Meetings Set to Gather Community Input About Marijuana Regulations for Pasadena

A series of community meetings will be held in Pasadena within the month of April to gather input on whether business activities related to marijuana should be allowed in the City.

The City’s Planning and Community Development Department is spearheading the meetings, with the intention of actively engaging the community to formulate draft regulations that truly reflect the community’s standards and values in regards to marijuana.

The draft regulations will pertain to the cultivation, processing and manufacture of marijuana products, and their retail sales and distribution. All these will be presented to the City’s Planning Commission and later on to the City Council which are both expected to conduct more public hearings on them.

According to an announcement in the City Manager’s Newsletter, the community meetings will be held on April 11 at the Pasadena Senior Center’s West Pavilion at 85 E. Holly Street, April 18 at the Pasadena City Hall Basement Training Room, and April 20 at Pasadena City College (Circadian Room, Building CC) at 1570 E. Colorado Blvd. (Click here to view revised flyer).

All of the meetings will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Planning Director David Reyes said the contents of the meetings will be the same, so community members can just drop by at a date of their convenience and ask questions or submit input within the given time schedule.

In October 2015, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act into law, putting in place a variety of safeguards within the cannabis business sector through a robust regulatory scheme. The law took effect in January 2016 and now protects a local municipality’s right to govern with regards to allowing or not allowing commercial cannabis businesses.

The law says only those businesses that have obtained local permits or licenses may apply for a state-issued license with the California Department of Consumer Affairs and its Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.

In November 2016, Proposition 64 passed which allowed adults aged 21 years or older to possess and use marijuana for recreational purposes. The measure also created two new taxes, one levied on cultivation and the other on retail price. Revenue from the taxes will be spent on drug research, treatment, and enforcement, health and safety grants addressing marijuana, youth programs, and preventing environmental damage resulting from illegal marijuana production.

Even before the election, Pasadena has been preparing for the local impact of the state marijuana laws, including the Planning Department recommending that an ordinance be adopted that would regulate the sale of recreational marijuana, similar to cigarette sales regulations. The regulations would include permitting, and restrictions on the number and locations of dispensaries in the city. The staff recommended a limit of seven retail outlets and new rules outlawing the location of dispensaries near schools.

Other regulations would include background checks and fingerprinting of operators and owners of marijuana outlets, and the creation of new operating standards for marijuana retail outlets.

For more information about the community meetings, visit www.cityofpasadena.net/Upcoming_Community_Divison_Meetings.