In the past four years, the city of Los Angeles has made many adjustments and changes to its cannabis laws and regulations. It’s admirable that with the emergence of industry issues, New York City and its Cannabis Regulatory Department (“Direct current“) Try to keep up. But sometimes, this speed is very annoying for cannabis companies in New York City. However, these recent changes are expected to make life easier for cannabis companies based in Los Angeles.

In case you missed it, as early as June, New York City made some very important changes to Articles 4 and 5 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code (“LAMC”).In particular, the Los Angeles City Council passed Regulation No. 187094 and Number 187095 (Effective July 1, 2021), respectively, revised the location restrictions for commercial cannabis activities in New York City in 2017, including minor changes to the definition of certain sensitive locations, and existing medical cannabis dispensaries (“EMMD”). Grandfather rules) and further detail/modify PCN process As well as amendments to license applications, provisional approvals, business change requests and certain social fairness standards (among other things).

The following are the main points of Decree No. 187094:

• Modify the definition of “public park” to include public parks located outside
  The City of Los Angeles restricts and clarifies that the definition only includes OS open space zoning properties, provided that these properties have parks and recreational facilities. New cannabis retailers will be subject to the revised definition of public parks, which means they will be prohibited from operating within 700 feet of parks located in neighboring cities or unincorporated areas, and 700 feet of property used in the “OS” zone The scope is operated as parks and recreational facilities, including but not limited to trails, lawn areas, amusement areas, childcare facilities, picnic facilities and sports grounds. In addition, all new cannabis companies will be evaluated based on the deadline for DCR’s existing and publicly available sensitive locations to ensure that they meet the sensitive location distance buffer zone.
  application.
• Applicants for a new license are required to observe the minimum distance from the existing applicable sensitive sites on the date of license application, not on the date of receipt of the license, and make it available for DCR public use.
• Allow EMMD to continue operating in their current locations until December 31, 2025, after which they must comply with the current cannabis location restrictions in New York City.
• Removed the requirement for EMMD to comply with traditional regulations Proposition D Access to business premises through door openings facing residential properties is restricted, provided that the door is only used by employees, suppliers and contractors and not by customers.

The following are the main points of Decree No. 187095:

• State license certification is no longer a prerequisite for provisional approval. DCR no longer provides separate letters or ongoing local compliance notices. DCR will assign a status of “local compliance in progress” to DCR Licensing Portal Record according to the provisional approval workflow and information and procedure announcements. When the applicant’s record status is updated to “Local Compliance In Progress”, the applicant will receive an email and information related to the initial inspection process. DCR will then directly report the status of “local compliance in progress” to the competent authority. Cannabis Control Division As part of the country Temporary License Procedure.
• Starting from September 1, 2021, applicants will no longer need to register for the intent to submit a modification request before submitting the request. Modification requests will continue to be accepted only through the DCR licensing portal. After submitting the modification request, the applicant or licensee shall submit all additional documents and information required to process the request through the DCR licensing portal and pay any additional modification fees in accordance with Section 104.19. Before submitting all necessary documents, information and fees, it shall not be deemed that the request for modification has been submitted or processed.
• Also starting from September 1, 2021, only the licensee can request affim Modifications to its existing business.It’s worth noting that with regard to changes in ownership, DCR’s current position is “at least one owner Have ownership interest When DCR reviews the eligibility of the new owner in accordance with Section 104.03(a)(1) and (2) of the LAMC, it must remain on the license so that the business can continue to operate. If all owners will transfer their ownership rights, the applicant or licensee shall resubmit all application documents and pay all required application fees. Until DCR issues a new license, the company cannot operate under the new ownership structure. “The owner of an individual applicant for social justice cannot be replaced or replaced after applying for a permit.
• DCR has issued guidance forms on certain business modifications, when they can be done during or after the license, and what documents must be submitted to DCR for the changes to take effect. look here:
• Despite the above clarification of the amendments, the main disclaimer issued by DCR is that “due to Decree Nos. 187904 and 187095, [DCR] From July 6 to October 1, 2021, the licensing portal may be unavailable and/or limited in functionality, so the system may be updated to reflect the amendments to the LAMC regulations. During this period, applicants will not be able to submit new pre-applications for any license types, including delivery, manufacturing, distribution, and testing. Between July 6 and October 1, DCR will continue to process existing applications and amendment requests. “
• On October 1, 2021, if the applicant is seeking a modification that cannot be achieved through the modification request, the applicant can submit a new pre-application. Regardless of the status of the application or permit, a modification request submitted before September 1, 2021 can be considered.
• Regarding the relocation request, no operation will be performed at the new location until the temporary approval is received at the new location. If you have already obtained the temporary approval at the old location, you must now cancel the relocation approval for that location before the DCR approves it.
• A sort of Administration of Quality Supervision If applicable, the analysis must now be performed/undergoing when submitting the annual city permit application (rather than the pre-application).
• Regarding applicants for social justice operating marijuana businesses, it is no longer required that social justice individuals be the highest officials of the enterprise.
• Regarding the second round of the third-stage license, through a lottery, DCR can choose to further process as many eligible social justice applicants as the total number of available licenses until an inappropriate concentration limit is reached in a given community plan. In addition, the second round of social equity applicants have a maximum of 1 year from the beginning of the lottery to find property in any community plan on a first-come, first-served basis until excessive concentration is reached.

I recently posted an article about How strong are the locals When it comes to barriers to access to marijuana. The city of Los Angeles is a very good example of how strong local control is in most cannabis states. In turn, cannabis license holders in Los Angeles need to know as much as possible about these continuous updates of LAMC to ensure that they comply with local laws. Mistakes or failure to keep up can cause a lot of delays, costs, and headaches.