City of Sacramento
City Council - 2PM Report
915 I Street Sacramento, CA 95814
www.cityofsacramento.org
File ID: 2024-01733 10/22/2024 Discussion Item 1.
Workshop: Cannabis Consumption Statewide Public Health Trends File ID: 2024-01733
Location: Citywide
Recommendation: Receive and file an oral presentation from Amanda Reiman, PhD MSW, the Chief Knowledge Officer for New Frontier Data regarding cannabis consumption statewide public health trends.
Contact: Leyne Milstein, Assistant City Manager, [email protected], (916) 808-8491; Peter Coletto, Director of Finance, [email protected], (916) 808-5416; Office of the City Manager; Fiona Mattson, Program Specialist, (916) 808-8925, [email protected]; Office of Cannabis Management, Office of the City Manager Presenter:
Fiona Mattson, Program Specialist, (916) 808-8925, [email protected]; Office of Cannabis Management, Office of the City Manager
Amanda Reiman, PhD MSW, Chief Knowledge Officer for New Frontier Data Attachments:
1-Description/Analysis
Description/Analysis
Issue Detail: This item is intended to provide information on cannabis consumption statewide public health trends as requested by the Law and Legislation Committee (Committee) at its September 17, 2024, meeting.
Policy Considerations: The Committee has forwarded consideration of a pilot program related to social consumption to the Council for consideration following this workshop. State law allows the City to regulate and permit social consumption at storefront dispensaries. Permitting of social consumption at storefront dispensaries would provide places for people to consume cannabis in a way that does not impact the non-cannabis consuming public, away from those who are under 21. A pilot social consumption program will enable the City to evaluate the impacts of social consumption, including impacts on the local cannabis industry and surrounding businesses, public safety, and
File ID: 2024-01733 10/22/2024 Discussion Item 1.
transportation.
Economic Impacts: Not applicable.
Environmental Considerations: Not applicable.
Sustainability: Not applicable.
Commission/Committee Action: On September 17, 2024, the Law and Legislation Committee voted to forward the pilot program concept for social consumption to Council for consideration and requested a workshop soliciting the expertise of public health experts regarding cannabis consumption statewide public health trends.
Rationale for Recommendation: This item provides information as requested by the Law and Legislation Committee.
Financial Considerations: Not applicable.
Local Business Enterprise (LBE): Not applicable.
Background: Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) staff have conducted extensive outreach regarding cannabis consumption. A meeting was held on consumption lounges in December 2021, where OCM presented information on licensing limitations under state law, sought to clarify misconceptions of what consumption lounges could include, and received input on how careholders envisioned onsite consumption in Sacramento.
On August 30, 2022, the Committee hosted a workshop with a panel of regulators from West Hollywood, Palm Springs, and San Francsico to discuss consumption lounges in their jurisdictions and to answer questions around community concerns, revenues and the cost of regulatory oversight, enforcement challenges, and lessons learned.
OCM hosted two community engagement meetings on cannabis consumption lounges, a virtual meeting on April 12, 2023, and an in-person meeting on April 25, 2023. OCM also made a presentation on consumption lounges and events at the quarterly meeting of the City’s Property and Improvement Districts (PBIDs) on April 19, 2023.
After these meetings, OCM conducted an online survey with the same questions and options presented at the April 25, 2023, in-person meeting for cannabis careholders, which included permitted businesses, current and potential applicants, PBIDS, neighborhood associations, and any individual who had previously attended a careholder meeting or signed up for alerts for cannabis news. The survey was sent to approximately 3,000 careholders. OCM received 481 responses. While
File ID: 2024-01733 10/22/2024 Discussion Item 1.
responses varied on details, respondents were virtually unanimous in their support of expanding public cannabis consumption to either dedicated consumption lounges and/or to temporary events outside of Cal Expo.
Between October 2022 and July 2023, OCM engaged in fact-finding by meeting with regulators and visited consumption lounges in San Francisco, Oakland, Palm Springs, West Hollywood, and Coachella. OCM also spoke with the facilities’ owners or managers to find out about the challenges and benefits in operating a consumption lounge from the businesses’ perspective.
On September 19, 2023, staff presented the information from the community and PBID meetings, the survey results, and fact-finding to the Committee. After public comment and a robust Committee discussion, the Committee directed staff to first bring back a framework for a consumption lounge pilot, and secondarily to bring forward a framework for cannabis events outside of Cal Expo.
On May 21, 2024, staff presented a social consumption permitting framework which would create two permit add-on types for storefront dispensary permits in order to allow consumption lounges:
· Type 1 (Ingestible Products Only)
· Type 2 (Inhalable and Ingestible Products)
By Committee direction, Type 2 permitted facilities would need to have negative pressure smoking rooms designed to limit to the extent possible leakage of smoke and particulate matter into the non- smoking room(s) and have HVAC systems separated from the rest of the facility that do not recirculate and have a high rate of air exchange. On May 21, 2024, the Committee also directed that the Type 2 permit type be open to all storefront permittees.
On September 17, 2024, staff presented to the Committee a cannabis consumption permitting framework that would be available to all storefront dispensaries. The Committee provided direction that since the City of Sacramento is primarily a land-use agency the Committee requested a Council workshop soliciting the expertise of public health experts regarding cannabis consumption statewide public health trends.