The Long Beach City Council moved forward Tuesday to allow cannabis special events within the city, with the hopes to increase revenue and further stamp Long Beach as a tourist destination. 

This will allow certain events such as music festivals and fairs to have cannabis retail vendors onsite selling their product, and will permit people to smoke or consume cannabis products at these events. 

Councilmember Cindy Allen brought the item forward, after council had discussed it multiple times over the past two years. She highlighted the need to educate people about cannabis and destigmatize these events before the city begins permitting them. 

“As we grow our economic base through major projects like the amphitheater project, it’s important to stay creative in how we maintain long beach as a tourist destination, and hosting cannabis special events would do exactly that, creating more opportunities for tourism while uplifting local cannabis businesses while fostering a more inclusive, regulated marketplace,” Allen said. 

The City Attorney will draft an ordinance to authorize these events, after City staff meets with at least six local labor groups about potential impacts. The ordinance must include a mandated equity plan for each approved event, though the council was unclear what those mandates will be, since Long Beach has no equity-owned retail cannabis shops. 

Long Beach spoke to cities that have already permitted this type of event, including San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento. Oakland and Sacramento have had cannabis special events ordinances in place since 2018, and in recent years have opted to remove some of the limits on the number of events the city can host per year to create more opportunities for their retailers. San Francisco’s ordinance has been in place since 2019.

City staff said from these discussions, they do not anticipate problems pertaining to resident’s safety and well-being. 

The city will have to abide by certain state regulations around these events, such as: 

• Only people 21 and older can attend. 
• Cannabis goods may only be sold by a licensed retailer. Long Beach will add an additional requirement that retailers must have a city-approved license. 
• Smoking of cannabis cannot take place within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare center or youth center while children are present. 

Visitors at special cannabis events will be subject to daily limits of: 

• 28.5 grams of non-concentrated cannabis
• 8 grams of concentrated cannabis
• 12 immature cannabis plants

Councilmember Kristina Duggan said she would prefer to wait longer to learn from the aforementioned cities that allow special cannabis events. 

“I think I’m in the minority here, but I would prefer that the city of Long Beach not join Oakland, San Francisco and Sacramento in leading the state on this topic,” Duggan said. “Let’s let Los Angeles do it before we do it, that’s my opinion.”

Duggan attempted to add an amendment to the item that any event allowing the sale and consumption of cannabis within 500 feet of homes or schools require city council approval, but Allen denied the motion, insisting that the existing State requirements are sufficient. Mayor Rex Richardson chimed in, adding that there are already “safeguards to ensure that if events are being hosted in Long Beach, it’s not going to bring any harm to our residents, and it’s not going to threaten any public safety.”

Long Beach City Council received letters of support from multiple members of the Long Beach Cannabis Association, the interim president of Long Beach Pride, the chief operating officer of cultural event organizer Medium Rare, 

Letters in opposition to the item were sent in from a board member of the American Heart Association, members of Coalition for a Smoke Free Long Beach and the director of Getting it Right From the Start, a public health and equity group. 

City staff will return to council with a drafted ordinance after meeting with the appropriate labor groups that will be impacted.