San Francisco: San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved legislation this week regulating the distribution of medical cannabis by the city’s estimated 35 dispensaries.
The new guidelines require dispensary operators to apply for a business license and adhere to zoning laws restricting the distribution of cannabis near school grounds. The regulations also limit the amount of medical cannabis that patients may purchase at the facilities to one ounce per visit.
Dispensaries will have up to 18 months to acquire the necessary permits and licenses required by the new legislation.
“The passage of these city-wide provisions represent an historic moment in the legal struggle to make cannabis available to physician-approved patients, ” said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre. “These are the first regulatory and business controls governing the retail distribution of marijuana in the United States since it was federally outlawed in 1937.”
An estimated 8,000 patients have city-authorized identification cards to use medicinal cannabis.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of NORML, at (202) 483-5500 or Dale Gieringer, California NORML Coordinator, at (415) 563-5858.