City Council
MEETING DATE: 8/12/2015
TITLE:
Title
Medical Marijuana Dispensary Kiosk and Cash Transaction Ordinances.
End
FROM:
Charles Green, City Attorney
Nicholas Hermsen, Deputy City Attorney
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
That the City Council receive and consider this report and take whatever action it deems appropriate.
Body
BACKGROUND:
Last year the City Council enacted an ordinance which initially will allow three (3) medical marijuana dispensaries to operate within the City. The ordinance, as originally adopted and currently in effect, contains numerous operational regulations intended to protect the public health, safety and welfare and to avoid negative secondary effects of the operation of the dispensaries.
Among the regulations, the ordinance presently prohibits cash transactions entirely, and requires all transactions to "be made by personal check or credit cards." Since the ordinance was enacted and during the application process, several dispensary applicants have complained to staff that this prohibition is unworkable.
Specifically, the complaints stem from the underlying conflict between State and Federal law and the Federal Government's continued classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug under all instances. Although the Federal Department of Justice has deprioritized enforcement of the marijuana prohibition in states where medical marijuana has been permitted at the state level, the issue remains mired in something of a bureaucratic maze in certain respects. The regulation of financial institutions that wish to do business with medical marijuana businesses is still problematic. The dispensary applicants have complained that they haven't been able to do business with banks or other financial institutions, and they are unable to secure credit card transaction services or deposit or cash personal checks due to issues at the Federal level.
Green Cross Pharma, the only applicant to ...
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