As part of a crackdown on illegal marijuana dispensaries, San Diego police conducted a raid on Aug. 2 and arrested 12 employees for illegally selling and distributing marijuana.
They were targeting an unauthorized delivery service, and they found cocaine on site. But the bust brought up the long-simmering question about whether any delivery services are legal in San Diego.
Because there are a lot of them. Hundreds of marijuana delivery services are operating in San Diego. The Aug. 2 raid was a sign that was about to change.
In February, the San Diego City Council decided it would only allow permitted marijuana dispensaries to operate delivery services.
If that’s now being enforced, it means hundreds of unlicensed delivery services currently operating – a listing of many can be found on sites like Weedmaps – will be in the crosshairs of police and may end up consolidating.
Starting in 2018, the commercial sale of marijuana will be allowed across the state as part of Prop. 64, which was passed by voters last November. Local lawmakers are busy creating regulations to accommodate the measure, or to outright ban marijuana sales.
Delivery is obviously popular but the city’s vague enforcement policies have until now allowed a major proliferation of dispensaries to occur.
“There are between 200 and 300 delivery services operating in San Diego. We would estimate about 10 percent of those or maybe 20 percent at the high end are doing everything that they need to do,” said Elizabeth Wilhelm, CEO of the San Diego Cannabis Delivery Alliance.
Businesses that have been approved by the city and have a physical location are the only ones allowed to deliver pot right to a customer’s doorstep.
At the state level, Senate Bill 94 – which includes clear rules for independent delivery services – was signed into law in June by Gov. Jerry Brown. Wilhelm hopes the city will start implementing some of those same regulations.
She said she supports the city’s effort to crack down on the black market of delivery services.
“Our organization is all about taxation and regulation, we believe in that,” she said. “What we’re saying is, ‘Because you’re black market now, you have a choice: Do things right or go away.”
The San Diego City Council is set to discuss further regulation on Sept. 11. For now, we’ve come up with a list of all the legal dispensaries in San Diego and noted which ones currently deliver.
If the only legal delivery services are the ones attached to permitted dispensaries, then we were only able to confirm that there are eight legal delivery services. That’s far fewer than the 30 to 60 that Wilhelm estimated had done everything needed to comply.
Here is a map and listing of dispensaries in the city of San Diego we were able to confirm are permitted, operating and offer delivery.
A Green Alternative
2335 Roll Dr.
Apothekare
5125 Convoy St.
Harbor MMCC
2405 Harbor Dr.
Mankind Cooperative
7128 Miramar Rd.
(Mankind‘s sister company, Green Nectar, has a business tax certificate for packaging and processing cannabis, which means it can deliver. We were unable to get a definitive answer as to how the two businesses are associated.)
Point Loma Patients CC
3452 Hancock St.
Southwestern Patient Group
658 E. San Ysidro Blvd.
Torrey Holistics
10671 Roselle St.
*Delivery operated through the EAZE mobile app
Urbn Leaf
1028 Buenos Ave.
3385 Sunrise St. (Coming Soon)