Sacramento County officials may legalize the sale of cannabis in unincorporated areas

A Sacramento County Board of Supervisors vote on Tuesday afternoon could pave the way for the first legalized sales of cannabis in unincorporated areas of Sacramento County.

The supervisors were scheduled to vote on a plan to put on the ballot in November an authorization that would allow marijuana businesses to be taxed.

If the board of supervisors approves the ballot measure, and voters on November 8 agree to the taxes, the supervisors would be expected to hold a second vote to approve a regulatory framework to allow the legal sale of cannabis.

The city of Sacramento has allowed legalized cannabis sales since the sale of recreational marijuana became legal on a statewide basis in 2018.

But the board of supervisors didn’t go along with allowing sales in unincorporated parts of the county after votes statewide approved the sale of recreational marijuana.

The ordinance to be voted on by the supervisors estimates that the county would reap between $5.8 million and $8.8 million in taxes a year from legalized cannabis sales.

However, there is already controversy over where the tax money would go.

The supervisors are proposing to put the money in the county’s general fund. A coalition of youth advocacy and civil rights organizations wants the money to be directed to efforts to steer minors away from smoking marijuana.

Some of those organizations are expected to testify at the Tuesday afternoon board of supervisors meeting.

The same groups have been pressuring Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and other city council members to allocate some of the more than $20 million the city collects from taxes on cannabis businesses to youth education programs and other efforts discouraging the smoking of marijuana.

The effort appears to be working.

A spokesman for Steinberg said Tuesday that the mayor will propose at next Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the council approve a ballot measure for November 2023 that would direct 40% of the marijuana tax money to the youth programs.

This story was originally published July 12, 2022 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Sacramento County officials may legalize the sale of cannabis in unincorporated areas."