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File Number: 19-083 <br />·City of Oakland <br />·City of Alameda <br />·City of Hayward <br />·Alameda County, including unincorporated Ashland <br />·City of Richmond <br />·Contra Costa County <br />·City and County of San Francisco <br />It is also important to note that San Leandro residents continue to retain the ability to have <br />cannabis delivered at home from dispensaries operating outside of San Leandro without the <br />need for a doctor’s recommendation letter. Furthermore, recently announced state level <br />regulations specifically preempt local jurisdictions from banning such deliveries. <br />It is currently unclear whether medical-only cannabis dispensaries will remain financially viable in <br />San Leandro over the long term given the close proximity of alternative access to the adult use <br />market. Representatives from San Leandro’s three permitted dispensaries expressed to staff that <br />their businesses would remain at a competitive disadvantage if the City does not allow them to <br />serve the adult use market. <br />Most of the jurisdictions highlighted above facilitated adult use sales via City Council adoption of <br />a minor amendment to their existing regulations to expressly authorize adult use sales. Such an <br />approach also aligns with recent efforts at the State level that have largely blended the medicinal <br />and adult use regulations into one unified statewide framework. Furthermore, from a logistical <br />standpoint, the practical difference between medical-only sales and adult use sales to customers <br />over the age of 21 relates to whether or not customers must present proof of a physician’s <br />recommendation prior to entering the dispensary. <br />If the City Council desires to allow adult use sales at the City’s three previously authorized <br />dispensaries, staff will provide proposed ordinance amendments for the City Council’s <br />consideration at a subsequent City Council meeting in the near future. <br />Longer-term Revisions to Other Sections of the City’s Dispensary Ordinance <br />Regardless of whether the City Council decides to allow adult use sales at the City’s previously <br />permitted dispensaries, it’s important to note that there are a number of additional revisions to the <br />existing cannabis dispensary ordinance that staff recommends eventually bringing forward for <br />City Council Committee or City Council discussion in the coming months. As noted above, the <br />City’s current ordinance was drafted and adopted prior to the creation of robust statewide <br />regulations. As such, the current city ordinance includes various detailed regulations that overlap <br />with, or may be otherwise redundant given new statewide regulations. For example, the existing <br />ordinance includes detailed regulations and operations standards related to package labeling, <br />product handling, product testing, and manufacturing procedures that are now regulated by the <br />State. <br />In order to allow additional time to amend or eliminate these types of local regulatory provisions <br />that are redundant or preempted by State regulations, staff recommends bifurcating the review of <br />any such changes through a separate process outside of the broader policy decision of whether <br />Page 3 City of San Leandro Printed on 2/13/2019