Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

Medical marijuana dispensary owners across Los Angeles will be receiving glum news in the mail this week: a letter from the city telling them it’s time to shut down. But despite threats of fines and jail time, some dispensary owners have vowed to stay open.

They say they are working hard to qualify a ballot measure to overturn the ban on storefront sales of medical marijuana passed last month by the Los Angeles City Council.

The letter from the city, sent Tuesday from the office of City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, says dispensaries have until Sept. 6 to comply with the ban. Shops that refuse to shut down may be subject to penalties of $2,500 a day and up to six months in jail.

Dispensary owner Yamileth Bolanos, who heads the Greater Los Angeles Collectives Alliance, said she hadn’t gotten the letter yet. But she was defiant: “I’m not shutting down.”

Bolanos, who believes the city could have come up with a workable policy that would limit the number of dispensaries while also ensuring patients have access to the drug, said her group’s current focus is on collecting signatures for a voter referendum to overturn the ban.

The process of getting signatures has already begun, according to Don Duncan, California director for Americans for Safe Access. He said about 27,500 people must sign the petition for the referendum — or one-tenth of the voters who participated in the last mayoral election.

Last month’s ban was seen as a turning point in the city’s seemingly unending battle to regulate the distribution of medical marijuana.

It will outlaw the estimated 1,000 or so storefront dispensaries in the city, but it will still allow patients and their caregivers to grow and share marijuana in groups of three people or fewer.

From The LA Times Blog

Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Published: August 16, 2012
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Times
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.latimes.com/

The Los Angeles City Council is plainly out of its depth when it comes to regulating medical marijuana. This was already clear after years of fumbling and court-delayed attempts to limit the number or locations of cannabis dispensaries, but it became painfully obvious Tuesday when the council approved a ban on all dispensaries — along with a separate motion to draft an ordinance that would allow well-established pot shops to stay open, partially defeating the council’s own purpose.

Not that we can really blame the council for being confused. We’re confused about how to legally restrict a quasi-legal business too. For that matter, so is the entire state of California. And that’s causing even bigger problems than usual as the federal government, which considers marijuana an illegal drug, has begun a series of raids on California pot outlets.

Is L.A.’s new ban even legal? There’s no clear answer to that question, but a recent court ruling suggests that it isn’t. After Los Angeles County imposed a blanket ban on pot distribution in unincorporated areas in December 2010, it was challenged by a Covina collective, which won a key victory this month in the state’s 2nd District Court of Appeal. Writing for the three-justice panel, Justice Robert Mallano said the county’s ban was preempted by state law and contradicted the intent of the Legislature.

Of course, it isn’t that simple. The Los Angeles County ban would have closed all distribution outlets, whereas the city of L.A.’s ban would allow small collectives with three or fewer members to stay open. The city’s lawyers say that key difference should persuade the courts to approve L.A.’s “gentle ban,” and as ammunition they point to a separate ruling by a different 2nd District Court justice that suggested the city’s approach would neither constitute a true ban nor violate state law.

If thinking about all that isn’t enough to give you a migraine — which, on the plus side, is enough justification to get a medical recommendation for a dose of cannabis in California — there is the added complication that could arise if the City Council goes ahead with the separate ordinance to allow certain dispensaries to stay open. Specifically, Councilman Paul Koretz called Tuesday for staff to draw up a draft that would grant immunity from the ban to those facilities that were in place before a 2007 city moratorium on new dispensaries was approved. This brings up unhappy memories of L.A.’s years-long attempts to regulate billboards, when strict regulatory ordinances were undermined by council members carving out exemptions for certain signs in their districts. Courts tend to take a dim view of that kind of favoritism.

So let’s review: L.A. has banned all but the tiniest marijuana collectives. When it attempts to enforce this ban, it will be sued. Action will be delayed for months, or quite possibly until the state Supreme Court weighs in on a series of marijuana cases next year. Mission accomplished?

Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Published: July 26, 2012
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Times
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.latimes.com/

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