Cannabis dispensaries in Alameda County did not generate any more calls for service than a normal business would according to an Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy.

The opinion was part of the presentation on Thursday night at the Manteca VFW Hall. It was the fourth in a series of five meetings that the City of Manteca is planning on having with the community to determine its next steps when it comes to the question about whether to allow cannabis businesses to operate in the community.

The final meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 30, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Manteca Golf Course clubhouse. That meeting will allow residents to voice their concerns about the possibility of dispensaries or other cannabis-based businesses operating in the community, and to gauge public opinion on the matter.

But there are a lot of hoops that Manteca will have to jump through in order to bring those businesses to the community, according to an Alameda County expert that helped write the original regulations for medical marijuana and then recreational cannabis when voters allowed it.

According to Commander Kelly Miles – who retired from law enforcement but has come back as part of the county’s ad hoc committee to address cannabis issues – it will all come down to stringent regulation and close collaboration with the businesses that are looking to open in the community.

While Alameda County is more than twice the size of San Joaquin County and has much more densely-populated areas, the county – which includes progressive bastions like Oakland and Berkeley – has been selective on who it chooses to issue operations permits to when it comes to retail cannabis sales. Mles believes that the approach has allowed local law enforcement and county regulators to work more closely with those operators to ensure that everything is above board.

The Alameda County sergeant whose letter was read into the record – and who works closely with Miles – also noted that while there is concern about cannabis use amongst young people, none of the cannabis or cannabis products that officers have found on those under the legal age of use have been coming from the legal dispensaries in the community. According to that sergeant, while cannabis may have replaced alcohol as the intoxicant of choice for young people, he’s more concerned about those same underage kids getting their hands on a bottle of alcohol at a liquor store than he is them obtaining cannabis products from a local dispensary, He indicated that was a testament to the strict regulation and the serious way in which the dispensaries follow those rules.

While California voters approved Proposition 64 in 2016 to legalize recreational use of cannabis among adults, the law allowed for municipalities to determine whether they wanted to allow those businesses to operate in their own communities. Manteca had already barred medical marijuana dispensaries – which were legal under a 1996 ballot proposition – from operating in the community and extended that prohibition to recreational cannabis as well.

Once Manteca gets through the five community workshops the city will then have to consider an amendment to the municipal code, hold workshops for the planning commission and the city council, present the matter to the planning commission and then bring it back to the city council for final consideration.

The city will also have to consider if they are going to use some of the financial tools that are available to them in their approach – whether that means using cannabis sales to generate revenue through taxes, or simply cover the cost of enforcement and regulation pertaining to the new businesses. 

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.