San Francisco Board of Supervisors pauses retail cannabis permits

(The Center Square) – San Francisco city officials will cease accepting applications for permits to operate cannabis businesses after action by the Board of Supervisor Tuesday night. The ordinance, approved by the city’s Public Safety and Neighborhood Services committee last month, passed by a 10-0 vote.

Under the ordinance, San Francisco’s Office of Cannabis is prevented from accepting and reviewing applications for cannabis business permits. The permits affected by the measures include storefront retailers, cannabis delivery services, medicinal retailers and retail functions of microbusinesses.

Under the previous law, all cannabis retail applications are to be accepted and reviewed.

Proponents of the measure, including the San Francisco Cannabis Retailers Alliance, argue that San Francisco’s cannabis market is oversaturated and cannot sustain more businesses than those currently in the pipeline.

“City government should focus on processing existing equity applications, reducing youth consumption of cannabis and enforcing against the underground economy,” City Supervisor Ahsha Safaí said in a press release. “This pause will give our city agencies that chance.”

Opponents of the measure meanwhile argue that a pause benefits established cannabis retailers and that the city’s efforts should be spent on investigating if there is saturation.

“This policy harms the social equity movement, by stopping it,” reads a comment letter from a Coalition of Concerned San Franciscans. “Reefer madness continues, with its negative minority group implications and a new dog whistle called ‘saturation’.”

Originally introduced in February 2020, the measure was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic along with a hearing examining a report on the cannabis retail market conducted by the City Controller.

In February 2020, 37 cannabis storefronts and 41 delivery-service cannabis companies were operating in San Francisco, according to the legislation. There were no medicinal or micro-businesses in operation at the time.

California legalized recreational cannabis use for adults over the age of 21 in 2016 upon the passage of Proposition 64. Under the law, property owners are able to ban cannabis on their property and access and consumption within 1,000 feet of schools, day care centers and youth centers is prohibited.