Every seat was taken in Williams City Hall on April 5 but citizens were no closer to favoring cannabis retail shops in town than they were when voters legalized weed in 2016.
About half the people who attended the City Council’s cannabis workshop showed strong support for the city allowing pot shops and local delivery services to operate. A near equal amount opposed.
“I know that a lot of people don’t like cannabis, don’t use cannabis, or think it’s bad for you,” said City Administrator Frank Kennedy. “But California voters have voted and said it should be legal recreationally throughout the state. So, that issue has been decided.”
The council first introduced the ordinance on March 15 that would allow for cannabis retail and delivery services to operate within city limits. The City Council intends to take the matter up again on April 19.
If passed, city officials estimate Williams would make about $500,000 to $1.5 million annually in new tax revenue by having a retail shop or two. The money would come from charging the stores 5% of their gross proceeds, in addition to the 1.5% the city would receive from sales taxes.
The closest delivery services available to Williams residents are located in Colusa, with the sales taxes benefiting that jurisdiction, officials said.
The ordinance, which passed on a 3-2 vote last month, is likely to make it through to final approval next month, given the new configuration of City Council in recent years.
Only two members remain on the City Council who promised its citizens that retail establishments would not be entertained as a source of revenue for the city.
“We told people for years and years that we are not going to have (retail) cannabis in Williams,” said Councilman Roberto Medoza, who said tax revenue should not be the deciding factor.
Other officials, however, said marijuana should not be treated any differently than alcohol and cigarettes, both of which are considered harmful but legal in California.
Moreover, officials said the legal industry is tightly regulated to be free of harmful pesticides and is not laced with other substances, such as fentanyl, which is found largely in cannabis sold on the black market.
“From the time that cannabis is planted to when it is sold, it is tracked all along the way,” Kennedy said.
If the ordinance passes, Williams will later set the permit fee, and the total number of businesses that would be allowed to operate, and modify the zoning code to establish the appropriate location for where cannabis retailers can operate.
Williams residents remain divided on the issue, largely because the cannabis industry has taken from the tobacco industry’s playbook to make their products more addictive. In a study of cannabis samples over time, the average THC concentration in products from dispensaries almost doubled, from 9% in 2008 to 17% in 2017 to a current average of 22-45%, with some products manufactured with 95 percent THC, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This stuff is poisonous,” said Lonnie Moore. “It’s poisonous to our youth, it’s poisonous to the general population…It looks like a good option for funding for this city. We desperately need a good option for funding for this city, but this is a poor choice. I don’t agree with this. I think there is another way we can raise funds.”
Others were concerned that cannabis shops would attract panhandlers, would impact property values, increase crime, and that exposure to marijuana storefronts and advertising would negatively influence adolescents’ intentions to use drugs.
Marela Cortez, a local CBD retailer and cannabis practitioner, disagreed that marijuana is poisonous and claimed the product is not as dangerous as alcohol, and that the legal cannabis industry would provide much needed revenue to the city to repair roads and infrastructure.
“No other company or business is going to bring this much money to our city,” Cortez said.
Some residents were neither for nor against cannabis, but felt the city should explore other potential sources of revenue, which officials said they have been doing.
Possibly four new businesses are in the works, including another gas station, which is the city’s largest source of sales tax revenue, Kennedy said.
Mayor Don Parsons also reminded residents that the city asked voters in 2020 and again in 2022 to increase sales taxes by a half-cent, but both measures failed.
“That would have generated a lot of revenue, and it would not have been on the backs of residents but other people who traveled up and down I-5, or at least a majority of it,” Parsons said.
While Williams officials acknowledged the legal cannabis industry has not eliminated the black market, as pitched to voters 2016, the legal market does provide cannabis users access to products free of deadly additives, which has become a growing problem throughout the country.
Only one representative from the legal cannabis industry attended last week’s workshop, and addressed that concern.
“Cannabis is already in your community,” said Angelica Sanchez, of Perfect Union, which operates 10 stores in California, the nearest in Marysville. “It’s illegal. It’s in the black market and it’s untested. If you open up to a dispensary here, you would get regulated, tested, and taxed cannabis.”
Sanchez said the average customer who purchases marijuana from Perfect Union is around 50 years old and uses cannabis for various quality of life issues, including pain management for cancer or arthritis, sleep, and stress relief.
“They come there because it is a safe place; it is safe, it is secure, and they can purchase it,” Sanchez said. “It has dosing. It has ingredients. It can be literally tracked from seed level. We are incredibly regulated. There is nothing illicit happening in a regulated market.
The cannabis that is now in your community is laced with things like fentanyl. It has pesticides in it, arsenic, and all kinds of things that are getting those people sick. Nothing is going to stop that by doing this, but (people) do deserve access to safe cannabis.”
That reason was not sufficient for those who oppose the use of marijuana, legal or otherwise.
“I still want to stand for what I believe in and for the future…,” said Susan Dunlap. “Everybody says it’s OK and it’s about the money. In my perspective, it’s about the life; the life of the adults; the life of the children that will be affected by the adults who may be partaking. I do see it as a poison. I don’t think the brain functions are enhanced for brightness and aptitude and quick responses. I do agree there are good purposes for medicinal cannabis. But we are talking about recreation, not medicine.”
The City Council will have the second reading of the ordinance at its regular meeting at 6 PM on April 19.
If passed, the ordinance would then go into effect in 30 days. ■