Sarasota County, FL Cannabis Regulations: Buffer Zones (2026)

Sarasota County's Unified Development Code treats a Medical Marijuana Dispensary as a permitted commercial use, but Section 124-150(a)(5) layers on separation requirements before one can open. A dispensary cannot share a property with a medical office, a pain management clinic, a pharmacy, or another Medical Marijuana Dispensary, no matter what else the UDC might otherwise allow. It must also sit at least 500 feet from any Medical Marijuana Research or Processing use, a pre-existing school, house of worship, day care facility, public park, or public beach.

The county measures that distance the same way it measures the sexually oriented business buffer elsewhere in the UDC: a straight line drawn from the nearest property line of the protected use to the nearest property line of the proposed dispensary, without regard to how someone would actually travel between the two. The same section layers on operating rules that function alongside the buffer: no loitering inside or outside the building for longer than it takes to arrive and depart, no drive-through or drive-in service aisle, no queuing of cars in the right-of-way, and no consumption of Cannabis or alcohol on the premises (Sec.

124-150(a)(1)-(4)). m. to noon on Saturday; they are closed entirely on Sunday (Sec. 124-150(a)(6)). Alarm systems must meet Chapter 50's emergency-services standards (Sec. 124-150(a)(8)). None of this substitutes for state licensing: every dispensary must still comply with all federal and state marijuana laws and regulations as well as the County Code (Sec. 124-150(a)(9)).