The Carlsbad City Council unanimously approved an ordinance allowing medical cannabis delivery services in the city starting in 2024 but placed regulations on where and how those businesses can operate.
While personal medical and recreational use of marijuana is permitted in Carlsbad, all retail cannabis activities have been prohibited since 2017 after state legislation left cannabis regulation largely up to local governments.
However, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1186, or the Medicinal Cannabis Patients’ Right to Access Act, into law in September 2022, preventing cities from limiting the number of businesses authorized to deliver medical cannabis.
“For too many Californians, the promise of cannabis legalization remains out of reach,” Newsom said in a statement. “These measures build on the important strides our state has made toward this goal, but much work remains to build an equitable, safe and sustainable legal cannabis industry.”
The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024, also states that cities are not allowed to limit the operating hours, number or frequency of sales, and types or quantities of medical cannabis at such businesses.
Carlsbad’s blanket prohibition, which essentially limited the number of authorized delivery businesses to zero, did not comply with the law. However, SB 1186 will not impact the city’s ban on cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, storing, testing, retail sales, retail delivery and all other aspects of commercial cannabis activities.
In keeping with the city’s opposition to cannabis operations within the city, the new ordinance will exercise the right to impose “reasonable regulations” on delivery services based on zoning codes, licensing requirements, taxes, security or public health and safety requirements.
Medical cannabis delivery businesses in Carlsbad will consist of storage and wholesale facilities without storefronts, which will put them in industrial zones. They must be at least 1,000 feet away from residential zones, schools, daycare centers, churches, public parks, youth centers and other medicinal cannabis delivery service businesses as well.
These combined regulations make the land available for medical cannabis delivery services in the city quite limited.
The new ordinance also stipulates that delivery business structures cannot be larger than 3,000 square feet and that they must incorporate odor control to ensure no cannabis odor can be detected from outside the business.
They can’t have on-site retail or pickup services; all deliveries must go to the residence of the person who made the request. Delivery businesses cannot have markings indicating cannabis on the warehouse structure or delivery vehicles, on-site physicians assessing patients for medical cannabis prescriptions, or outdoor cannabis storage.
