Recreational marijuana delivery will soon be legal in Paso Robles — without a puff of opposition from council members or the public. At Tuesday’s meeting, the Paso Robles City Council voted unanimously to overturn a policy that only allowed three specific marijuana services to deliver medical-use within city limits. TOP VIDEOS Now, those established marijuana services will not only be able to deliver recreational cannabis too, but the city also removed its cap on marijuana businesses, allowing more to eventually apply for a license in Paso Robles as well.
City associate planner Katie Banister told the council that night that the new ordinance would not change the city’s position on marijuana storefronts, which are currently not allowed. It would only allow local, registered businesses to deliver recreational marijuana in addition to medical-use. An image of a marijuana leaf in the vegetative room at a cannabis cultivator in Fairbanks, Alaska. Eric Engman “The proposed amendments would eliminate the proposed numerical cap on the number of non-storefront retailers,” Banister said. “These are offices, these are businesses that can operate throughout California.” She added: “We do not anticipate a flood of new applications, and they do create an artificial market for those permits.” An initial application is estimated to cost $5,500, and renewals would be $4,600 annually.
The ordinance also required businesses to acquire annual cannabis regulatory permits in addition to a conditional use permit and a business license, Banister said, with the regulatory permit including operational standards like disclosure of financial interests, background checks and security plans for better oversight and clarity. To oversee these audits, the city would hire a third party every three years, as not to overwhelm city staff with an entirely new role, Banister said. Paso has heated history with cannabis The issue of adult-use, or recreational, delivery in Paso Robles dates back to October 2022, when the City Council approved an ordinance that allowed a maximum of three registered medical marijuana services at the time to also deliver for non-medical, adult use.
But that temporary policy was only in effect for a year, until November 2023. Since then, only deliveries from outside the city’s jurisdiction are allowed thanks to a law that legalized recreational delivery statewide, while the three already established businesses could still deliver medical-use locally. But after the city’s three licensed marijuana services had either closed or expressed ongoing financial hardship earlier this year, the City Council asked staff revisit its policy, requesting a new ordinance to allow existing medical cannabis delivery businesses to deliver adult-use cannabis and create a community outreach plan to potentially authorize cannabis retail storefronts within the city.
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