California’s Recent “Cannabis Delivery” Ruling Poses Problems for Cannabis Delivery Services

The cannabis industry’s continued growth has created a number of peripheral business opportunities. One of those being cannabis delivery services.

Scores of delivery businesses have been launched in service of California's steadily rising cannabis trade. A couple dozen businesses, officially licensed by the state, currently serve most of California’s major metro areas. And many operators have an eye on further expansion to additional markets.

Legal Challenges to Cannabis Delivery

But this niche trade has faced countless regulatory roadblocks. And continues to encounter resistance from many of California’s local municipal governments.

A lawsuit filed by a coalition of 25 local California municipal governments in April of last year is a prime example of ongoing bureaucratic efforts that put this business model in peril.

The action alleged that the licenses the state granted to cannabis home delivery services in fact violate laws enacted in their jurisdictions. And if the suit had gone in their favor, local communities beyond the 25 involved in the suit could make similar claims and shutdown area cannabis delivery services.

In a judgment handed down last week, however, the court ruled the state has the right, under Proposition 64 (which legalized recreational cannabis), to issue licenses to cannabis delivery companies, regardless of local ordinances.

At the same time, the ruling also affirmed local municipalities have the right to ban cannabis delivery services in their communities. But it’s up to these local governments to enforce such bans. And given California’s decriminalization of cannabis, “enforcement” is limited to fines and cease and desist actions.

Access to Legal Cannabis is at the Heart of the Issue

The greater issue at hand here is access to legal cannabis. 321 of California’s 582 cities and 24 of the state’s 58 counties have banned some or all commercial cannabis activities.

This leaves folks in these locales without ready access to legally sanction cannabis retailers. And many contend this dearth of legal cannabis is fostering California’s still thriving cannabis black market.

Delivery services, however, circumvent such local bans, as cannabis users can have products delivered to their front door.

But this latest ruling further empowers local governments to impede the legal cannabis industry. Which many cannabis activists, business operators, and users believe will continue to drive the state’s black-market cannabis trade.