Bill on Jerry Brown's desk will give cities better shot at regulating medical pot

A bill that would eliminate a controversial deadline in California’s landmark medical marijuana regulation law is awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature following a speedy approval by both houses of the Legislature.

The bill, introduced in early January and sent to the governor’s desk Thursday, removes a March 1 deadline for cities and counties to enact medical marijuana cultivation rules and avoid surrendering that authority to the state, a prospect that had disturbed city officials and medical cannabis advocates.

The measure, authored by Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, gives local governments until Jan. 1, 2018, to regulate medical pot cultivation, a shadowy industry valued at $1 billion statewide. On that date, if local governments don’t act, licensing of commercial cannabis production, distribution and sales will fall under the jurisdiction of the state’s Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.

Brown, who was involved in crafting the law that created the bureau, is expected to sign the follow-up measure this week, an aide to Wood said.

“We are really confident about it,” spokesman Paul Ramey said.

Wood’s bill “resolves an inadvertent drafting error” included in the 70-page marijuana regulation bill approved last year, according to a legislative analysis.

In a statement last week, Wood said the bill would repeal the “burdensome March 1st deadline” nearly a month before it would have gone into effect. He acknowledged that in order for cities to take control by that quick deadline, they were advised “to act as fast as possible to ban activities of this industry because it was the easiest thing to do.”

Santa Rosa City Attorney Caroline Fowler recommended a ban on commercial cultivation, but the City Council instead approved a plan Jan. 19 to temporarily allow large-scale cultivation in at least three nonresidential zoning districts with permits approved by the Planning Commission.

The Sebastopol City Council approved a resolution in December urging the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and eight other city councils to adopt medical cannabis regulations. The measure was introduced by Councilman Robert Jacob, who owns the Peace in Medicine dispensaries in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, asserting the need to protect a major local industry.

The state Board of Equalization said that 18 medical marijuana dispensaries in the county paid taxes on nearly $31 million in retail sales of cannabis-related products in 2014.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, commended Wood and the Legislature for the rush job in striking the March 1 deadline, saying in a news release that it would “preserve this essential element of local control” in California’s medical marijuana regulation program.

Medical cannabis advocates had expressed concern that cultivation bans, imposed quickly to meet the deadline, might prove difficult to remove.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.