San Diego dispensaries: 7 licensed shops by area (2026)

Every outlet needs a state license from the Department of Cannabis Control and, from the city, a Conditional Use Permit decided by a Hearing Officer, whose ruling can be appealed to the Planning Commission, plus an operating permit under Chapter 4, Article 2, Division 15 of the Municipal Code. Section 141.0504 allows no more than four outlets in each City Council District, 36 across the nine districts, and lets an outlet that ends up in a different district after redistricting stay put. A Conditional Use Permit lasts five years at most; an amendment can extend it for up to five more, and if the extension request is submitted and deemed complete before the expiration date, the permit stays in force until the decision is final.

Location rules are strict. An outlet must be at least 1,000 feet from city resource- and population-based parks, other outlets, churches, child care centers, playgrounds, city libraries, minor-oriented facilities, residential care facilities and schools, and 100 feet from residentially zoned property. Its exterior sign may show only the business name, in letters and no more than two colors, with no cannabis leaf, and window signs are banned, so a storefront may show little more than a name. A state-licensed security guard must be on duty during business hours, vending machines are prohibited, and medical consultations cannot be offered on site.

Inside, adults 21 and over may shop with ID, and anyone younger must be a qualified medical patient or state identification card holder, with a parent, legal guardian or primary caregiver if under 18 (SDMC 42.1508). Hours run from 6 am to 10 pm, seven days a week, under Ordinance O-21985, passed on 18 Jul 2025, which added an hour at each end of the old 7 am to 9 pm window; the change took effect on 17 Aug 2025 outside the Coastal Overlay Zone and on 11 Sep 2025 within it. The Development Services Department publishes the list of approved outlets, 35 sites in its 25 Aug 2026 update, and a map of permitted businesses.

Delivery has its own rules. An outlet with a valid Conditional Use Permit may deliver as an accessory use, and its own employees must do the driving. Ordinance O-22122, passed on 14 Jul 2026 and in effect from 13 Aug 2026, created a Cannabis Delivery Service Permit for state-licensed retailers based outside the city that deliver into it; each delivery must come with the permit number and the responsible person's contact details, and a court may impose civil penalties of up to $20,000 a day on a business delivering without one. The amendments do not apply inside the Coastal Overlay Zone until the California Coastal Commission certifies them.

San Diego's Cannabis Business Tax takes 10 percent of monthly gross receipts from businesses in retail activity, a rate in force since 1 May 2025, when it rose from 8 percent. The business owes it, and the City Treasurer's FAQ says taxes collected from customers, such as excise and sales tax, are left out of the gross receipts it is figured on, so how it shows up on your receipt depends on the shop. Shoppers then pay sales tax and California's 15 percent cannabis excise tax, which AB 564 lowered from 19 percent on 1 Oct 2025.

The tax dates from Measure N, which city voters passed on 8 Nov 2016, the same day Proposition 64 carried San Diego County with 57.0 percent of the vote. Measure N started the rate at 5 percent, raised it to 8 percent on 1 Jul 2019 and lets the City Council change it by ordinance up to a ceiling of 15 percent; the tax ordinance took effect on 12 Dec 2016. Cultivation, manufacturing, distribution and storage businesses have paid 2 percent since 1 May 2022. Medical sales are excluded only in narrow cases, chiefly sales to holders of a state-issued Medical Marijuana Identification Card.

On private property, with the owner's consent, and almost nowhere else. Health and Safety Code 11362.3 forbids smoking or eating cannabis in a public place and smoking it wherever tobacco smoking is banned; near a school, day care or youth center, smoking is barred within 1,000 feet while children are there, and vaping counts as smoking. Using cannabis in public is an infraction carrying a fine of no more than $100, while smoking where tobacco is barred, or near a school while children are there, can bring a fine as high as $250 (Health and Safety Code 11362.4). Landlords and hotels may ban cannabis altogether, and since 1 Jan 2024 SB 626 has made every California hotel, motel and other transient lodging fully smoke-free.

City law shuts most of the outdoors to smoking and vaping of any kind. SDMC 43.1002(g) makes it unlawful in any public park and on any beach the city owns or controls, on the Ocean Front Walk boardwalk from the South Mission Beach Jetty to Ocean Boulevard and Law Street in Pacific Beach, on the walkways at Ocean Beach Park and La Jolla Shores, on seawalls, on city fishing piers such as Ocean Beach Pier and the city's part of Crystal Pier, and on the Cabrillo Bridge in Balboa Park. Breaking the rule in a posted area is an infraction with a fine of $10 to $100. Section 43.1002(h) separately bans smoking, vaping and eating cannabis at special events, and section 43.1002(b) covers tot lots and the 50 feet around them.

Those rules reach the places visitors go most. Balboa Park, more than 1,000 acres with 15 museums and the San Diego Zoo, is a city park whose posted rules say smoking is not permitted there, and Mission Bay Park, more than 4,235 acres of land and water with 27 miles of shoreline, is a city park too. Sidewalks in the Gaslamp Quarter, Little Italy and the rest of downtown are public places under state law. City and state agencies may also ban cannabis inside buildings they own, lease or occupy (Health and Safety Code 11362.45(g)).

Shops are no exception: the city's cannabis page says no smoking is allowed on business premises, and the city issues no consumption permits. MTS bans smoking and vaping on its buses and trolleys and within 25 feet of its stops and stations, NCTD prohibits even possessing marijuana on the COASTER and its property, and in a car state law forbids using cannabis or keeping an opened package in the passenger area.

No. The Municipal Code has no permit for on-site consumption at an outlet, the Development Services Department says no smoking is allowed on business premises, and SDMC 43.1002(i) makes it unlawful to vape cannabis even in a vaping lounge attached to an electronic cigarette shop. California lets each city decide whether a licensed retailer or microbusiness may host on-site smoking, vaping and eating of cannabis, provided, among other conditions, that only adults 21 and over get in, warnings are posted at each entrance, nobody in a public place can see in and no alcohol or tobacco is sold or used there (Business and Professions Code 26200(g), rewritten by AB 1775 in 2024); San Diego's code does not take up that option.

Cannabis events are ruled out as well. The city prohibits the sale and distribution of cannabis at special events, and the Municipal Code bans smoking, vaping and ingesting cannabis at them, so a festival or pop-up promising on-site use inside city limits is not operating legally. Neighboring cities write their own rules; check that city's code before relying on a lounge you hear about there.

San Diego International Airport sits inside city limits, by the Census Bureau's boundaries, and its terminals and curbs are public places where state law bars cannabis use. The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority's own code goes further: Section 7.03 bars anyone from smoking or otherwise using cannabis at Authority facilities, and from selling, delivering or growing it there. Screening is federal: TSA's page says its officers are not looking for drugs, though anything illegal they come across goes to the police, and DCC adds that taking cannabis across state lines breaks federal law. Anything left over should stay behind when you head to the airport.

Two crossings into Mexico lie inside the City of San Diego by the Census Bureau's boundaries: the San Ysidro port, at 720 East San Ysidro Boulevard and open 24 hours a day, and the Otay Mesa port, at 9777 Via de la Amistad. CBP's advice for trips to Mexico says it has zero tolerance for illegal drugs of any type or amount, with fines, vehicle seizure, a federal record or prison possible, and its general notice says federal law prohibits importing or exporting marijuana, medical or recreational. A state receipt does not change that, so do not carry cannabis toward either crossing.

Federal land follows federal rules. Cabrillo National Monument, at 1800 Cabrillo Memorial Drive and home to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm except Thanksgiving and Christmas, and possessing adult-use cannabis there is a federal crime under 21 U.S.C. 844, whatever state law allows; DCC says cannabis may not be used or possessed on federal land such as national parks. Military bases are federal property too, among them Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, which entered the city as Naval Air Station Miramar in a 1958 annexation and borders Mira Mesa; simple possession there remains a crime under 21 U.S.C. 844.

Bring a government photo ID proving you are at least 21; a passport from any country meets the state rule, and HiKei's FAQ confirms it takes passports. Between 18 and 20, you need a physician's recommendation and may buy only medicinal cannabis, and some shops, Klover among them, admit no one under 21. State rules allow one adult-use buyer no more than 8 grams of concentrate a day, along with 6 immature plants and 28.5 grams of non-concentrated cannabis like flower.

Check the license before you pay. DCC requires licensed retailers to post their state license in view of shoppers, and scanning its QR code shows whether it is active; each shop listed here is in DCC's license data and on the city's list of approved outlets. Since 1 Jan 2026, AB 8 has barred smoke shops and tobacco retailers from selling cannabis or hemp products, as the city reminded those businesses in March 2026, so a smoke shop selling THC is not a legal source.

Decide where you will use your purchase before you buy it, because the only lawful place in the city is private property whose owner says yes. Do not take it to the airport, onto the COASTER, onto federal land such as Cabrillo National Monument, or toward the border, where CBP may seize it and fine or arrest you.