Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes (Turn and Face the Strange)

420 FILE-The year 2020 has proven the old adage to be true, that the only consistent thing in life is change.

This past week, California’s cannabis community witnessed the City of Oxnard deciding to overturn its entire retail cannabis licensing process and start again from scratch in a historic turn of events. Additionally, California’s first cannabis chief is leaving the state agency in December. Finally, a judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a state rule allowing home deliveries statewide, even into communities that banned commercial marijuana sales. The times they are a-changin’. 

Cities, such as Tracy, Concord, Monterey, Fresno, Corona, Stanton, Costa Mesa, and Fullerton, are all turning to marijuana licensing to help increase their municipal coffers. Licensing creates jobs and brings investment to communities, and with over 1 billion dollars generated in state tax revenue since legalization in 2018 there’s only room to “grow”.   

With all these changes, how long will Angelenos allow the City of Los Angeles to delay its retail licensing process and continued loss of cannabis revenue to the illicit market? Two hundred entrepreneurs have paid fees and have waited over 430 days for new social equity storefronts. 

The best is yet to come.

(Gary Mittin is a commercial real estate broker, specializing in cannabis real estate.) Photo: Esty. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.