BALLOT TITLE AND SUMMARY

Initiative Measure to be Submitted Directly to the Voters

The county counsel has prepared the following title and summary of the chief purpose and points of the proposed measure:

COUNTY CODE AMENDMENT ESTABLISHING A PROCEDURE FOR THE REGISTRATION, OPERATION, TAXATION AND REGULATION OF MEDICAL CANNABIS DISPENSARIES WITHIN THE UNINCORPORATED AREA OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY

The chief purpose of this initiative measure (“Measure”), identified as the “The Patients Access to Regulated Medical Cannabis Act of 2012,” is to establish a procedure for the registration, operation, taxation and regulation of medical cannabis dispensaries within the unincorporated area of Sacramento County.

To achieve this purpose, the Measure, if adopted, would add a new Chapter 4.70 to the Sacramento County Code to establish an administrative process for the mandatory registration of a minimum of one medical cannabis dispensary per 25,000 residents within the unincorporated area of Sacramento County.  This minimum number of authorized dispensaries would be allocated equally between the unincorporated area population within the five supervisorial districts in Sacramento County.  To the extent that the number of applications for registration exceeds the number of authorized locations, the Measure provides for the County Tax and License Collector to exercise his/her discretion to determine which applicants would best promote the public interest.  In making this determination, the Measure would require the County Tax and License Collector to consider such factors as the economics of medical cannabis dispensaries; the benefits, if any, of competition; the socio-economic composition of the population served; the geographic population distribution; the medical cannabis dispensary service capacity possessed by the applicants; and the capital investment required to provide medical cannabis dispensary services.

Registered dispensaries would be limited to locations within a commercial or industrial zone and would be prohibited within 1000 feet of a school, a park containing a playground or any youth-oriented facility.  Applicants for registration would be limited to residents of Sacramento County.  The measure also includes a variety of other regulatory criteria that an applicant for a dispensary registration would be required to satisfy.  Registered dispensaries would be required to pay to the County a supplemental sales and use tax at a maximum rate of 4% of its gross receipts.

This measure provides for the dispensary registration procedures to be administered by the County Tax and License Collector and enforced by the County Department of Environmental Management.  The County is authorized to establish a registration application fee in an amount sufficient to reimburse the County for its cost of administering and enforcing the medical cannabis dispensary law established by proposed Chapter 4.70.  Violations of proposed Chapter 4.70 would constitute a public nuisance that would be subject to abatement through a civil action brought by the County Counsel.  Violations would also be subject to civil penalties of not less than $250 or more than $25,000 for each day of violation.