Hashish Regulation Group
Leisure marijuana has been authorized in California since 2016 – however Riverside is simply simply now on the cusp of permitting hashish companies for the primary time ever. 
As our Riverside cannabis lawyers can clarify, metropolis council voted 5-2 to inexperienced mild 14 marijuana store permits. Town has first handed a moratorium on hashish corporations in 2017 – excluding marijuana testing labs. This was even supposing Riverside voters supported Proposition 64 (which legalized leisure hashish) by a 53 % majority. A yr later, the council agreed on an outright prohibition of economic hashish operations – apart from labs.
Then two years in the past, town caught wind of a citizen-led effort to undercut the municipal ban on marijuana gross sales. Signatures to maneuver the petition ahead have been by no means formally submitted, however the metropolis did begin weighing whether or not it ought to provoke its personal allow program and regulatory framework. (Seemingly, they wished to sidestep the fact that it was most likely going be carried out whether or not they wished it or not, and finest to have some management over the ultimate end result.)
Town is actively finding out how finest to assist allow seekers who’ve been disproportionately impacted by anti-cannabis laws up to now. The preliminary outlay caps hashish retailers at 14, however there’s no such restrict for the variety of labs, manufacturing corporations, or distribution corporations. Voters might want to contemplate whether or not they’re keen to simply accept taxation for the measure. A vote is anticipated in November 2024.
One councilmember in opposition to the initiative mentioned he doesn’t consider marijuana gross sales within the metropolis are an inevitability, fearful over police and different public companies burdening extra duties, and lamented the truth that a gateway drug was going to be so simply accessible – significantly for younger individuals. Only in the near past, the sheriff’s workplace arrested a number of older grownup teenagers in Riverside for promoting vape pens with concentrated hashish to minors utilizing a cellular supply service.
However those that assist authorized hashish say {that a} well-regulated market has confirmed to offset many of those considerations.
It needs to be famous that this willpower about Riverside Metropolis is separate from the principles of Riverside County. (Municipalities might have extra stringent necessities than counties, and counties might have extra stringent necessities than the state – offered they aren’t infringing on individuals’s rights.)
In Riverside County, cultivation of hashish is authorized if grown for private use – indoors and inside a single, personal residence, obstructed from public view and for non-commercial use by somebody over 21 for non-commercial use. The place it’s grown outdoors of a constructing, the constructing should be secured by an opaque fence that’s a minimal 6-feet-high. Business hashish actions are allowed as long as the corporate has a allow from the county’s planning division (which does incur charges). Storefront retailers could also be open to the general public, offered they function inside approved zones. Business rising operations can’t have vegetation which are seen from outdoors the power. Hashish supply can also be authorized in Riverside County, as long as it’s carried out in accordance with California Enterprise and Professions Code – however isn’t permitted in unincorporated areas of Riverside County.
The legalization of medicinal and leisure hashish has been an financial boon to Riverside County, leading to complete taxable gross sales exceeding $100 million in 2019 and $265 million in 2020, in keeping with CaliforniaCannabis.org.
If you’re contemplating searching for a allow to function a hashish enterprise in Riverside, our longtime marijuana attorneys may help.
The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, ancillary corporations, sufferers, medical doctors and people dealing with marijuana prices. Name us at 714-937-2050.
Further Sources:
Cannabis businesses in Riverside are on the way, March 1, 2023 by Sarah Hofman, The Press-Enterprise
Extra Weblog Entries:
Can California Cannabis Patents Survive Illegality Doctrine? Feb. 20, 2023, Los Angeles Hashish Lawyer Weblog
