OAKDALE — Due to the high number of inquiries from people interested in opening marijuana businesses in Oakdale, the city is holding a second mandatory meeting for those who intend to submit proposals for the Cannabis Pilot Program.

Oakdale is accepting proposals for all cannabis businesses allowed under The Adult Use of Marijuana Act passed by voters in November — medical or recreational marijuana — from testing and distribution to cultivation and dispensaries.

All applicants were required to attend a “pre-submittal” meeting that was held last month but City Manager Bryan Whitemyer said he continued to get inquires from prospective business owners after that meeting so he will hold a second meeting Wednesday.

“We have had at least 10 additional contacts expressing interest after the May 30 meeting,” Whitemyer said.

[related_articles location=”left” show_article_date=”false” article_type=”automatic-primary-section” curated_ids=””]About 100 people attended the first meeting, many of them expressing intent to submit proposals but none had been turned in as of Friday.

“So far the interest has been for dispensaries, cultivation, manufacturing and I received one contact regarding a testing facility,” Whitemyer said.

Wednesday’s meeting will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Gene Bianchi Community Center at 110 South Second Ave. in Oakdale.

— Modesto Bee

MORRO BAY — Morro Bay residents wanting to learn more about marijuana-related issues in their city — including whether it should allow dispensaries and other businesses — are encouraged to attend a community forum next week.

The event begins at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Morro Bay Veterans Hall at 209 Surf St.

Participants will be able to ask the City Council and city staff about alternatives to the city’s current marijuana regulations, including personal use, cultivation of indoor and outdoor marijuana plants, commercial operations, and taxation and fees.

In addition, the city will take residents’ input on determining whether to regulate or ban local commercial marijuana operations, or to ban or regulate mobile dispensaries, which the city plans to decide by the end of the year.

— San Luis Obispo Tribune

CARSON CITY, Nev. — A judge in Nevada is trying to decide whether the state’s first sales of recreational marijuana should begin as scheduled July 1 despite complaints from alcohol distributors.

FILE- In this March 24, 2017 file photo, Nevada state Sen. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, smells a sample of marijuana as Christopher Price, a ”budtender” at the Blum medical marijuana dispensary, describes the operation during a brief tour a the store in Reno, Nev. A judge in Nevada is trying to decide whether the state’s first sales of recreational marijuana should begin as scheduled July 1 despite complaints from alcohol distributors. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner, File)

Lawyers for the liquor distributors and the Nevada Department of Taxation are expected to go before Judge James Wilson in Carson City on Tuesday to argue the case.

Wilson granted a temporary restraining order May 30 blocking licensing of pot distributors under the ballot measure voters approved in November.

The liquor distributors argue the law dictates they get the first shot at the equivalent licenses for recreational marijuana.

The state says it has the authority to license medical marijuana dispensaries to play that role on a temporary basis from July 1 through Dec. 31.

The Nevada Cannabis Coalition says any delay could cost the state millions of dollars a month in tax revenue targeted for schools.

— Associated Press

BALTIMORE — The state’s top court ruled Friday that the medical cannabis commission can issue final licenses to companies to grow the drug even as legal challenges to the program’s rollout continue.

The Court of Appeals stopped a case in Baltimore Circuit Court last week in which a company that failed to win a lucrative license to grow medical cannabis argues the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission ignored a state law that requires applicants’ racial diversity be considered when awarding preliminary licenses.

Ownership of the company that filed the lawsuit, Alternative Medicine Maryland, is 84 percent African-American.

Maryland’s high court halted the case after companies with preliminary licenses to grow medical marijuana appealed Circuit Judge Barry Williams’ denial of their request to testify in the case. On Friday, the Court of Appeals scheduled oral arguments on that appeal for July 27.

Cannabis commission officials said they believed the panel was able to legally issue licenses before Friday’s ruling, but chose not to because they were not clear on the court’s intent when it stopped the Circuit Court case last week. Williams had temporarily halted the issuance of final licenses, but his order expired Sunday.

Paul Davies, chairman of the commission, and Patrick Jameson, its director, declined to comment further while staff and lawyers reviewed the high court’s ruling.

The growers seeking to intervene, organized as the Maryland Wholesale Medical Cannabis Trade Association, were pleased by the court’s order.

“We are gratified by the Court’s swift disposition of the restraining order, thus allowing this critically-important public health program to proceed,” said Alan Rifkin, the group’s attorney.

— Associated Press

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