Most California voters want a cannabis dispensary close to home—a licensed storefront operating in their own city—according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times. All told, 63 percent of California voters are interested in seeing more dispensaries open shop nearby.
The problem? More than 50 percent of California municipalities have instituted some form of ban or moratorium on cannabis retail businesses. (Prop. 64 passed in 2106 with 57-percent voter support.)
“With this broad spectrum of support, it is critical that California’s local municipalities honor the will of the voters, overturn their bans, and give their constituents access to tested and regulated cannabis,” Lindsay Robinson, executive director of the California Cannabis Industry, told the Los Angeles Times.
California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control has issued 700 retail licenses, as of Oct. 3.
Home delivery is allowed, per state law, in municipalities that have banned retail storefronts, but even that policy has garnered pushback and lawsuits from local governments.
But as the Times points out, state lawmakers have made a run at this sort of widespread cannabis retail access. Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill earlier this year to require cannabis dispensaries in municipalities where a majority of local voters approved Prop. 64. That bill didn’t get far, but Ting plans to go after it again in 2020.
