OCEANSIDE OKS MEDICAL CANNABIS DISPENSARY

Medleaf Deliveries to open in industrial park after City Council approves permit

OCEANSIDE

Oceanside approved a permit this week that allows the city’s first medical, delivery-only cannabis dispensary to open in an industrial park near the municipal airport.

The Medleaf Delivery business will occupy a 4,800square-foot building formerly used for 25 years by a general contractor on San Luis Rey Road. The building will be closed to the public and will have no exterior signs or advertising, and its products will be delivered in unmarked vehicles.

“We have fulfilled all the prerequisites,” said Karen Hannawi, who owns the business with her husband, George. “We are good to go on the city level as well as the state level.”

Oceanside adopted an ordinance on April 11, 2018, allowing some commercial medical cannabis businesses such as cultivation and manufacturing but not retail sales. Then on Sept. 5, 2018, the city amended its ordinance to allow no more than two local licenses and conditional-use permits for delivery-only retailers.

Medleaf’s city license was issued in May 2019 by the city manager after the applicant submitted a business plan and met other requirements.

Director of Operations Gracie Morgan said Thursday that after some interior work on the building, the goal is to begin operations in the first week of July with a team of six people and within three months build to 10 employees.

Deliveries will be made throughout North County as far south as Encinitas and as far east as San Marcos, said

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Morgan, a 10-year Oceanside resident. The company will not deliver to Escondido because of state regulations, and probably not to Vista, which has its own legal cannabis distributors.

“Our main focus for Medleaf is the seniors, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic under way,” she said. Employees are trained to follow state and local guidelines to prevent the spread of the disease.

Approval of the Medleaf permit is “a milestone” for Oceanside, Morgan said, who added the business was made possible by the work of many local activists and patients who pushed for legalization.

The City Council voted 4-1 Wednesday to issue the conditional use permit. Councilmayor man Jack Feller, who has opposed legalized cannabis from the beginning, voted no.

“I feel like we are going down a bad road,” said Feller, who has said many times that reducing restrictions on marijuana makes the substance more likely to end up in the hands of children and others who should not be using it.

Councilwoman Esther Sanchez voted for approval, though previously she has opposed legalization and has often spoken of the hazards cannabis poses to young people. She said Wednesday that “a high bar” has been set for the Medleaf business.

“An overwhelming amount of work” went into the company’s application, said Councilman Christopher Rodriguez, who said the company has been thoroughly vetted and did an outstanding job in its presentation.

Peter Weiss said much of the credit for getting cannabis businesses under way goes to former City Council members Jerry Kerry and Chuck Lowery, who worked extensively with the community to prepare the city ordinance.

The next cannabis business to open in Oceanside could be Left Coast Extracts, a manufacturing facility that primarily makes vaping products, which is tentatively scheduled for a Planning Commission hearing on May 18.

Vista is the only other North County city to legalize cannabis sales so far.

Voters there in 2018 passed Measure Z, a local ballot initiative that allows up to 11 licensed medical marijuana shops to open in the city. Four dispensaries had opened by the end of 2019, with several more in the pipeline, and as of March six

were eligible to operate, according to the city website.

Most other cities in San Diego County have passed ordinances to prohibit cannabis sales that supersede the state laws allowing it.

The San Diego City Council voted 6-3 in 2017 to legalize cultivation, testing, the manufacture of products such as edibles, and retail sales in storefront dispensaries for recreational and medical marijuana.

Chula Vista legalized the sale of adult-use cannabis in March 2018 and began processing applications last year. So far, no legal dispensaries have opened in the city.

The only other cities in the county that allow dispensaries are La Mesa and Lemon Grove. San Diego County also has licensed several dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com