Several California ski towns are being cautious regarding recreational marijuana use.
On New Year’s Day, adults 21 and over will be allowed to possess up to one ounce of recreational marijuana in California. Yet most ski towns in Northern California won’t be allowing sales of the retail product yet.
South Lake Tahoe, Truckee and Mammoth Lakes have created moratoriums on recreational marijuana businesses. That means weed won’t be available until late spring – at the earliest.
The ski towns are hoping the delay gives them the opportunity to initiate local ordinances, since the state issued more than 100 pages of state regulations last month, dictating California’s newly legal recreational marijuana industry.
“We’re taking it slow and easy,” said Tom Davis, Mayor Pro-Tem of South Lake Tahoe, told the Reno Gazette Journal. “It’s not about money, it’s about doing it right.”
Even though some towns won’t be selling recreational pot, people visiting Truckee or South Lake Tahoe don’t have to go far to purchase weed. They can buy and consume pot legally in nearby Nevada.
One dispensary in Incline Village near the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe currently offers recreational marijuana. There are also roughly a dozen dispensaries offering marijuana in the Reno-Sparks area, located approximately 30 to 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe.
Several medical marijuana dispensaries in South Lake Tahoe closed over the past year, including one in 2013 where the owner was charged and convicted of marijuana trafficking and sent to federal prison.
According to some predictions, the marijuana industry could bring in as much as $5 billion to the state next year.
In the ballot measure last year, 64 percent of voters in South Lake Tahoe area supported the California legalization of marijuana. But just like its mayor, the town also wants to be careful.
The concern is making sure not too many businesses arise and that there is some action the community can take if it sees an increase in youth marijuana use or related emergency room visits.
In Truckee town council is strongly against licensing anything more than home delivery of marijuana in the region. There are several illegal operations providing medical marijuana to patients in Truckee. However, city officials won’t enforce ordinances since they have not received any substantial complaints about the home-based marijuana selling businesses.
The Truckee town council isn’t ready to legitimize the marijuana businesses, but is considering issuing licenses to allow the transport of both recreational and medical cannabis products to private residences.
Businesses in Truckee would be ineligible for all other licenses offered by the state, including dispensary, cultivation and manufacturing.
At Mammoth Lakes, the existing medical marijuana establishments will serve only medical product until notified by local officials. Mammoth officials are hoping to create an ordinance that allows businesses to convert to retail by sometime in June
