cannabisnews.com: L.A.'s Marijuana Stores Take Root L.A.'s Marijuana Stores Take Root Posted by CN Staff on March 07, 2007 at 20:43:00 PT By William M. Welch, USA Today Source: Los Angeles Times West Hollywood, Calif. — A decade ago, the Rev. Scott Imler co-wrote and organized the ballot initiative that made California the first state to legalize marijuana for medical use.Now Imler shakes his head with dismay over what his law has wrought: scores of storefront marijuana shops across Southern California with menus of pot varieties for sale to anyone with a doctor's note. "What we set out to do was put something in the statutes that said medicine was a defense in case they got arrested using marijuana for medical reasons," Imler says. "What we got was a whole different thing, a big new industry." 'Dispensaries' Boom Los Angeles has become a boomtown for pot stores. The number of "dispensaries" as they are known has gone from four in late 2005 to 98 one year later, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.It all started in 1996 when California voters passed Proposition 215, which legalized the growing and possession of marijuana for medical use. Supporters such as the marijuana-legalization group NORML pushed for the law, saying smoking pot lessens pain and alleviates nausea of serious illnesses.Cooperatives sprung up, permitted under the law to receive "reasonable compensation" for the distribution of their product. Then stores opened, which in Los Angeles can sell up to a half-pound of pot to an individual.None of this is legal under federal law, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently raided several stores in January in West Hollywood, hauling away thousands of pounds of pot and hundreds of plants. Snipped:Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/2g4bnxSource: Los Angeles Times (CA)Author: William M. Welch, USA TodayPublished: March 7, 2007Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/NORMLhttp://www.norml.og/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by John Tyler on March 08, 2007 at 20:02:26 PT Sounds OK The pot shops sound OK to me. I wish we had them on the East Coast, no make that Coast to Coast. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Hope on March 08, 2007 at 07:55:22 PT My thought... Mr. Imler is rather too easily dismayed. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by doc james on March 08, 2007 at 07:37:34 PT Scott Imler was and still is a government snitch. He was the main witness for the federal government in the case of Todd McCormick and Peter McWilliams. Even threatened me in an email that he would have the feds raid me the next day in Florida. What a low life a--hole he is. Truth. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Had Enough on March 08, 2007 at 06:45:00 PT Oh My!!! “Now Imler shakes his head with dismay over what his law has wrought: scores of storefront marijuana shops across Southern California with menus of pot varieties for sale to anyone with a doctor's note.”Oh My!!!Scores of storefront CVS, Walgreen’s, etc… with menus to Vioxx, Oxycontins, Restless Legg Syndrome drugs, etc… for sale to anyone with a doctor’s note (prescription).“"What we set out to do was put something in the statutes that said medicine was a defense in case they got arrested using marijuana for medical reasons," Imler says. "What we got was a whole different thing, a big new industry."”Well let’s quit arresting people, allow hemp farming again, and get on with life. And talking about new industries. If our friend here thinks that medical cannabis caused a big new industry, wait till he sees what hemp farming is going to do.That is what should be making people shake their head in dismay over. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by unkat27 on March 08, 2007 at 05:43:41 PT California Dreamin I would suggest that if California appears too over-populated by this pot-shop boom, more blame should be put on the Feds and the DEA, who have so restricted state's ability to legalize that after a decade california is still the only state in the nation that has embraced legal medical cannabis, while almost every other state still does little if nothing to protect people's rights to medical cannabis.The United States is one of the biggest human rights violaters in the world. Nonsense, you say? No country arrests and imprisons more people for nonviolent drug possession than the United States, with 30 percent of all incarcerations due to such drug possession. If taking a person's freedom away and treating them like an animal in a zoo isn't a human right violation, i don't know what is.It's really no wonder so many people migrate to California to escape oppression from the feds and practice safe access to legal cannabis. Better that then living in constant threat of being caged and treated like an animal in a zoo. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment