Coming on the heels of Los Angeles opening up its cannabis delivery application window last month, a California Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the cannabis industry and the Bureau of Cannabis Control’s policy allowing for statewide delivery on Wednesday night. The ruling tossed out a protracted suit cast by 25 NIMBY-minded municipalities back in early 2019. Although this case could be appealed to the California Supreme Court, the ruling is a substantial legal victory for the BCC as well as licensed operators in the state.
Cannabis delivery matters to California operators
With cannabis being legal at the state level within California, many consumers and laymen may not realize that even in California municipalities still have a tremendous amount of power in determining if commercial cannabis operations can commence within their jurisdiction. It is to no small degree why cannabis applications in California are so competitive and why it practically feels like a stakes claim every time a new municipality opts in to licensed cannabis.
However for the sake of this conversation it matters because there are so many delivery consumers in municipalities that otherwise do not have licensed retail storefronts. Bear in mind that of California municipalities, even after Election Day earlier this month, only ~38% of them have opted in and allow licensed commercial cannabis activity. That leaves a huge swath of towns and cities (and their citizens) in what would amount to a cannabis desert save for the fact that delivery is allowed statewide.
As we explained at the time back in 2019:
Think of it this way: let’s say your town, for some crazy reason, banned pizzerias. You would still want the right and option to order a pizza delivered from the pizzeria in the town over, right? Cannabis is the pizza in this scenario.
To a lesser degree, allowing licensed cannabis delivery within a given city or town’s limits can help to curb unlicensed delivery. If there’s one thing that we’ve learned in California in 2020, it’s that the appetite for legal cannabis continues to grow and that consumers are choosing safe, tested and licensed cannabis over the illicit market.