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Putting a Lid on Pot Sales in L.A.
Posted by CN Staff on October 29, 2009 at 13:35:19 PT
Editorial
Source: Los Angeles Times 
Los Angeles -- For-profit medical marijuana dispensers beware: The city of Los Angeles is focusing its finest legal and political minds on putting you out of business. And if you want to see what happens when you run afoul of this crack team of nuisance abaters, just look at the fate of those trying to put up illegal billboards all over town.Oops, bad example. L.A. has been trying for years to limit billboards, only to violate its own ordinance by carving out exceptions and see its ban overturned in court. That doesn't mean city officials couldn't do a better job with marijuana, but their record doesn't inspire confidence.
The City Council has been trying unsuccessfully for two years to stop the spread of dispensaries, issuing a moratorium in 2007 but then failing to enforce it and allowing anyone who claimed "hardship" status to open a new storefront. That moratorium was voided last week in court, prompting the council to push forward plans for a vote on a new city ordinance placing heavy restrictions on where and how marijuana clinics can operate. But the ordinance, now in its fourth draft, was too tough for some members, so it's headed back for a fifth draft.Here's a thought for the council: The next time a marijuana ordinance appears, just say no. The city doesn't need one.Medical marijuana has become a serious nuisance in L.A. Hundreds of stores have cropped up in recent years, many concentrated in downtrodden neighborhoods and bringing a criminal element with them. There are legitimate marijuana cooperatives serving genuinely ill patients, yet there are also storefronts pushing pot to recreational users and raking in illicit profits while getting their supply from criminal cartels in Mexico and Northern California. The city doesn't need a new ordinance to get rid of the latter. It could just start enforcing state law.In August 2008, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown released a set of guidelines on possession, cultivation and use of medical marijuana. To operate legally, distributors must be nonprofit cooperatives or collectives. The former are democratically controlled operations in which profits are shared by their members, who are also their patrons. The latter facilitate transactions between members who are legally entitled to grow their own marijuana. A later ruling by the California Supreme Court decreed that medical marijuana distributors must be their clients' "primary caregivers," meaning someone who has consistently assumed responsibility for their housing, health or safety. That rules out a dispensary owner selling trippy buds behind a counter.A problem caused by a failure to enforce the law won't be solved by passing a new law. It's time to call in the cops, not the council members. Note: Weeding out illegitimate medical marijuana dispensaries is a job for the cops, not the City Council.Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)Published: October 29, 2009Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/yastKGcICannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on November 01, 2009 at 05:14:04 PT
Marijuana Growers Upend Hard-Luck California Town
November 1, 2009URL: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-dope-county1-2009nov01,0,6540031.story
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Comment #6 posted by gloovins on October 30, 2009 at 14:37:24 PT
Give us policy or stfu
Ok I live in LA & on one hand I am very proud of this city. (I know, go ahead and laugh) because they let these dispensiaries open up & there has not been one overdose or death from medical cannabis. Can the same be said regarding all the BARS or legal pharmacies that proliferate this city? How about crime? The cannabis clubs are one of the safest places to go to buy now because of the private security they hire. Sure a couple places got robbed back in '05 but they learned and hired security. Now, because as I stated before, there are so many that the price is going down and the competition among these places for SICK PEOPLES MONEY is starting to get so that it benefits the PATIENTS - not the profit based model that the attny general has said is illegal. BUT does the state of Calif refuse the millions of sales tax $'s the dispensiaries are generating per month? Hell no. This is where I have a problem with it. Either accept the tax $ and make the source LEGITIMATE AND WITH SET RULES or shut your trap. If it is so that the only way that these dispensiaries can remain open is if they are non-profit great. I would gladly donate 1 day a week of my time to go work at my closest cannabis club. That way - the spirit of the law is honored I think by making the "collective" you are a member of truly a collective, co-operative club. And it weeds out the non-local who is just here to make a profit hungry dispenseiary owner rich. If they are an LA resident or othewise local who donates a certain amount of time per month to the club -- then you get your cannabis at cost. This would be the ideal & possibly boderline utopian but I think it would work. You think I am naive? Mmmm, you may be right but I just wanted to run it by anyone interested. I also think LA gets a bad rap here sometimes -- hey it's not that bad :) Hope everyone is doing great and has a great weekend -- you esp FoM! All my best from the west & I posted it before I will again, this is the best priced D in LA IMO:www.hbc420.com
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Comment #5 posted by The GCW on October 29, 2009 at 22:05:56 PT
Colo. woman loses medical marijuana appeal
US CO: Colo. woman loses medical marijuana appeal
 Webpage: http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20091029/NEWS/910299965/1078&ParentProfile=1055Pubdate: 29 Oct 2009Source: Summit Daily News (CO)
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Comment #4 posted by Vincent on October 29, 2009 at 21:06:39 PT:
The LA Times article.
"Call in the cops"? I thought that the LA Times was a so-called liberal newspaper. I am very disappointed.
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Comment #3 posted by rchandar on October 29, 2009 at 16:46:14 PT:
For A Second, I Was Actually Amused...
...but then, "call in the cops." This guy needs to have his head re-examined.Okay: So, we have about 800 dispensaries in LA. Hmmm. And this guy says bring in the cops and bust 'em all. This kind of tactless statement draws attention to some of the worst social politics I could think of. So, how many cops do we need to do the job? Okay, about 3,000. So let's say: we'll do it over a couple of days (or would that be tactless, in our god-worship of policemen, eh?) Then: 800 cases in court, so about another 4,000 hearings which could be drawn out over six months.The obvious question: after all this high-fallutin' law enforcement to "get the job done," what about the rest of the criminal world? What about traffic tickets, DUI, sex-offender, murder, gang wars? Also: when all this pot is seized in the noble pursuit of sanity, what kind of cartel action will fill the gaping hole of MMJ? The cops might say: don't tell us how to do our job. I can guarantee, such a move would create a nightmare, envenom the criminal underworld with a plain shot at corralling another $10-15 million in less than three months, and send them onto the streets with whatever vicious plan that they might have. LA, you put a system in place. Now, honor it and stop complaining.--rchandar
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on October 29, 2009 at 16:26:57 PT
I do not believe this is happening:
"storefronts pushing pot to recreational users and raking in illicit profits while getting their supply from criminal cartels in Mexico and Northern California."Why is it so hard for the authorities to separate legal from illegal? I think it is all baloney.People in LA (not patients) that want pot can get it on the street. No need for a costly recommendation and going to a specific dispensary.It doesn't make sense, unless they want to shut it all down, willy nilly. That is what I thinks is going on.
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on October 29, 2009 at 14:04:48 PT
Kidding right.
Put a lid on pot sales in L.A.?People / prohibitionists don't get it. The sale of cannabis is going to take place and it can not and will not be stopped. In a city the size of LA there must be over a million citizens who support the cannabis industry one way or another.Try putting a lid on prohibiiton. Now that could happen.
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