By Khalida Sarwari
The San Jose City Council today agreed to accept the Registrar of Voters’ certification of a referendum repealing the city’s medical marijuana regulations.
The city council did not take action today on its options regarding the referendum.
Citizens Coalition for Patient Care, a group of patients, collectives, and activists, led a $200,000 campaign to collect 31,103 valid signatures in a month to repeal an ordinance that would limit the number of medical marijuana collectives to 10 in limited commercial and industrial areas, implement a first come, first served registration process, and restrict marijuana cultivation to on-site only.
They claim that the ordinance, passed in September by the council after a nearly two-year process, would harm patients and the economy.
The ordinance has been suspended and city leaders are negotiating with the medical marijuana collectives to modify components of the ordinance in order to reach a compromise that would be satisfactory to both sides.
The city council will ultimately decide whether to rescind the ordinance or put it on the ballot at the municipal election in June. The deadline for that decision is March 6.
The council also deferred action until Jan. 31 on Mayor Chuck Reed’s proposal to raise the city’s tax on medical marijuana collectives from 7 to 10 percent to pay for the cost of an election.
Medical marijuana facilities are not currently allowed to operate in San Jose and those that have opened in recent years are doing so illegally and would not be grandfathered in under the ordinances.
The mayor has said he would consider increasing the number of collectives to 25, permitting some off-site growing, and allowing for a more subjective evaluation process.
