Santa Monica is asking for community feedback to help shape the social equity component of its adult-use cannabis program.
While Santa Monica is well behind the times when it comes to allowing and regulating cannabis sales in town, officials are attempting to turn that bug into a feature by embedding social equity rules into as-yet unwritten laws that will allow recreational cannabis dispensaries into the city.
City Council adopted an Interim Zoning Ordinance in October 2023 to allow the city’s two existing medicinal cannabis retailers to sell adult-use cannabis products. Per Council direction, City staff are currently preparing an ordinance to allow adult-use cannabis businesses of all types that will include a cannabis social equity program.
According to the staff presentation during the April 23, 2024, council meeting Study Session, "cannabis social equity" recognizes "the long-term impact of the criminalization of cannabis upon minority communities" and "promotes equitable ownership and employment opportunities in the cannabis industry" and finally decreases "disparities and improves outcome among identified groups that have been most affected by the war on drugs."
The social equity component will be informed by community feedback in addition to data on local cannabis criminal arrests and demographics. The goal of the equity component is to ensure that people and communities most affected by past state and federal criminalization
of cannabis have fair opportunities to benefit from the legal cannabis industry.
Currently only two retail outlets selling recreational cannabis exist in Santa Monica. Harvest House of Cannabis is located at 1418 Wilshire Blvd and the Local Cannabis Company, located at 925 Wilshire Blvd.
"I've seen the mistakes the City of Los Angeles made with the social equity programs. And there was a lot of these guys where they did not have the funding to start their locations, and they started giving it to a lot of the big cannabis guys," Sam Dabbs, Owner of Harvest House of Cannabis on Wilshire Blvd said, adding, "I would say 70% of them are not open as of today, and they're all struggling to find the money to open the social equity stores and social equity program."
As part of the social equity assessment, residents are encouraged to fill out a 10-minute survey, available in English and Spanish, by November 30, to share input on the impacts of historic cannabis criminalization particularly in groups that have been most strongly impacted such as communities of color.
Community members are also invited to a cannabis equity workshop on November 13 at Ken Edwards Center to hear a general overview of the legal cannabis industry, learn about cannabis criminalization impacts in Santa Monica and look ahead to future phases of the cannabis program.
Back in June 2023, the first cannabis dispensary finally opened in the city of Santa Monica, more than a year and a half after the permit was granted in October 2021, six years after the application in December 2017 and over 26 years since medical marijuana was made legal in the state of California.
"I'm not for it. I'm not against it, but if it does happen, it needs to be structured a little bit better so they can succeed instead of failing, like how we've seen in Los Angeles," concurred Steve Ratino, Compliance and Relations Officer at Harvest.
"They [the City] has not reached out to us at all regarding any assistance, which would be extremely beneficial having some form of meeting with the owners of both cannabis outlets in Santa Monica … or a local forum where we could give advice," said Kyle Gordon, Operations Manager at Harvest, adding, "It goes without saying we are willing to help with anything that it takes to make sure that it's successful and succeeds for the City."
The social equity assessment will be considered in developing key findings and recommendations in the ordinance and cannabis program. The draft ordinance and assessment are tentatively scheduled for Planning Commission and City Council review in early 2025.
For more information, visit santamonica.gov/programs/cannabis-in-santa-monica
scott.snowden@smdp.com
