San Jose Bans Recreational Cannabis Days Before Voting

San Jose voted to ban recreational cannabis if Prop. 64 passes in less than one week. The decision was reached Tuesday by San Jose’s City Councilmembers. The temporary ban disallows the cultivation, processing and sale of recreational cannabis.

Leaders in San Jose hope that the temporary ban will give them time to put the necessary regulations in place. It will also ban cannabis collectives from popping up illegally. The Mercury News reported that although there is not a set date of when the ban will be lifted on recreational cannabis in San Jose, they do believe it will extend through 2018.

In an interview with The Mercury News, San Jose’s City Manager’s assistant, Michelle McGurk, says that officials developed this game plan after regulating medical cannabis in their city. “We want potential cannabis entrepreneurs to know commercial recreational marijuana collectives are not allowed in San Jose,” McGurk said. “We learned our lessons from our experiences with the medical marijuana dispensaries that opened up all over town.”

Outdoor cannabis cultivation is already banned in San Jose, and this new ban will continue for recreational cannabis as well. The ban also makes it illegal for businesses to distribute, grow, manufacture, process, test or sell cannabis for adult use.

San Jose is not the only city that has banned potential recreational cannabis collectives. Campbell, Davis, Foster City, Hayward, Martinez and Palo Alto have also banned adult use cannabis-related businesses.

The Executive Director of Elemental Wellness in San Jose, Dr. Benson Hausman, shared his skepticism with The Mercury News. “Right now there are a number of illegal medical marijuana dispensaries and delivery services in the city and yet the city is unable to enforce its own ordinance,” Dr. Hausman said. “You can ban something, but if you can’t enforce your ban you make yourself look a little silly.”

Dr. Hausman agreed that the city is likely trying to learn from its mistakes with medical cannabis. He recalled the huge number of illegally operating dispensaries that popped up when medical cannabis was legalized in the city.

Like many ordinances popping up across California and other states anticipating a majority voting to allow recreational cannabis in less than a week, there is a lot riding on the upcoming election.