Beverly Hills Files Lawsuit To Stop Local Pot Delivery

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Beverly Hills and 24 other California cities filed a lawsuit against the California Bureau of Cannabis Control to strike down a law allowing the home delivery of commercial cannabis statewide.

Beverly Hills, Riverside, Santa Cruz County, and 22 other cities filed a lawsuit in April 2019 asking the court to strike down the regulation permitting cannabis delivery to any physical address in the state. On Thursday, Fresno Superior Court Judge Rosemary McGuire questioned whether the communities have the right to bring legal action, because they don’t have local ordinances that conflict with the regulation.

Judge McGuire said that cities without evidence of local ordinances will be dismissed from the case.

Cities have fought unrestricted deliveries because they feel it undercuts local control and creates conditions favorable to the black market (delivery companies must be state-licensed.)

Cannabis companies have argued that since large parts of the state have banned commercial cannabis sales or not set up rules to allow sales, many Californians are living in “cannabis deserts.” Because cannabis is federally illegal, it cannot be sent through the U.S. Post Office.

Proposition 64, passed by voters in 2016, allowed local governments to ban commercial pot sales, but said that local governments could not prevent delivery of pot on public roads by licensed operators.

The next hearing is scheduled for mid-November.