Credit for getting the ball rolling toward making storefront recreational marijuana sales started in Manteca belongs to former Mayor Ben Cantu.
It was one of the key points in Cantu’s successful campaign for mayor in 2018.
Current Mayor Gary Singh, who defeated Cantu in 2022, made “doing retail marijuana sales right” a part of his campaign platform.
Singh noted Thursday that Cantu does indeed deserve credit for being the first elected Manteca official to advocate and push for legalized cannabis sales in the city.
Cantu, if he had his way, would have succeeded having retail marijuana storefronts up and running during his four-year term.
“The wheels of government simply turn very slowly,” Cantu noted in an email. “As mayor, I personally wrote a cannabis ordinance for staff to utilize but they chose to make the process (a) bureaucratic complex.”
Cantu is referring to the 30 months that Manteca spent researching, devising an ordinance, and vetting proposals before the council this week approved allowing three concerns to negotiate for retail permits.
The speed at which Manteca proceeded is underscored by the fact a year into the process, the City of Lathrop started exploring exercising its right to issue permits for legal cannabis sales within their jurisdiction under the California law that went into effect in 2016 after a statewide vote.
Legal cannabis sales started in Lathrop earlier this year.
It is expected to take well into 2024 for retail sales to begin in Manteca.
That’s because three applicants and the city have to come to terms on a community benefit agreement.
The three entities also have to secure conditional use permits for their locations through the Manteca Planning Commission.
And after that they need to remodel the locations and make required security improvements.
Singh defended the long process Manteca did as he believes it will avoid the city making mistakes other jurisdictions have in the legalization process as well as address significant concerns Manteca has.
Cantu in his 2018 campaign emphasized the “large revenue” potential of legal marijuana sales to help underwrite city services.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
