San Jose approves cultivation, deliveries for MMJ collectives

The city council in San Jose, California, gave preliminary approval Tuesday to allow the city’s 16 registered medical marijuana collectives to run two cultivation sites and make deliveries to patients or caregivers.

The proposed rules, which require final approval next week, would allow deliveries between 8 a.m. and midnight, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Delivery drivers would have to be employed by the collectives and undergo a background check, while their vehicles would be inspected by San Jose police, according to KTVU.com.

The new rules likely won’t take effect until early 2017, a spokesman for the city manager’s office told Marijuana Business Daily. Officials are hopeful they will help eliminate illegal MMJ delivery services that have sprung up in San Jose. Police officials say more than 30 illegal delivery services currently operate in the city, and new ones are starting every day.

Under the proposed rules, approved 10-1 by the city council, collectives could cultivate medical cannabis at an off-site location in San Jose or a neighboring county. They could also grow MMJ at a second location in any county in California that allows cultivation.

San Jose is the only city in Santa Clara County that allows medical marijuana. The city once had more than 100 dispensaries, but many of them operated illegally.