weighing how to roll out<\/a> the pilot program for the past two years. The latest approval sets the stage for dispensaries to apply for a \u201cfirst-in-line\u201d process, deeming which locations will receive a permit.<\/p>\nSmoking and nonsmoking lounges<\/p>\n
The city plans two allow two different types of permits, a Type 1 permit for nonsmoking products, such as edibles, and a Type 2 permit that would allow for smoking and vaping. The Type 1 permits come with a $7,238 annual fee, and the Type 2 permits would be required to pay $9,651 a year.<\/p>\n
Businesses in the city\u2019s cannabis equity program \u2014 aimed at helping business owners from communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs \u2014 are exempt from the fees.<\/p>\n
The city is also setting strict standards around ventilation to limit smoke indoors and to prevent odors from leaking outside. The city is also capping the size of the lounges at 1,500 square feet, or half the area of the dispensary \u2014 whichever is smaller.<\/p>\n
Lounge locations face vetting<\/p>\n
Each of the lounge applications have to go before the council again for a conditional-use permit. The council is also set to have another hearing later this year on the \u201cequitable distribution\u201d of lounges across different parts of the city.<\/p>\n
The city is planning on using a \u201cfirst-in-line\u201d process to judge applications based on when they are submitted and if they have the adequate materials in their application, such as security measures and licensing.<\/p>\n
Multiple dispensary owners told the council Tuesday night that the cost of ventilation and the permitting fees could narrow the number of places interested in adding a lounge.<\/p>\n
Mindy Galloway, who owns The Pocket Dispensary, told the council that the application requirements were too expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was planning to do an on-site consumption lounge, but after reviewing my budget it doesn\u2019t look like it would be feasible to me,\u201d Galloway said.<\/p>\n
Last year, a city survey found that only five dispensaries said they had enough space to add a cannabis lounge. Three other dispensaries told the city that it would take between six and 36 months to build enough improvements to add a lounge.<\/p>\n
Dispensaries vying for \u2018first in line\u2019<\/p>\n
At Tuesday\u2019s hearing, two dispensary owners expressed strong interest. Those included the owner of A Therapeutic Alternative, a dispensary near McKinley Park, and Crystal Nugs, a dispensary in Midtown Sacramento.<\/p>\n
A banner on the Crystal Nugs website<\/a> already describes its dispensary at 23rd and J streets as home of \u201cSacramento\u2019s First Cannabis Consumption Lounge.\u201d The site states that the \u201clounge caters to all\u201d with flower, concentrates and edibles, plus luxury seating and curated lighting.<\/p>\nMaisha Bahati, cofounder and CEO of Crystal Nugs, estimated that even under the quickest timeline, it would likely take her business another year to complete the ventilation improvements and receive final approvals from the city.<\/p>\n
Felicia Alvarez\u00a0is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, healthcare\u00a0and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abridged version: The Sacramento City Council approved a new pilot program for cannabis lounges where people will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-373959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}