The term SACA refers to a Santa Ana-based cannabis business association that partnered with community leaders and policymakers to spread awareness in the marijuana industry. It aimed to empower local business enterprises as well as promote education and safety through not only cooperation with businesses, residents and consumers but also community programs.
People generally spent January 01 recovering from New Year’s Eve festivities and all the people-watching stuff. The same applied to OC Weekly’s Jefferson Vanbilliard. As for that journalist, 09:00 am on January 01, 2019, marked one year of recreational cannabis legalization for people aged above 21 years in OC. In other words, it had been one year since cannabis’s use was legal for any person aged above 21 years in the US county.
To celebrate the historic occasion for Orange County, Vanbilliard met councilors David Penaloza and Jose Solorio, as well as SACA’s member Melahat Rafiei, and cannabis attorney Chris Glew. They toured a few of Orange County’s legal marijuana dispensaries that were in operation back then.
From January 01, 2018, Santa Ana’s government gave existing medical marijuana stores the chance to trade adult-use marijuana goods as well. That move towards cannabis legalization brought Santa Ana a revenue of just above $5 million. The amount was supposed to be utilized to not only finance educational programs but also give more enforcement for US cities where numerous non-legal marijuana clubs kept operating without following Proposition 64 guidelines.
Santa Ana dispensaries such as 420 Central had already applied for on-site cannabis cultivation, pending the city council’s approval and after getting a California license for marijuana distribution. That was good news for the locals who were seeking to enter the marijuana industry or any person who understood the advantages of local shopping.
Vanbilliard and the others’ OC dispensary tour helped local legislators better understand their communities’ compliance efforts, plus it celebrated the progress they made in the last year.
The cannabis business count was supposed to get Santa Ana about $15 million as revenue in the next fiscal year. Up to 11 more storefronts were likely to be permitted to start their operations, so it did not appear that marijuana and its broad user base were going anywhere.