Applicants line up for medical pot permits

Another application for a medical marijuana operation has been submitted to county Planning and Development Services (PDS), bringing the total of such facilities proposed for Ramona to at least five.

The latest application is for 2471 Montecito Road, but a spokesperson for PDS said it was still in process and had not yet been approved.

Three locations have building permits and applications pending for a county operating certificate: 1210 Olive St., 618 Pine St. and 736 Montecito Way.

In addition, a group has been considering 2338 Montecito Road for a medical marijuana cultivation operation in a steel structure, but has not submitted applications to PDS or the sheriff’s department licensing division.

County ordinance requires that a collective may only operate in the unincorporated areas of San Diego County if the sheriff’s department issues a Medical Marijuana Collective Facility Operating Compliance Certificate.

“The time it takes to obtain the operating certificate rests solely on how quickly the applicants can complete construction and be signed off by the planning department,” said Detective Mike Helms with the sheriff’s license and registration unit. “By the time that has happened, the sheriff’s department would have completed any and all backgrounds and be ready to issue.”

County ordinance specifies locations for collectives can only be on industrial-zoned parcels and must be at least 1,000 feet from schools, recreation centers, youth centers, churches, playground parks and residential zoning. Ramona has the most identified sites of all unincorporated areas.

Despite talk last year that some applicants were hoping to open before the end of 2015, before the state’s new Medical Marijuana Regulations and Safety Act went into effect Jan. 1, timing may not matter.

The act’s regulations will likely not become effective for another two years — until Jan. 1, 2018, according to the California Department of Consumer Affairs, which will create a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.

“As of Jan. 1, the Department of Consumer Affairs has authority to begin establishing a bureau,” said Russ Heimerich, deputy director of the department’s public affairs.

That includes hiring a bureau chief and staff, and securing funding and infrastructure, he added. The chief of the bureau will administer and enforce the provisions of the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act that establishes statewide licensing and regulations for commercial medical marijuana activity.

“Essentially nothing has changed for now and won’t until 2018,” said Heimerich.

Because of a provision in the laws, cities and counties have until March 1 to adopt local ordinances to ban or establish regulations on medical marijuana facilities. After that date, the state will have licensing authority where there is no local ordinance.

Some see the new laws as paving the way for legalizing marijuana, anticipated to be on the November ballot. In 1996, California became the first state in the nation to legalize medical marijuana.

The new laws will require applicants to obtain both a local and a state license to operate, create license tiers for businesses of different sizes, bring in the Department of Food and Agriculture to enforce acreage and square footage limits for commercial cultivation sites, allow up to half an acre for an indoor grow and an acre for an outdoor grow, prohibit a cultivator of marijuana from also operating a dispensary, and give counties the opportunity to tax cultivation or sales with voter approval.

Helms said the new state laws are being reviewed by county counsel to see how they will mesh with the county ordinance and whether any changes need to be made. The county prohibits sales of edibles and marijuana use at collectives, he said.

“My personal opinion of the new laws is that they do add some level of oversight in areas the county did not,” said Helms. “These include laboratory testing of marijuana products and regulations on how and who may cultivate and transport marijuana.”

He also said the state permit requirement should aid law enforcement in the closing of many unlicensed and unregulated dispensaries throughout the county.