Sonoma City Council to revisit dispensary licensing, but…

Sonoma City Council to revisit dispensary licensing, but…

This latest turn of events in Sonoma’s cannabis dispensary saga is perplexing. Yes, the city council managed to reinstate the process to grant Sparc a dispensary permit. However, there was an additional item on the table – one that would allow a permit for a second walk-in dispensary. Our position is that no single business should be allowed to monopolize the market space. Competition is a healthy part of any industry. It results in better prices, more product choices, higher quality products and innovative services. Consumers deserve no less. Unfortunately, the council’s most vocal champion for a dispensary now appears to support a local monopoly.

This, from the latest Sonoma Index-Tribune article:

“Mayor Logan Harvey described it as ‘unfortunate’ that (Vice Mayor) Hundley was now withdrawing her support for a second dispensary. ‘It’s very interesting this sudden change when it’s something that you supported before,’ said Harvey. ‘Now there’s an opportunity to do (a second dispensary), but now you won’t do it, now you don’t support it any longer It’s interesting. ‘Harvey continued to describe Hundley’s reversal on a second dispensary as ‘interesting,’ emphasizing the word twice more in his comments.”

Watch this space…

Sonoma City Council Must Revive the Dispensary Process

Sonoma City Council Must Revive the Dispensary Process

Now that Measure Y has failed, it becomes even more vital that the Sonoma City Council find a way to quickly renew the currently stalled process for a local dispensary. For those of you who are not up to date on how we arrived at this impasse, take a look at the Sonoma Index-Tribune article, published on October 8, 2020′

Less than half an hour into its Oct. 5 meeting, the city council cast doubt on its own selection process and halted forward progress on its effort to license a cannabis dispensary before the Nov. 3 vote on Measure Y. That signature-driven petition circulated in 2018 to allow multiple cannabis dispensaries in Sonoma with no city council oversight…

It is now incumbent on the city council to reinstate the process in a way that doesn’t require it to start from square one.

An additional component to this issue should be to permit at least one additional walk-in dispensary. It’s not right for one company to monopolize the market space. Competition is good, it results in more diversity and higher quality of products. This only seems fair.