Passionate Tolerance

Amsterdam has a long standing tolerance and acceptance of adult use of Marijuana. Perhaps one wonders what a city and its environs look like? Is it hidden, is it seedy, is it controlled and regulated?

Famed European traveler Rick Steves shows us in a 2+ minute video his visit to a Marijuana Coffee shop and the social and political view of this industry among its people and government. Steves is also the Chairperson of NORML Board of Directors.

Cannabis as we prefer to refer to it, is classified as a "low-level drug" in Amsterdam much in the same use and regulation as alcohol and cigarettes. The population considers themselves as "passionately tolerant" of personal choices and freedoms, and choose not to lock up their citizens and fill the jails for their social activities, no different than a glass of wine after work.

Watch Steves' video excerpt below from his Amsterdam visit in 2015, California passed Proposition 64 "Adult Use of Cannabis" in 2016. The video is only 2 minutes and 44 seconds in length.

www.SV-CA.com

Ryan's Law and Cannabis

 

Cannabis is medicine and our medical community understand this.  Governor Gavin Newsom today (September 28),  signed legislation by Senator Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) expanding end-of-life treatment options for Californians by requiring that hospitals and certain types of healthcare facilities in the state allow terminally-ill patients to use medical cannabis for treatment and/or pain relief.

ARTICLE: California Grants Access to Medical Cannabis in Hospitals for Terminally-Ill Patients <click link>

www.SV-CA.com

Grand Opening - Union City Makes History

Grand Opening today (July 16, 2021) of FLOR at Union Landing In Union City, CA.

The first Cannabis dispensary in a Super Regional Power Retail Center in America! Thank you to the forward thinking support of the Mayor, City Council Members, City Manager, Asst. City Manager and Economic Development department to be on the correct side of history, giving their residents what they asked for at the ballot box and selecting the right applicant to get the job done right. The interior is gorgeous like a high-end jewelry boutique. Come on in and check it out. You might even say hello to your neighbor because FLOR hires local.

Grand Opening - Listen to Mayor Dutra-Vernacci and Councilmember Patino here

About FLOR <click here>

www.SV-CA.com

 

Cannabis Is Your Good Neighbor

 

Did you know a legal cannabis business is a good neighbor?  Not only are sales taxes to the city coffers as well as a separate cannabis tax generated, a necessity when economic recovery is desperately needed but they participate in your local community in a very meaningful way. Legal cannabis businesses do not receive the same tax advantages as any other legal business yet they give.  This in fact is an impressive list of social consciousness and caring.

Here is a partial list (alphabetical order) of non-profit agencies, community groups, neighborhood festivals, etc. within your counties, cities and neighborhoods your legally licensed greater Silicon Valley Cannabis businesses support through financial donations, volunteer hours and/or needed supplies:

2020 San Mateo County Census Drive

AIDS Walk of San Francisco

American Red Cross

Autism Awareness

Breast Cancer Awareness

Cali Roots

Chrysalis

Code For America

Día De La Familia

Downtown Street Teams Salinas

Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

Hebbron Family Center Food Bank

Keep A Breast Foundation

Lake County Fire Victims

Last Prisoner Project

March of Dimes

Monterey County Food Bank

Monterey County Veteran's Parade

Music Saves Lives

National Expungement Week

National Steinbeck Center

Paws With A Cause

Rancho Cielo Youth Campus

Resynergi

Ronald McDonald House

Salinas California Rodeo

Salinas National Night Out

San Francisco Pride

San Jose Jazz Festival

San Mateo County Economic Devel. Assn.

Second Harvest Food Bank

Silicon Valley Organization (Chamber Comm.)

Silicon Valley Strong

Spark The Vote

Special Kids Connect

Success Centers

Tavarez Car Show

Weed For Warriors

Wounded Warrior Project

Note: Some organizations asked not to be identified.

www.SV-CA.com

AB 1302, Commercial Cannabis Billboards

 

Sean Kali-rai this morning (April 27, 2021) addressed the California Business and Professions Committee and submitted a 'YES' vote for AB 1302  on behalf of Legal Cannabis For Consumer Safety (CALCCS.org), Silicon Valley Cannabis Alliance (SV-CA.com) and others. 

AB 1302, introduced by Assemblymember Bill Quirk, is written to allow legal cannabis businesses to advertise on California billboards with minimal restrictions.  Click for bill details:  https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1302/2021

UPDATE: AB 1302 passed Committee and moves forward to Appropriations Committee.

SV-CA.com

AB 273, Cannabis Advertising Highways

Sean Kali-rai this morning (April 27, 2021) addressed the California Business and Professions Committee and submitted a 'NO' vote for AB 273  on behalf of Legal Cannabis For Consumer Safety (CALCCS.org), Silicon Valley Cannabis Alliance (SV-CA.com) and others. 

AB 273, introduced by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, is written to ban legal cannabis businesses to advertise on California highway billboards.

Click for bill details: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB273

UPDATE:  AB 273 Failed in Committee today.

SV-CA.com

 

CONGRATULATIONS Rob Bonta, California's Newest Attorney General

 

Congratulations Rob Bonta, Bay Area Assembly District 18 as California's newest Attorney General appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom.  Bonta has been a supporter of the legal cannabis industry in California.  Silicon Valley Cannabis Alliance (www.SV-CA.com) and the Bay Area legal cannabis business owners proudly supported his nomination to this historic appointment. Bonta is also a member of the Asian Pacific Island community.

Los Angeles Times Breaking News Story, <read more here>

www.SV-CA.com

Lobbyist Slams San Jose Over Delays On Cannabis Land-Use

Photo by Ryland Zweigel, via Shutterstock

San Jose dispensaries pay a combined $2.3 million a year in  fees to the city. Why are dispensaries paying fees for work that has been not completed or delayed? The city either needs to get the work done or to cut reimbursement checks to these dispensaries.

San Jose Inside News:

LOBBYIST SLAMS SAN JOSE OVER DELAYS ON CANNABIS LAND-USE

https://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/lobbyist-slams-san-jose-over-delays-on-cannabis-land-use/?fbclid=IwAR3UNZYoIR88nvDQsZXATfIkCpjMTRSGXSUZsiM0IU-Lu2s6SUPLqBqxKxI

In case you missed it, here is the transcript of Sean Kali-rai's one-minute public comment at the special San Jose Council Priority Setting meeting on February 25:

"Good afternoon Mayor and Council. I am Sean Kali-rai Founder of Silicon Valley Cannabis Alliance and Jackson and Main.  Unfortunately I am not going to make very nice comments.  I apologize, but I am completely displeased, and that's an understatement. Surprised? Not at all!  Cannabis has always been treated like a second-class citizen.  We spent $400,000 and put this initiative on the ballot to actually end up getting legalization, something that the voters voted for.  And now here we are again getting harassed by the City Manager's office where we pulled it out of and put it into the police department and now we're back in the city manager's office dealing with these same situations that we tried to pull away from when we moved it to the police department.  The Priority that I would like to have passed is that cannabis never become a priority again and just be treated like Google and Apple.  Thank you."

www.SV-CA.com

Will Cannabis Come To Retail Centers In San Jose After Another Delay?

photo by Adam F. Hutton

Kali-rai said "Do your job. And if you can't do your job, maybe there's another job you should be looking for."  Sean Kali-rai - President/Founder Silicon Valley Cannabis Alliance

San Jose Spotlight News Article:

WILL CANNABIS COME TO RETAIL CENTERS IN SAN JOSE AFTER ANOTHER DELAY?

https://sanjosespotlight.com/will-cannabis-come-to-retail-centers-in-san-jose-after-another-delay/?fbclid=IwAR1EhdipY02uvPhYSZgQmp8hWXLox1LaVLOfKrD-FyvzqR2Gg27Iux729n0

www.SV-CA.com

#Snapchat Is Where Your Kids Are At

www.SV-CA.com

Cannabis Wins in 2020

 

Maybe you feel like you won this past Presidential election, maybe you feel like you lost this Presidential election.  One winner for us all is the overwhelming increase in states and local jurisdictions that voted and passed 'YES4LegalCannabis'.  You all obviously listened to the hashtag that has been circling for over a year; #VoteCannabisCandidates.

News Article: CBS Morning News: "Marijuana Legalization Is So Popular It's Defying The Partisan Divide"

www.SV-CA.com

74 Percent

It appears the White House will have a new resident on January 20.  This will likely turn out to be a major victory for the legal cannabis industry.  There are already mutterings from the Biden/Harris ticket that banking reform will happen in 2021 so that legal cannabis businesses have a safe place to deposit their money, no more all cash transactions, access to lending capital and the ability to track the money.

Here are the facts:

• Five more states approved some form of legalized cannabis November 3, 2020
• Gallup released poll findings on Monday that shows nearly 7 in 10 Americans support the adult use of cannabis
• Since the early 1970's the acceptance of cannabis use has steadily increased as shown in the Gallup chart above.

Cannabis use in California was born out of compassionate use for those suffering the ravages of the fight among AIDS patients. Let me say this again, compassionate use.  If you walk into a legal cannabis dispensary today the customers inside will be tech workers and the elderly. People look for alternatives over prescription medication for pain management and sleep deprivation among the elderly population as well as arthritis and those suffering disease and illness such as cancer patients.

In the SF Bay Area landlords are raising their hands saying I want a cannabis tenant in my building more than ever because of the upcoming change in the US Presidency.  There is very little fear of federal consequence for the foreseeable future and with 74% of states allowing some form of legal cannabis policy, there is no turning back the tide. Alcohol has been with us for 87 years with the passage of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution and we all know the history lesson of Prohibition.  We recently learned under the Pandemic that if you outlaw haircuts and manicures, folks will secretly seek it out. Let's legalize, let's regulate and pay our way into economic recovery.

www.SV-CA.com

Cannabis Education Is Key

KCBS Radio 74.0 am/106.9 fm reports on Thursday new cannabis users are turning to cannabis for relief as per the research study conducted by BDS Analytics. Ordinary people, your neighbor, co-worker and friend are giving up alcohol and addictive opioids to cope with our current national and worldwide crisis. When visiting a legal retail cannabis dispensary they arrive armed with much curiosity and a lot of honest questions. They know their purchased product is clean and tested for pesticides, free of inorganic additives and bugs.

America has a long history with pills and self-medication.  Just look at all the TV ads today if you are in doubt. Remember Coca-Cola's history at the turn of the 20th century produced with a mild cocaine additive?  When you visit your doctor's office with a dull pain or bad cold, you ask your medical professional for a quick fix, a magic elixir, a pill. Our collective "gate-way" drug is aspirin. Your momma gave it to you when you were 5 years old with Johnson & Johnson's orange flavored chewables and it tasted good. We were indoctrinated very early into managing our own needs for sleep management for the elderly, pain management for the sick, the daily stresses of work, family, children and yes sometimes a desire for recreation. Under Covid-19 we learned if you ban it, they will come.  Haircuts were banned and folks were seeking out underground salon services.

Cannabis is a drug, no doubt about that.  We have 80 years of history with alcohol and the past angst is a mere fog in the rearview mirror. Alcohol and its uses are off everyone's radar, and you cannot have a brunch gathering today without a pitcher of Mimosa's at the ready.  Cannabis is legal, regulate, educate, and de-schedule. With proper education let adults be adults and move on.  2020 has shown us there are much larger problems that affect our future than a little plant.  And oh yes lest we forget, alcohol is derived from plant products.

1 minute KCBS news story, October 29 (click here)

www.SV-CA.com

Create Good Cannabis Policy

 

You have a massive budget shortfall, you have laid off staff in multiple departments, you have pulled back on city services and still there is a shortfall for years to come.

Do you attempt yet another tax of your residents who are out of work and already struggling, or do we get creative and think outside the box?

When creating your cannabis policy that is both an ongoing revenue source to your city and invite a new industry that will be a good business partner here is what you need to know when determining where and how many legal cannabis licenses to allow. It has been 40+ years since the birth of the last new and exciting industry. The Governor's office has also deemed the legal cannabis industry as essential and continued to operate as all other essential industries with proper pandemic protocols in place.

A cannabis retail business applicant has taken on the task of working in a highly regulated industry; more than tobacco, more than alcohol, more than casinos and more than drug stores.  A good cannabis business operator, has a large labor force, hires locally, always diverse, has challenges to banking and tax preparation, the strictest track and trace and inventory control of the product. There is nothing else like it in America today, and rightfully so.  A major hurdle is finding the appropriate property business location and the State already has guidelines set forth to provide for setbacks of sensitive receptors: schools, daycare centers, etc.

Now for the difficult piece of the puzzle, the actual property.  Once you have your "green-zones" determined the applicant must find a property that is:

1. distant from sensitive receptors

2. the property owner will allow a retail cannabis dispensary as a tenant

3. the owner does not have a loan on the property that would likely get "called" should they allow tenancy

4. no access to traditional banking to purchase their own store 

Here is an example in San Mateo County.  Half Moon Bay used to be the ornamental flower capital of the western world, now decimated due to offshoring.  They chose to allow cannabis cultivation only, not retail, to backfill their agricultural history and to resurrect the greenhouses that lie fallow. Makes perfect sense only on paper.  The cannabis plant is very susceptible to mold and foggy climate. It has been over three years and no cultivator has applied for a license while their city continues to suffer budgetarily and this was all pre-pandemic. Half Moon Bay still struggles.

You may wish to tread shallow water and allow medical-only retail licensing but this is a non-starter.  In Santa Clara County with a current population of 1,940,000 residents holds roughly only 200 active medical license cards. The passage of adult-use in 2016 no longer makes a distinction between medical or recreational cannabis.

Be thoughtful with your approach but please also consider the largest swath of green-zone districts allowed.  The four items listed above are challenging and restrictive on its own.  No legal cannabis retail operator wants to be near your children, your schools, or your daycare centers. These are not their customer. Children and not able to enter the front door as a security person will scan your current identification before entering, no one is allowed to loiter on the business premises, the front of the store must be shielded from the operations inside the business.  These are already written into Proposition 64 passed by your residents in 2016.

Thank you for your time, I am always available, Sean Kali-rai, to answer your cannabis policy municipal questions as I have been integral with writing the City of San Jose cannabis policy in December of 2015 as it stands today.  The City of San Jose allows 16 legal cannabis retail businesses to operate before Proposition 64 and has the strictest guidelines in the state of California. These 16 operators are well run, they participate in community events, they promote from within, they are good neighbors to those who reside around them and with no issues of crime.

CONTACT Sean

www.SV-CA.com

De-Schedule

 

The biggest brick wall in the cannabis industry is the federal government. Upon its de-scheduling out of category 1 drug the doors would open for legal cannabis businesses their necessary access to banking thereby a greater ability to track the money. Our legal cannabis businesses want this.  It makes their financial world so much more efficient to run. Simpler record keeping and managing expenses, bill pay and payroll, access to real capital. What better way to help a very lucrative tax revenue stream for cities and stamp out the illegal cannabis marketplace, reduce crime and eliminate the ingestion of untested product into our bodies.

40 of 57 California county residents voted YES for Proposition 64, Adult Use of marijuana Act in 2016. 34 states in the US currently have some form of legal cannabis policy on their books and another handful of states with measures on the 2020 election ballot this November all in just a few short years.

It has been 40+ years since we have seen the birth of a new and exciting industry that the people want and voted for. In fact there are more cannabis industry employees working today in the US than there are computer programmers.  BTW, medical only cannabis licenses is a non-starter.  In Santa Clara County with a population of over 1,900,000 residents has on its books only 200 active medical cards issued.

Do a little homework, this November 3, #VoteCannabisCandidates. You can begin with the following candidates who have already shown their dedication, support and loyalty to the legal cannabis industry in California:  Ro Khanna for Congress, Ash Kalra for Assembly, and Rob Bonta for Assembly.

www.SV-CA.com

Join SVCA

 

Nushin Rashidian, co-founder of Cannabis Wire reported on October 21 that money spent on federal lobbying for cannabis is down for the third quarter in a row. Cannabis policy and legislation is fought on the ground at the local/regional level, especially in California where Proposition 64 disastrously allows for local control. 

Do you know your local cannabis regulations?

Does anyone represent your business needs?

Are you frustrated with local/state legislation?

Need a network of professionals who understand you and your cannabis business?

Who can you turn to for help?

Join Silicon Valley Cannabis Alliance. We focus on greater Silicon Valley, Northern California and Central Coast.

www.SV-CA.com

Vote

 VOTE this November 3, and when you do:

#VoteCannabisCandidates

#MyVoteCounts

www.SV-CA.com

SVCA Endorsements for 2020 Election

 

Silicon Valley Cannabis Alliance endorses for November 3, 2020 election in the interest of 1. Safe Cannabis, 2. Legal Cannabis, 3. Vote Cannabis Candidates, 4. Responsible Adult Use the following candidates for their dedicated, open, honest commitment to the Adult Use of Cannabis in California:

California Congressional District 17 : Ro Khanna

Official Website Ro Khanna Congress member, District 17

California Assembly District 27 : Ash Kalra

Official Website Ash Kalra Assembly member, District 27

California Assembly District 18 : Rob Bonta

Official Website Rob Bonta Assembly member, District 18

www.SV-CA.com