San Jose Stamps Ordinance to Ban Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 18, 2014) - Yesterday, the San Jose City Council passed an effective ban on medical marijuana collectives. The regulations require all concentrates, edibles and topicals be produced on-site, by the collective. Medical marijuana vendors statewide will not be allowed to provide any products to collectives in San Jose. Outdoor growing and medical marijuana patients ages 18 to 20 are banned from working at, or even getting medication from, collectives.

"We need regulations in San Jose, but ones that work." said Dave Hodges, founder of the All American Cannabis Club, and Silicon Valley Cannabis Coalition (SVCC) member. "Street dealers will become the providers of medical marijuana rather than licensed business people providing legal product," he said. "We are almost guaranteed to see an explosion in illegal neighborhood grows, and backyard BHO concentrate production."

To stop the cities regulations, organizers have less than 30 days to collect 50,000 signatures to qualify for a referendum. Control & Regulate San Jose will be hosting private meeting tomorrow at 1pm to discuss fundraising. For details contact John Lee at John@SaveCannabis.org

"A referendum is the only option we have," said John Lee, director of the Silicon Valley Cannabis Coalition and Control & Regulate San Jose. "We need all patients, dispensaries, delivery services, growers, edible makers, concentrate producers and everyone who wants safe medical cannabis in San Jose to work together. We have a daunting task in front of us, and if we all unite, the referendum will succeed."

"To get this done, we need to spend almost $1,000,000 in the next 30 days," said Dave Hodges. "So far we have had a group of 35 clubs agree that 10% of their gross income would be a fair price to pay to stay open. If we can get everyone who derives their income by providing legal medical cannabis in San Jose to do the same, the needed funds for the referendum won't be a problem. If you care about medical cannabis in San Jose and can give $500 or $100,000, we need every penny."

Key problems with the City of San Jose ordinance are:

• A collective must grow all their own cannabis
• All topicals & edibles must be produced at the dispensary in San Jose
• Concentrated cannabis is prohibited
• All members and employees must be 21 & over
• Mandatory background checks on all employees (i.e. bud tenders, transporters, growers, etc.).
• Security guards must be at the grow site 24/7 regardless of operating hours
• No on-site consumption

The portions of the city's regulations that will be the subject of the referendum are available at: http://bit.ly/sj-regerendum.

More information: http://SVCannabis.org