Starting in January, the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in Santa Ana will shrink from at least 80 to about 20, and an attorney who helped put a pro-pot initiative on the ballot Tuesday couldn’t be happier.
By a 54.2 percent to 45.8 percent margin, Santa Ana voters approved Measure CC, which attorney Randall Longwith helped craft and promote.
Longwith’s initiative, however, did not get as many votes as measure BB put on the ballot by the city, giving the BB the weight of law. BB, which is similar to CC, was approved with 13,416 yes votes, or 65.5 percent of the total, compared to 7,055 no votes, or 34.5 percent of the vote.
“A yes vote for medical marijuana business licenses actually reduces the number (of dispensaries),” Longwith said. “But right now we have these rogue dispensaries.”
Existing Santa Ana zoning and licensing regulations will cut down on the bad actors in the business, Longwith said.
Longwith endorsed the city’s version, but he said the city wouldn’t have put a question on the ballot if he hadn’t gotten CC on the ballot.
“They had to do it under duress but, nevertheless, they did the right thing,” said the Fullerton-based defense attorney.
“I loved it. I was absolutely behind it,” Longwith said of the city’s initiative. “Now it’s time to start talking with the city to see where they’re going with it.”
Santa Ana stands to reap a substantial 5 percent tax on marijuana sales, Longwith said, adding the city has the authority to double it. Measure CC sought to set the tax rate at 2 percent.
There are 80-100 pot shops in Santa Ana, and police have been cracking down on them over the past several months. Longwith said he expected the number of businesses to fall to 22, because BB allows them only in industrial zones.
“They need to be a thousand feet away from a school, a thousand feet away from a park or a residential area,” Longwith said. “And they need to be 500 feet away from each other.”
All customers must be 21 or older, he said.
Measure CC backers wanted the minimum age dropped, in part to enable military veterans to buy pot to treat symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Longwith said the city’s initiative, which came with some built-in legal flexibility, is due to expire in five years. “So if they want to get rid of it they can,” he said.
The attorney predicted that more legitimate dispensaries vetted by city officials would draw medical marijuana users who otherwise might be intimidated.
“It’s very concerning to walk into one of these kinds of rogue dispensaries even though you really need the medication,” Longwith said.
Licensing regulations should help cut down on crime, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.
Police have been cracking down on the dispensaries near schools or “neighborhoods where they were bringing their problems with them,” Bertagna said. “So, obviously, this will be a positive in that way.”
With licensing and zoning comes background checks of business operators, “So you’ll know who’s operating it and the people working there,” Bertagna said.
Too often, dispensaries are not easily identifiable and, when there’s trouble, police walk into an unpredictable situation, Bertagna said.
“We’ve had several takeover-style robberies with these locations where you don’t know where you’re at or what you’re walking into, and that causes a problem as well,” Bertagna said.
With an age limit, “you’ll get a lot less of the 15- to 17-year-olds or young adults showing up, and it’s quite apparent they don’t have medical issues,” Bertagna said.
— City News Service