SAN BERNARDINO – Seven months after voters repealed the city’s ban on marijuana and replaced it with a regulatory system, city officials will begin accepting the first applications for marijuana business permits Monday.
The city had delayed moving forward with marijuana regulation after two lawsuits challenged the ballot measure’s validity.
If a judge struck down Measure O, California law would replace it with Measure N, a different marijuana regulation scheme that also passed in November, but with a smaller majority — 51 percent compared with 55 percent.
Given the bankrupt city’s limited finances, it wouldn’t make sense to spend staff time and money on implementing one regulatory framework only to later have to start over on a different framework, City Attorney Gary Saenz said when the lawsuits were filed.
But the lawsuits are “shams,” and the city attorney has a duty to defend Measure O as the official law of the city, attorney Roger Jon Diamond said.
“The city of San Bernardino along with its officials are engaged in a conspiracy to frustrate the right of initiative embodied in the California constitution,” Diamond wrote in one of two lawsuits demanding the law be implemented. “Respondent city of San Bernardino is purposely refusing to obey the law.”
Diamond filed two lawsuits in March on behalf of clients who want to open dispensaries at locations authorized by Measure O. They allege that the city violated their First and 14th Amendment rights, as well as rights under the California election code and city charter, by refusing to accept their application or a check for the $250 application fee.
A section of the city website devoted to Measure O alerts the public to the existence of four ongoing lawsuits.
“Two of the lawsuits claim Measure O is invalid and that the City should stop all implementation of the measure. The other two lawsuits claim the opposite, that Measure O is valid and that the City should begin implementation as soon as possible,” the notice states. “Absent a valid court order, the City is obligated to implement Measure O, and has been doing so since the measure became effective in December. The City has also initiated its own litigation seeking a Court’s determination on the validity of Measure O and expects the Court to rule sometime this year.”
In January, before the lawsuits challenging the delay were filed, the city had said it would provide an update in March on the progress toward implementation.
Until November, San Bernardino had consistently banned any marijuana dispensaries, despite officials’ estimates that dozens of dispensaries operated openly and illegally in the city.
Two separate groups of marijuana advocates then pushed for different regulation schemes. Dispensary operators who backed the second-place initiative — Measure N — are among those challenging the legality of Measure O, saying the measure was specifically geared to benefit the businesses behind it.
The city also pushed an alternative, Measure P, that would have allowed city officials to change marijuana policy in the future. That measure failed to reach a majority.
Measure O was projected to raise $19.5 million to $24.8 million, according to a study by Whitney Economics on behalf of the campaign. A study done by New ERA on behalf of Measure N said that Measure O would bring only $2.4 million in revenue to the city, while it calculates that Measure N would bring $18.2 million.
Four-page applications for marijuana business permits are available in the Community Development Department, which is at 290 N. D St., and online.
Link – SB Sun
