What are your goals?
It is always a good idea to have a written plan that outlines the ideas and goals about where you plan to start a marijuana dispensary /collective and a more detailed version for the city or other outside parties depending on what route you intend to take. This activity requires a lot of brainstorming in order to create a mission statement for the organization.
Per the California Attorney General’s Guidelines:
Business Forms: Any group that is (a) collectively or (b) cooperatively growing medical marijuana in California and distributing it for medical purposes should be organized and operated in a manner that ensures the security of the crop and safeguards against diversion for non-medical purposes.”
The attorney general’s guidelines were developed to help cooperatives and collectives operate within the law, and to help law enforcement determine whether they are doing so.
Kinds of Non-profit organizations:
A legal marijuana dispensary by law should be a non-profit organization. It could be one of the following types:
Collective
“A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue of interest or work together on a specific project(s) to achieve a common objective”.
(a) Cooperative (Co-op)
A cooperative is a group of individuals, commonly laborers, farmers, or small capitalists, formed to execute a common goal of a productive enterprise, the profits being shared in accordance with the capital or labor contributed by each.”
(b) Nonprofit mutual benefit corporation(C-Corp)
A Nonprofit mutual benefit corporation is a corporation that is set up for the sole benefit of its members and should not seek tax exemption under IRS code section 501. If this type of corporation did generate a profit, it would be taxed.
At the time of incorporation the following steps need to be performed (not necessarily in this order)
- Creation a Vision Statement and a non-profit business plan (for your medical marijuana collective)
- Choosing a name for the Collective (Keep it professional)
- Create by-laws for your corporation.
- Hold your first official board of directors meeting.
- Ensure Corporate Compliance guidelines are followed
- Filing of the Statement of Information with the California Secretary of State
- Obtain an Employee Identification Number (EIN)
- Gather a Team (of like minded medical marijuana patients)
- Hire an attorney
- Cultivate community support
It is very important to keep the legal aspects in mind while setting up a California medical marijuana dispensary or legally growing medical marijuana. It is very important to get sound advice and build a team which knows its responsibilities. Another aspect is to find out details about the local laws and the community support in regards to the setting up of a marijuana dispensary or delivery service.