Green delivery vetoed

If only stoners had remembered to show up to Town Council…

Citing a potential for increased crime in Mammoth Lakes, Town Council voted 4-0 on Wednesday, Nov. 4 to prohibit the mobile delivery of marijuana within Town limits. Police Chief Al Davis likened these mobile dispensaries, which major cities like Los Angeles have seen explode in popularity, to food trucks or pizza delivery services. “A mobile dispensary is essentially like a food truck,” said Davis. “It is allowed to stop anywhere and dispense marijuana.”

The ordinance passed by Town Council, which amends Mammoth’s municipal code, will also prevent mobile dispensaries which are not based in Mammoth Lakes from driving into town to make deliveries.

A bill known as AB266, recently singed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, claimed to bring “robust controls” to California’s medical marijuana industry, which has long existed in a sort of Wild West state of dubious legality. Marijuana farmers and those associated with the industry have even refer to it as “the next gold rush.”

Since Proposition 215 passed in 1996, California’s marijuana economy has bloomed under state guidelines that vary from county to county and city to city. The new bill aims to provide clear standards for “local government, law enforcement, businesses, patients and health providers,” Brown told the Sacramento Bee. One of the provisions of AB266 is that it legalizes mobile dispensaries statewide, as well as the delivery of marijuana to consumers by established businesses—however, the same law also allows local governments to decide whether to prohibit such activity. “If you’re silent on it, the state may allow [mobile dispensaries] to operate; if you ban them then they won’t,” said Town Attorney Andrew Morris.

Mammoth Lakes currently has two medical marijuana dispensaries, Mammoth Lakes Wellness and Green Mammoth. The new ordinance is not holding the gates closed, as it were, because the only two available permits are already held by these existing businesses. However, “if we lost one of the dispensaries, the potential for a mobile one is there,” said Davis. Furthermore, if one of Mammoth’s current businesses attempted to branch out into mobile deliveries, AB266 would have allowed this prior to the Town Council’s Wednesday motion. Town Manger Dan Holler said that the Town had reached out to both dispensaries, and that only Mammoth Lakes Wellness had responded, saying that they had no qualms with the ordinance and that they had no current plans to expand to include mobile deliveries.

Town Attorney Morris said that this legislation was passed with the support of the League of Cities, which advised towns that local ordinances should be in effect prior to January 1, 2016 in order to prohibit mobile medical marijuana sales.

However, “this is all of course until the big tsunami of statewide legalization happens in the November 2016 election, which is expected,” said Morris. “If that ballot measure [to legalize recreational marijuana in California] goes forward, we’re all gonna have a lot of work to do.” As for the ordinance, “We would have to figure out … how does that work, if there’s full legalization.”

The primary reason for banning the mobile sale of marijuana in Mammoth, according to Police Chief Davis, is safety. He cited instances where pizza delivery drivers “have been robbed, killed, over the money, the $20 that the delivery person might have had … Now you take it to marijuana, which is a much more valuable item than a pizza,” and the temptation for criminals increases exponentially. A large concern for the Mammoth Lakes Police Department is that their already-strained staff will bear the burden of increased demand for police services as they contend with the potential targeting of marijuana delivery services for theft.

Davis cited the safety of a brick-and-mortar dispensary as a deterrent for potential criminals, as well as a means of keeping better tabs on the activities of these businesses.

“If you recall, [dispensaries in Mammoth Lakes have] had two attempted break-ins and both were not successful because of the security levels that those buildings had.”

Furthermore, “I think the consensus is it’s a lot harder to have an idea of what the mobile folks are doing,” said Morris.

No members of the public showed up to speak either in favor of or against the ordinance at the meeting in Suite Z, which was virtually empty by the time the item was discussed.