Cannabis Permitting & Licensing in California

Local Cannabis Permit

CA Cannabis License

Opening a cannabis business in California can be a complex and time-consuming process. The first step is to obtain a local permit, but unfortunately not every city and county in California allows commercial cannabis activities. This has created a bottleneck in the industry and limits the number of places available to open a business.

To start, you need to find out whether your local jurisdiction allows for cannabis activity. Every city and county in California can create their own ordinance related to commercial cannabis activities, meaning that each jurisdiction may have different rules and regulations. Once you've determined that your jurisdiction allows for cannabis activity, you'll need to obtain a local permit.

Many jurisdictions within California use a conditional-use permit process to entitle the property that you want to operate out of. This entitlement process allows the property to be used for commercial cannabis activities. Some cities and counties allow a much simpler process of getting an administrative permit which does not require as much red tape as a conditional-use permit does.

The permit application process is typically slow and can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months to complete. This is because local governments are usually understaffed and want to see detailed plans and specifications for your business before granting you a permit. You may also need to hire other professionals such as architects, engineers, and fire safety contractors to help with the application process.

We can assist you in getting a conditional-use or administrative permit compliantly and help you navigate the complex permit application process. To get started, fill out our questionnaire and we'll contact you within 48 to 72 hours to discuss your project.

After you have obtained a local cannabis permit or some kind of local authorization, you can now apply for a state license. The state licensing process is typically easier to do than the local permitting process. Unfortunately it still takes sometime to obtain a license as it is a slow process similar to the local one. However it is usually faster than obtaining a local permit taking anywhere from 4 to 6 months on average.

If you hire us we will help you throughout the entire State Licensing process. We have obtained dozens of state licenses for our various clients. We are extremely familiar with the process and know exactly what you'll need in order to obtain your State Licensing. We have come to find that many other consulting groups are having their customers spend a lot of money with architects to create the property and premises diagrams that are needed for the state license. We have found this to be unnecessary and are able to do the property and premises diagrams for you as included when you hire us. Of course if you already have architect plans that you feel will work we can work with those as well however we are also able to create these from scratch if we need to.