Supes Extend Permit Deadline
for Medical Marijuana Dispensary Compliance

By Ari Burack

May 6, 2008

San Francisco supervisors today voted to extend the permitting process for some of the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries, many of whose permit applications are still being processed by various city departments.

Under current law, dispensaries that opened before April 2005 and submitted permit applications by July 1, 2007 would have to close if they had not received permits by March 1 of this year.

Supervisor Chris Daly, who introduced the ordinance, said today that the dispensaries that have already applied “have been doing due diligence” as they navigate San Francisco’s four-department approval process, which he called a “one-of-a-kind model.”

“We want to see (medical cannabis) clubs out in the open, out in the sunlight, operating above board,” Daly said.

Supervisor Chris Daly

According to the San Francisco Planning Department — one of the four permit application stops, along with the Department of Building Inspection, the Mayor’s Office of Disability and the Health Department — none of the 33 known dispensaries in the city have so far received final approval.

Four dispensaries have been denied approval, while the rest have received preliminary approval by the Planning Commission, according to Planning Department Manager of Legislative Affairs AnMarie Rodgers.

Daly’s ordinance, which would extend the permit deadline until Jan. 21, 2009, received the support of the Planning Department and nine other members of the Board, but not of Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, the lone dissenter.

“I find it ironic that this industry…continues to be granted waiver after waiver,” Elsbernd said, describing the dispensary permitting procedure as “a broken process.”

Supervisor Sean Elsbernd

Daly called the extension “reasonable time to get everybody who’s applied, through the process.”

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said he agreed with both perspectives.”We cannot keep continuing to do extensions…this one may make sense,” Mirkarimi said.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi

The ordinance will now be forwarded to Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office for final approval.

FCJ Editor

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