It’s been a long four months for the Long Beach Medical Cannabis Task Force, the diverse group of people who took on the responsibility of reviewing a draft of an ordinance to regulate dispensaries and cultivation sites in the city. At their last meeting on Aug. 19, the 18-member group finalized their list of recommendations, which will be considered by the city council Tuesday.
The struggle to come up with a fair medical-cannabis ordinance has lasted for several years in Long Beach. Dispensaries and cultivation sites are not allowed in the city. Previous councils passed an ordinance, only to vote later to ban dispensaries, especially after the City faced key legal challenges to their ordinance.
This time, the council will be reviewing a 97-page document that sums up the efforts made by the task force to reach a consensus on the latest version of the ordinance.
The task force included old and new faces to the controversial issue. Each councilmember had the opportunity to name up to two people to represent the district on the task force, which includes attorneys on both sides of the issue, a former LAPD officer, former collective owners, business owners, residents and community advocates.
“Let me first…[say] I have nothing but respect for the people [on the task force] no matter what their opinion was,” task-force member and former collective operator Larry King said in a phone interview. “They showed up. They put in the time. They were there to state their opinions.”
King acknowledged some of his frustrations with the process. There were times when representatives didn’t show up for key votes.
While there is already a draft of an ordinance that had been submitted by the City Attorney’s Office, King took the time to draft his own ordinance. The task force voted to submit King’s ordinance in their report in addition to the draft offered by the City Attorney’s Office. The group offered no recommendation for the council to choose one over the other.
Adam Hijazi, a spokesman for the Long Beach Collective Association who also served on the task force, acknowledged that the process, which began in April and was expected to conclude its final meeting last week, was a learning experience for many in the group.
“I think the toughest thing was understanding the urgency for regulation for the City,” Hijazi said in a phone interview as he described the learning curve for many of the individuals who were new to the issue and who had to consider patients’ needs, public-safety issues and possible new state regulations.
The possibility that the State of California could offer other regulations on medical cannabis was a true concern for the task force. There was a close vote that ultimately recommended to maintain the ban on dispensaries until the State takes further action. Seven members were in favor of the ban while six were opposed and five were absent.
Proposed state legislation has also been a concern of Jack C. Smith, another task-force member from the 2nd Council District. Smith pointed to AB 266, a bill submitted to the California Legislature that offered regulations on medical marijuana statewide. It has not been passed at this time.
Smith belongs to the Long Beach Central Project Area Council (LB CPAC), a community advocacy group that has been involved with the medical-marijuana issue and had been voicing concerns to the council prior to the formation of the task force.
“With CPAC, we had agreed that medical marijuana in particular— and probably recreational— is a fact of life that is coming,” Smith said in a phone interview. “And we don’t argue with the medical application. In fact, I constantly was saying over and over, ‘We don’t need to hear that it’s an effective medicine. We have no argument with that. We believe that. We want it to be regulated in a way that is not detrimental to the neighborhood.'”
Some of the task force’s recommendations do seem to support some of the tenets of the original regulations concerning buffer zones, but the group also went further to address additional issues, including ensuring that lab testing for dispensaries will be done by companies registered with the City and requiring that the City comply with federal laws surrounding cash receipts.
Smith wondered aloud whether or not the Council on Tuesday will do more than “receive and file” the task force’s notes and recommendations. He mulled over the possibility that the council would return to the issue later after they had studied the issue further.
Smith was asked if the time spent on the task force had any value for him personally.
“The neighborhoods need a voice,” he said, “and I have a long history of working to help the neighborhoods all across the city.”
The Long Beach City Council will meet on Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 5pm.
