The Walnut Creek City Council gave the city’s recreational cannabis users something to celebrate by unanimously voting to legalize delivery of adult-use, non-medical marijuana within city limits.
At Tuesday’s meeting — at which a cannabis proponent offered sample joints to the council, to laughter all around — the council capped the number of delivery services that can operate in the city to three. They expect one service to be HerbNJoy, the city’s lone provider of medical marijuana.
On future applications from other prospective cannabis retailers, the city will use a points system to help decide whether to grant use permits. Since HerbNJoy has been a positive contributor to the city’s business community, the council approved an amendment directing staff to process HerbNJoy’s new amended application for non-medical delivery service, giving them already-earned points.
Deliveries will have to be made to a fixed residential address, drivers won’t be able to exceed the state limit of how much product they can carry ($5,000 worth) and must deliver straight to customers without stopping anywhere else. They also have to deliver to fixed residential addresses.
The council also decided to push back any decisions regarding storefront sales of cannabis until at least next year.
In 2018, Walnut Creek adopted its own regulations for “personal and commercial cannabis activities.”
City officials said not enough was known about potential impacts to the community if wider use was allowed, and they were also concerned about additional crime and that residents didn’t want more of a visible presence of cannabis in the city.
The city reassessed its ordinance in 2021 and looked at the impact on 28 other local jurisdictions allowing some form of cannabis sales.
In California, medical cannabis was legalized in 1996 and non-medical use for people 21 and over was legalized in 2016.
A 2021 staff report said 70 percent of cannabis use is recreational and taxable, with the rest being medicinal (which isn’t taxable). Moving away from prescription-only use will increase taxable sales, the report says, and “existing retail stores in Martinez and Antioch are doing extremely well, and in the next eight to 12 months, one new store will open in Pacheco and four to five new retail stores will open in Concord. There is an estimated demand for approximately 10 to 12 more retail stores in Contra Costa County.”
With recreational sales legal in Walnut Creek, the city will collect revenue not only through sales tax, but through business licensing and permit fees.
33 comments
What WC really needs is a Casino.
Let’s add a house of prostitution to the list. Oh, wait. We have the city council. Never mind.
WC is for sale now. Anything goes for $$$.
Dr. Jellyfinger,
I agree and would add that a decent strip club would go a long way as well.
or maybe the byline should read:
Walnut Creek City Council Endorses Violating Federal Laws
???
@S
The federal government can crack down on this state anytime it feels like it. Maybe Newsom and Pelosi have something to do with that………maybe not. When Trump was running for President, he was asked about the subjects of marijuana and abortion and he said he would leave those decisions up to the states. He said the residents of those states know what they want and didn’t think the federal government should get involved. I wholeheartedly agree.
cyn,
I do expect the Federal Laws will be changed; maybe even in my lifetime. Meanwhile, it is still the law and W C Council endorses the violation and violated their own oath to uphold…
Once the law is changed, then so be it.
ps: I don’t hold the 3 politicans you mentioned in a positive light.
pss: I allow you the last word.
😀
@S
I don’t hold ANY politician in a positive light.
🙂
A used book store would be nice.
The last gasp of a once great town.
Native Creeker.
It’s really quite sad.
The goal is to drive out the prop 13 citizens. They don’t spend money downtown, and the tax revenue on their residences will triple or quadruple when the house sells. The increase in violence is a sure way to get these folks to “say uncle” and leave.
Regardless of how you feel about marijuana, these dispensaries get robbed periodically. Over the past two years we have watched criminals become quite comfortable in Walnut Creek as there are so many opportunities to pillage with abandon. Our local Government seems quite comfortable with the additional violence also.
@fearless spectator
Well, every business has the potential to be robbed. Dispensaries tend to carry alot of cash because banks make it very difficult for them. If you have a problem with dispensaries being targeted, you should really start complaining about the unfair practices of the banks, who happily lend money and handle the banking of Jack Daniels and other alcoholic product which kill nearly 100K Americans per year. They will not lend money or bank the cash of dispensaries which sell cannabis, a drug that kills zero Americans per year.
Be angry with the banks. If your local Japanese Restaurant was blackballed from banking then they’d have lots of cash on hand too, and they would be an increasingly attractive target for thieves.
anon,
Your comparison is false. Banks don’t want to get involved in financing crime. The solution would be to federally legalize dispensaries.
Dumb beyond belief.
That’s Groovy Man!
Regulating delivery of a legal product. I am not agreeable to legalization of pot, but it is now legal (as I understand it). I find it disturbing that this council has enough power to regulate how many companies can transport a material from point a to point b, mainly because it does show how much of our everyday lives is regulated in some aspect by our “leaders.”
My revenue idea: Every weekend, pull a truck load of slot machines to each elementary and the high school. Setup a casino at each location. Residents can come and gamble and feel good about donating to the community. Also, setup a cannabis sales store there with the revenue going directly to the community. We can add a brothel later.
Why do you have a problem with this, but not with the liquor sold at every corner store and grocery store?
Alcohol kills 95,000 Americans every year. Why do you not rage against the substance that kills almost 100K of your countrymen every year, but feel such hatred toward the substance which kills zero?
@anon 🎯
“This is your brain … this is your brain on drugs”
😥
Why not…..they already have some massage” parlors.that are used for illegal activities.
Why is Crogan’s old building sitting there rotting?
If rent is too high…lower it!
Just a story in the paper about robberies of legal marijuana establishments. If you want weed go to Oakland or San Francisco.
Bring it on!
Weed delivery has been operating in Walnut Creek already for about 10 years or so. Just check out weedmaps.com. The issue is these companies all operate out of Oakland/ Alameda county and pay taxes to that county while making tons of profit in WC. Now companies will be able to be based in WC and pay taxes there.
Not much is changing honestly except the city is now going to collect taxes they have been missing out on, and weed buyers in WC won’t have to wait 2 hours for the driver to come from Oakland.
Two hours? Poor babies.
Greed wins out over logic yet again in California…
Walnut Creek residents have legally been getting cannabis deliveries for years. Even before Prop 64 legalized adult use cannabis, there were multiple medical-only delivery trips per day to Rossmoor. The only change is that companies can be based in Walnut Creek now rather than serving Walnut Creek customers from out of town.
“An estimated 95,000 people (approximately 68,000 men and 27,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually”
“Cigarette smoking is estimated to cause the following: More than 480,000 deaths annually (including deaths from secondhand smoke) 278,544 deaths annually among men (including deaths from secondhand smoke)”
Cannabis kills zero Americans per year.
Many people need cannabis for legitimate medical purposes, and it keeps them from needing any or as much prescription medicines, which often come with brutal side effects and the potential for serious, physical addiction.
Cry me a river, this is a rare case of actual, genuine, real progress in an age of decay of rot.
Cannabis kills zero Americans per year?
That’s an incredibly naive statement.
Another direct quote from “The Bleeding Heart Handbook for Dummies”.
You left wing dope smokers love Politico right?
“Nationally, 80 percent of cannabis is cultivated indoors with sophisticated lighting and environmental controls designed to maximize the plant’s yield. It’s a setup that can consume up to 2,000 watts of electricity per square meter, 40 times what it takes for leafy greens like lettuce, when grown indoors”
So us Californians can use our endless supply of extra electricity to grow it…. cool!
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/10/weed-cannabis-legalization-energy-503004
About. Dang. Time!!!
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