cannabisnews.com: Los Angeles To Limit Marijuana Dispensaries
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Los Angeles To Limit Marijuana Dispensaries
Posted by CN Staff on January 26, 2010 at 12:39:09 PT
By Jennifer Steinhauer
Source: New York Times 
California -- The Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance on Tuesday that shutters roughly 80 percent of the nearly 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city and makes the use of marijuana in the remaining outlets illegal.The vote amounts to a major setback for backers of medical marijuana and a victory for community groups that have long complained about the proliferation of the dispensaries near residential neighborhoods, schools and parks. Los Angeles has more of the outlets than any other city in the states that allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes.
“These are out of control,” said Councilman Ed Reyes, chairman of the planning and land-use management committee, which oversaw the writing of the ordinance. “Our city has more of these than Starbucks.”The measure, which passed on a 9-to-3 vote, would impose stringent rules on the location of the dispensaries — essentially moving them to industrial zones — and restrict their hours. The ordinance, which city officials acknowledged would be difficult to enforce, would limit the number of dispensaries at 70 but suggested that even fewer would be permitted if there was not ample space under the new parameters to accommodate them.The ordinance requires the signature of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa before taking effect, and will require council-approved fees levied on the dispensaries to cover the city’s cost of monitoring.While medical marijuana use and sale have enjoyed general support throughout the city and among lawmakers, the aggressive proliferation of dispensaries in recent years has tried the patience of even the most liberal of groups.“I’ve seen enough people come into my committee, and you can see they are hurting,” Mr. Reyes said. “So this is very difficult.”The meeting was peppered with angry testimony from medical marijuana users, who threatened to run lawmakers out of office, as well as neighborhood association members who worried that enforcement would be lax.California voters approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes in 1996, and cities across the state have since struggled with how best to regulate the distribution of the drug. Many cities have imposed restrictions on the number and location of dispensaries, and Los Angeles imposed a moratorium about two years ago while the City Council studied the issue. In the meantime, however, hundreds of dispensaries continued to open despite the ban.Source: New York Times (NY)Author: Jennifer SteinhauerPublished: January 26, 2010Copyright: 2010 The New York Times CompanyContact: letters nytimes.comWebsite: http://www.nytimes.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/LqXMJ7IlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on January 26, 2010 at 16:04:58 PT
News Article From The NYT's Blog
Medical Marijuana Supporters Wonder if Time Has ComeJanuary 26, 2010New Jersey added a new herb to its state garden last Tuesday when Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act on his last day in office.But though 14 states have now legalized medical marijuana, New York, which has relatively liberal possession laws and actually passed a medical-marijuana law in 1980 but never put it to use, remains forbidden ground for those who seek to relieve their symptoms with cannabis. This year, however, supporters of medical marijuana in Albany and elsewhere hope to harness what they see as growing momentum. URL: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/medical-marijuana-supporters-wonder-if-time-has-come/
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on January 26, 2010 at 15:48:04 PT
sad news
it looks like we have another name for the list of people who paid the ultimate price for cannabis:Family of Mass. man who died in custody sueshttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/26/AR2010012603099.htmlBOSTON -- The family of a Massachusetts man who died in police custody after being stopped at a sobriety checkpoint filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday, alleging that police beat him to death.The federal civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit filed by Kenneth Howe's wife and three children names dozens of state troopers, local police officers and county sheriff's deputies, many of whom were assigned to a checkpoint in North Andover on Nov. 25.Family attorney Frances King cited a finding by a state medical examiner who ruled Howe's death a homicide caused by "blunt impact of head and torso with compression of chest." Cardiovascular disease was listed as a contributory condition. 
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on January 26, 2010 at 14:55:15 PT
Related News From The LA Times Blog
Dispensary Operators Say L.A. Marijuana Ordinance Will Harm PatientsJanuary 26, 2010URL: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/dispensary-operators-say-la-marijuana-ordinance-will-harm-patients.html
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