizen: http://www.baycitizen.org/marijuana/story/san-jose-approves-new-limits-p... [3]

Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lawmakers-in-calif... [4]

Time.com http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1884956,00.html [5]