The City has dedicated an entire web portal and hotline to answer questions on the application process, and Assistant City Manager Ajay Kolluri, who handles issues related to marijuana, said in a statement that staff is regularly updating the city’s website as more information becomes available. (Contact information is provided at the end of this story.)
“We are strongly encouraging applicants to read through the application materials before contacting city staff with questions on the application process,” Kolluri said in a statement to the Signal Tribune. “Applicants should also check in with the website regularly in order to ensure they are working with the most up-to-date information.”
Entrepreneurs interested in selling only recreational marijuana will have to wait, however. Long Beach is still prohibiting those kinds of businesses. California’s Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation says on its website that it won’t be accepting applications for business licenses on a state level until 2018. Kolluri said that at that time, the local businesses must comply with state regulations in addition to the city regulations in order to have a business license.
Long Beach has a very good reason to offer all the help it can— the City will get revenue. Last November, Long Beach voters passed two key measures that deal with how to regulate and tax marijuana. The following table, from the City’s web portal, details the amounts of the taxes Long Beach will collect under the measures.
• 6 to 8 percent of gross receipts for medical marijuana dispensaries
• 8 to 12 percent of gross receipts for non-medical (i.e., recreational) marijuana dispensaries
• 6 to 8 percent of gross receipts for processing, distributing, transporting, or testing marijuana and marijuana-related products
• $12 to $15 per square foot for marijuana cultivation.
A statement on the website noted that the tax rates for marijuana businesses “will be set at the lower end of the ranges.”
It’s definitely a change of pace for Long Beach, given its history with marijuana regulation. Years ago, city leaders had attempted to regulate the local medical cannabis industry and passed an ordinance that would have allowed growers and dispensary operators to legitimately operate in Long Beach.
City staff even had an application process for business owners and organized a lottery process back in 2010. Business owners had invested money and had even paid a business-license fee to the City at that time. However, after the City faced major legal challenges to their ordinance, councilmembers ultimately banned the businesses.
Two former medical-cannabis advocates from those days say that’s all in the past now.
Adam Hijazi, a former dispensary owner and now a member of the Long Beach Collective Association, recalls that his former business had paid $14,762 to participate in that original lottery from years ago.
He had also signed a 15-year lease on a property at the time he attempted to open a business in the city.
Hijazi added that while he and other members of the collective association waded through the debate over how to regulate medical cannabis, which lasted for many years, he continued to keep the property, rather than give it up. Hijazi says that he and others had already invested in making modifications and retrofitting their properties to comply with city regulations.
In a telephone interview, Hijazi shrugged off the vast amount of dollars that had been spent. He notes that not everyone involved in the industry were able to keep their finances afloat while they waited for an ordinance to be passed by voters.
“A lot has been chalked up to a business loss,” Hijazi said.
Kolluri acknowledged that the business license fees were never paid back.
“The City originally held the lottery for business licenses in September 2010,” Kolluri said in his statement. “The fees were nonrefundable and were not returned when the ban on medical marijuana businesses was reinstated through Chapter 5.89 of the Long Beach Municipal Code.”
Hijazi said that he wants to move forward. He says he isn’t bitter about the process.
“Right now [!] we’re happy that currently this process is moving forward,” Hijazi said, declaring that he hoped that everyone will start on a new page and that the losses are a past chapter of the story of cannabis in Long Beach. “And learn from it,” he concluded, “to make sure we never go back to it.”
It’s a sentiment that’s shared by another medical-cannabis businessman, Larry King. He and Hijazi may get some reward for their patience. The City will be assigning a priority system to offer business licenses and will use a points system. Businesses that previously operated with the City’s authorization after February 2012 will be offered additional points.
King was asked whether he’s felt the change in attitude toward the medical-cannabis industry and whether the community is now recognizing the legitimacy of these businesses.
“It feels different than last time,” King said in a phone interview. “It feels less of a conflict.”
King went on to describe how he thinks the community is better educated on the topic now that they have seen how marijuana legalization works in the state of Colorado. King is in the process of applying for a business license and is also consulting for other businesses that wish to qualify.
He also noted that the City is now prepared for tax revenue and that California officials will likely observe how well things progress in Long Beach. King said he was aware that the rest of the country will be watching how well marijuana regulation will work in California.
“So, this is pretty pivotal right now,” he concluded, “that this all goes smoothly [!] everybody’s on their best behavior, including me right now.”
More information
Phone: (562) 570-5150
Email: marijuanalicense@longbeach.gov
Website: Longbeach.gov/marijuana
