Where and How Will Santa Barbara Permit Pot?

“Do I have your approval to do pop-up medical cannabis?” Victor Trujillo asked three Santa Barbara city councilmembers on Tuesday. The short answer was no. “I don’t know if we’re ready,” Mayor Helene Schneider told Trujillo and the crowd during an Ordinance Committee hearing. “Hey, that sounds fun, but let us start somewhere … the whole world about cannabis is going to change in four to five years.”

Santa Barbara is far from turning into mini Amsterdam. But the question posed Tuesday underscored key points about marijuana in the City of Santa Barbara. Where are city leaders going to allow cannabis operations? Which operations will they permit? Will they cap the number of cannabis businesses as they did for medical marijuana dispensaries?

Though the answers are unclear, the City Council is on track to adopt some form of a cannabis ordinance early next year. What happened Tuesday at City Hall was largely procedural: The Ordinance Committee ​— ​comprising Schneider and councilmembers Randy Rowse and Cathy Murillo at this meeting ​— ​approved the draft regulations, which now go to the Planning Commission.